Installing Windows Libs

If you want to use OpenGL and WinMM as the video and audio backends for your application there are no additional steps you need to follow here. However if you want to use DirectX and/or DirectSound then you will need to install the DirectX SDK from here. The Feburary2010 version has been tested and is known to be bad/faulty with our configuration, so ensure you download the June2010 version.

After installing the DirectX SDK you must add it’s install location to the system “Path” variable.  During installation it will prompt you for where it will be installed, make note of that location when it does.  In the event that you are reading this and already installed it, the typical locations for the DirectX SDK install are:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)

C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)

Check those directories first and verify it’s location.  Once you do copy that path to the system “Path” variable with the following steps:

Window XP

1. Right-click “My Computer” or “Computer”, click “properties”
2. Click “Advanced” Tab
3. Click “Environment Variables” Button
4. Find the “PATH” variable and add a semicolon and the path to the DirectX SDK to the end (do not erase what is already in there, it _will_ screw your computer)
5. Click “OK” 3 times

Vista and Windows 7

1. Right-click “My Computer” or “Computer”, click “properties”
2. Click “Advanced System Settings” Link
3. If a UAC Prompt requests you permission to continue click “Continue”
4. Click “Environment Variables” Button
5. Find the “PATH” variable and add a semicolon and the path to the DirectX SDK to the end (do not erase what is already in there, it _will_ screw your computer)
6. Click “OK” 3 times

In this case, you may need to reboot for the variable to take effect. It is recommended that you do so before you attempt a compile.

That is all the steps needed to get DirectX working. This also applies for DirectSound if you are using MSVC/Visual Studio. DirectSound on MinGW however, needs a little bit more help. You need to copy a header file available in a Microsoft Visual Studio install, and make it available to MinGW. So download and install the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio express. The version I used and tested was Visual Studio 9.0. Once installed navigate to it’s install folder. For me this was in “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0″ (you may or may not need to append “x86″ to the “Program Files” folder name). Once there you need to get to it’s include directory, to do that enter the “VC” folder, then the “include” folder. In there you should find a header file named “sal.h”. If you don’t, you may not have the proper version of Visual Studio installed. Once you find it you must copy it to your MinGW include folder which by default is located at “C:\MinGW\include”. This should enable the DirectSound backend for the audio subsystem with MinGW on Windows. You can check the output when you configure CMake to verify.