= Windows with Visual Studio =
[[TOC(heading=Platforms, depth=1, WindowsMinGW, VisualStudio, LinuxGentoo, LinuxDebian, LinuxUbuntu, LinuxTardis)]]

== A Note ==
A note a the beginning: Currently, the visual studio project files generated by CMake don't yet work properly. If I can find the time, I shall try to make it work, but it's going to be ugly.[[br]]
The alternative is to use the manually maintained files by Reto for VS 2005 in the visual_studio folder of your source checkout. This however has a certain disadvantage: The project settings are quite complicated to be set (once you get the hang of it, it's easier than the normal way). It is however not necessary to change these settings to develop orxonox with Visual Studio. So if you want to know more please contact [wiki:RetoGrieder me] first. [[br]]

== Preparations ==
Bear in mind that we '''only support Visual Studio 2005 SP1'''. Once the CMake generators work, it should be possible to use several versions.

=== DirectX SDK ===
(The following instructions for DirectX are copied from the OGRE wiki)

Download the latest DirectX 9.0 SDK from http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx.

The DirectX SDK install should automatically update the Visual Studio include and library paths with the locations of the DX SDK includes and lib paths. If not, you will need to enter the DirectX include and library directories into MSVC so you can compile against the SDK.  It would look something like this:

 * Select Tools|Options|Projects|VC++ Directories
'''Note''': Path to the folder must be ON TOP of the list or you will get errors during compilation (Example: error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _IID_IDirect3DBaseTexture9)

 * Under library files, set the appropriate library directory for the SDK. E.g., 
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft DirectX SDK (August 2007)\Lib\x86 

 * Under include files, set the appropriate include directory for the SDK. E.g., 
     C:\Program Files\Microsoft DirectX SDK (August 2007)\Include

=== Configuring the Solution ===
 1. The next thing is getting the external dependencies. We supply these as precompiled [http://svn.orxonox.net/ogre/binaries/VisualStudio8/ archives] (take the newest ones) with the lib, dll and include files all at once. There are also debug symbols, if you want to debug them. Once you got the archive, put it in the directory of your source checkout folder and extract it right there (not in a new folder). This will create a folder named "dependencies" that include everything necessary. You can proceed the same way with the debug symbols.[[br]][[br]]

 2. Run visual_studio/vc8/orxonox_vc8.sln now. When started, you can see all projects of the solution in the left window (otherwise get that window with ''View, Solution Explorer''). Now right click on ''orxonox'' and choose ''Set as StartUp Project''. Unfortunately you still have to specify the output working directory: Right click on ''orxonox'' again and choose ''properties''. Then in the upper left corner under ''configuration'' choose ''All configurations''. Then go to ''Debugging'' section and specify "$(OutDir)" as the ''working directory''. [[br]][[br]]

You should have a directory structure like this:
{{{
media (repository checkout, you choose the name..)
 ...
trunk (repository checkout, you choose the name..)
 bin
 cmake
 dependencies
  bin
  boost-1.35.0
  ogre-1.4.9
  ...
 src
  audio
  ...
 visual_studio
  vc8
}}}