vcmi/docs/developers/Get-started-with-building-VCMI-on-Windows.md

Preparations

Windows builds can be made in more than one way and with more than one tool. This guide focuses on the simplest building process using Microsoft Visual Studio 2022

Prerequisites

Windows Vista or newer.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 download
Git or git GUI, for example: SourceTree download, or GitKraken download
CMake download. During install after accepting license agreement make sure to check "Add CMake to the system PATH for all users".
7-zip For unpacking pre-build Vcpkg

Choose an installation directory

Create a directory for VCMI development, eg. C:\VCMI We will call this directory %VCMI_DIR%

Warning! Replace %VCMI_DIR% with path you've chosen for VCMI installation in the following commands.

It is recommended to avoid non-ascii characters in the path to your working folders. The folder should not be write-protected by system.
Good locations:
C:\VCMI
Bad locations:
C:\Users\Michał\VCMI (non-ascii character)
C:\Program Files (x86)\VCMI (write protection)

Install VCMI dependencies

We strongly recommend to use pre-built vcpkg.

Download and unpack vcpkg archive

Vcpkg Archives are available at our GitHub: https://github.com/vcmi/vcmi-deps-windows/releases

• Download latest version available. EG: v1.6 assets - vcpkg-export-x64-windows-v143.7z
  
• Extract archive by right clicking on it and choosing "7-zip -> Extract Here".

Move dependencies to target directory

Once extracted, a vcpkg directory will appear with installed and scripts subfolders inside. Move extracted vcpkg directory into your %VCMI_DIR%

Build VCMI

Clone VCMI

From GIT GUI

• Open SourceTree
• File -> Clone
• select https://github.com/vcmi/vcmi/ as source
• select %VCMI_DIR%/source as destination
• expand Advanced Options and change Checkout Branch to develop
• tick Recursive submodules

• click Clone

  From command line

• git clone --recursive https://github.com/vcmi/vcmi.git %VCMI_DIR%/source

Generate solution for VCMI

• Create %VCMI_DIR%/build folder
  
• Open a command line prompt at %VCMI_DIR%/build
  
• Execute cd %VCMI_DIR%/build
  
• Create solution (Visual Studio 2022 64-bit) cmake %VCMI_DIR%/source -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=%VCMI_DIR%/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

Compile VCMI with Visual Studio

Open %VCMI_DIR%/build/VCMI.sln in Visual Studio Select Release build type in combobox Right click on BUILD_ALL project. This BUILD_ALL project should be in CMakePredefinedTargets tree in Solution Explorer. VCMI will be built in %VCMI_DIR%/build/bin folder!

Notes

Build is successful but can not start new game

Make sure you have:

• Installed Heroes III from disk or using GOG installer
• Copied Data, Maps and Mp3 folders from Heroes III to: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\vcmi\

Debug build is very slow

Debug builds with MSVC are generally extremely slow since it's not just VCMI binaries are built as debug, but every single dependency too and this usually means no optimizations at all. Debug information that available for release builds is often sufficient so just avoid full debug builds unless absolutely necessary. Instead use RelWithDebInfo configuration. Also Debug configuration might have some compilation issues because it is not checked via CI for now.

Further notes:

For installing / uninstalling mods you need to launch VCMI_launcher.exe
For Map Editor you need to launch VCMI_mapeditor.exe