Building FlightGear - Windows: Difference between revisions

If you continue to follow the instructions in this wiki, you will end with the proper directory structure that is shown above.

Download Boost packaged release Version 1.39.0 (about 188 MB) from

http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.39.0/boost_1_39_0.zip/download (direct link) or from the project releases page at http://www.boost.org/users/download/#releases

Extract the contents of the boost archive in your '''\FlightGear''' directory. This will create a subdirectory named '''boost_1_39_0''' where the boost libraries and include files reside.

Olaf Flebbe has provided an archive containing the following FlightGear dependencies:

Extract the archive in your FlightGear project root directory, '''C:\FlightGear\''' in these instructions.  This will create the directory '''3rdParty''' under your project root directory.

Download the latest zlib binary package here http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/zlib/1.2.3/zlib-1.2.3-lib.zip/download (direct link) or view the release page here http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/zlib/1.2.3/

Extract the archive you downloaded in Step 1 in the "3rdParty" directory under your FlightGear project root directory.

As of zlib version 1.2.3, you must edit line 287 of the file "3rdParty\include\zconf.h" from "#if 1" to "#if 0" to avoid compiler errors when compiling SimGear against zlib.

Download the latest jpeglib source package here http://www.ijg.org/

TODO: Figure out to compile it :(

You may download a prebuilt version of plib from http://www.oflebbe.de/FlightGear/plib-2007-04-16.zip (direct link) or visit Olafe's Compiling FlightGear page at http://www.oflebbe.de/FlightGear/index.html  If you use this prebuilt, just extract the archive file's contents in your FlightGear project root directory. This will create the subdirectory '''plib'''.

Going this route means that you must compile plib yourself by following the instructions below:

Download the latest plib source tarball from http://sourceforge.net/projects/plib/ and extract it in some location that is NOT in your FlightGear project root directory.  This will create a subdirectory named '''plib-1.8.5-rc1'''

Double-click the file plib-1.8.5-rc1\plib.dsw. This should launch Visual C++ which will ask if you want to convert the project file; answer "Yes to all" at the convert prompt.

Build the debug version of the plib libraries first by setting the VC++ Solution Configuration for Debug and hitting the F7 key.

NOTE: as of this writing, 5 compile errors in 4 files will occur. In each case, a typecast of '''(char*)''' must be added in order to compile without error using VC++ 2008 (VC90).

Create the subdirectory '''plib''' in your FlightGear project root directory.

   C:\FlightGear\plib

Copy all of the files in your plib-1.8.5-rc1 directory that have the extensions "h", "lib" and "pdb" to the new plib directory under your FlightGear project root directory.

To build SimGear and FlightGear from CVS head, you'll usually need the latest version of OSG. OSG from SVN head might be the best choice, but we don't have OSG for Windows build instructions prepared yet.

Get the archive(s) named "openscenegraph-all[...]". Get both the Release and Debug versions if you expect to do any debug builds of FlightGear. Otherwise, just the Release version should be fine.

Create a the following directure structure under your FlightGear project root directory: "install\msvc90\"

I have no idea why that directory structure was chosen, but that's what the MS VC++ project file(s) in FG CVS expect.

Extract the OSG archive(s) you downloaded in Step 1 in the directory you created in Step 2.

Rename the resulting "OpenSceneGraph-[version]" directory to simply "OpenSceneGraph".

Navigate to the base folder for your FlightGear stuff; In this example, we've chosen "C:\FlightGear"

At the "Module" section near the bottom of the "Module" tab, click the "Fetch List" button. You will see some brief action and may see an error and a prompt for a password. Enter "guest" for the password (without the quote symbols). From the drop-down "Module" list, select "source" and click the "OK" button to begin the checkout.

Since all the source code will be downloaded into a directory called '''source''', you will need to rename that directory to '''simgear'''.

Navigate to simgear\projects\VC90 and double-click on the file '''SimGear.vcproj'''.  This should launch Visual C++ with the SimGear project loaded.

Build SimGear, either Release, Debug or both using VC++ 2008 (9.0)

''Note:'' with the default settings, Visual C++ will yield many compiler warnings. Unfortunately, this is normal.

Make a base folder for your FlightGear stuff; In this example, we've chosen "C:\FlightGear"

A directory with the name '''source''' will then be created with all of Flightgear's source code downloaded into it. Rename this directory from '''source''' to '''flightgear'''.

Build either the Debug or Release version FlightGear as desired.

TODO: Installation.