The build process uses CMake and, by default, Ninja. You must install these; the project cannot locate them for you. The source code depends on SDL2 and zlib. You can supply these dependencies yourself via your system's library management tools, or the build system can locate the dependencies for you using vcpkg, a cross-platform dependency-management system developed by Microsoft. The official builds source their dependencies from vcpkg.
- When building for Windows, vcpkg is already installed and configured when using any of the Visual Studio command prompts (either actual Command Prompt, or PowerShell).
- For Android, Linux or Mac (or non-standard-Windows) configurations, you will need to install vcpkg locally by cloning https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg and setting your
VCPKG_ROOT
env var to the repository location. With this environment variable set, the build will automatically locate its dependencies.
-
Install the prerequisite build tools.
Make sure that you have Git and Visual Studio 2022 with the “Desktop development with C++” workload and the “C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools (x86 & x64)” component. If you don’t already have those installed or you aren’t sure, then open an elevated Command Prompt and run:
winget install Git.Git Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.Community "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\setup.exe" modify^ --passive^ --channelId VisualStudio.17.Release^ --productId Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Community^ --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop;includeRecommended^ --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATLMFC
NOTE: Builds must be performed in one of the Visual Studio-provided x64 Native Tools command prompts ("x64 Native Tools Command Prompt" or "x64 Native Tools PowerShell"), not a standard Command Prompt or PowerShell. The VS prompts will already have vcpkg installed and configured for use, so no dependency management is needed.
-
Clone the Descent3 source code.
Open a "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt" or "x64 Native Tools PowerShell" and run:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/DescentDevelopers/Descent3
-
Build Descent3.
cd Descent3 cmake --preset win cmake --build --preset win --config [Debug|Release]
See Build Options below for more information on
Debug
vsRelease
.
Once CMake finishes, the built files will be put in builds\win\build\Debug
or builds\win\build\Release
.
-
Install the prerequisite build tools.
-
Acquire the library dependencies.
- If you would like to use vcpkg:
NOTE: You will need
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg export VCPKG_ROOT="$PWD/vcpkg"
$VCPKG_ROOT
defined in the environment for all build runs. It is a good idea to set this in your.bashrc
or equivalent. - If you would like to manage the code dependencies yourself:
brew bundle install
- If you would like to use vcpkg:
-
Clone the Descent3 source code.
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/DescentDevelopers/Descent3
-
Build Descent3.
cd Descent3 brew bundle install cmake --preset mac cmake --build --preset mac --config [Debug|Release]
See Build Options below for more information on
Debug
vsRelease
.
Once CMake finishes, the built files will be put in builds/mac/build/Debug
or builds/mac/build/Release
.
-
Install the prerequisite build tools.
- APT users (Debian, Ubuntu)
sudo apt update sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends git ninja-build cmake g++
- DNF users (Red Hat, Fedora)
sudo dnf update --refresh sudo dnf install -y git ninja-build cmake gcc-c++
- APT users (Debian, Ubuntu)
-
Acquire the library dependencies.
- If you would like to use vcpkg:
- Clone vcpkg:
NOTE: You will need
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg export VCPKG_ROOT="$PWD/vcpkg"
$VCPKG_ROOT
defined in the environment for all build runs. It is a good idea to set this in your.bashrc
or equivalent. - Install vcpkg-needed build tools and dependencies:
- APT users
sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends curl pkg-config autoconf automake libtool libltdl-dev make python3-jinja2 libx11-dev libxft-dev libxext-dev libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libibus-1.0-dev libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libaudio-dev libjack-dev libsndio-dev
- DNF users
sudo dnf install -y autoconf automake libtool perl-open perl-FindBin python-jinja2 libX11-devel libXft-devel libXext-devel wayland-devel libxkbcommon-devel mesa-libEGL-devel ibus-devel alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel
- APT users
- Clone vcpkg:
- If you would like to manage the code dependencies yourself:
- APT users
sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends libsdl2-dev zlib1g-dev libgtest-dev libglm-dev
- DNF users
sudo dnf install -y SDL2-devel zlib-devel gtest glm-devel
- APT users
- If you would like to use vcpkg:
-
Clone the Descent3 source code.
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/DescentDevelopers/Descent3
-
Build Descent3.
cd Descent3 cmake --preset linux cmake --build --preset linux --config [Debug|Release]
See Build Options below for more information on
Debug
vsRelease
.
Once CMake finishes, the built files will be put in builds/linux/build/Debug
or builds/linux/build/Release
.
In order to cross-compile Descent3 to another platform (for example, Linux ARM64), you'll need to build auxiliary tools which needed to build data files. First create build-native directory and configure project in it:
mkdir build-native
cd build-native
cmake ..
make HogMaker
Now you ready for cross-compilation. Create cross-compile directory and configure project in it, but this time add
-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=MyToolchain.cmake
and -DHogMaker_DIR=<path-to-Descent3/build-native/
options. This enables
cross-compilation environment.
mkdir build-cross
cd build-cross
cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=MyToolchain.cmake -DHogMaker_DIR=~/src/build-native/ ..
make
The Descent3 build can be customized by setting CMake variables on the command line during its "Configuration" phase (the command without the --build
option). To set a variable, you prepend the variable name with -D
and then append the value, all as one single parameter. For example:
cmake --preset linux -DENABLE_LOGGER=ON
NOTE: CMake variables, or more technically CMake cache entries, will persist in their values until they are explicitly cleared. So, if you set a variable and then run another CMake command without that variable specified, the variable will still be set. Variables must be explicitly unset, or the builds/
directory cleaned, in order to be cleared.
Option | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE |
Debug builds are generally larger, slower and contain extra correctness checks that will validate game data and interrupt gameplay when problems are detected.Release builds are optimized for size and speed and do not include debugging information, which makes it harder to find problems. |
Debug |
BUILD_EDITOR |
(Windows-only) Build internal editor. | OFF |
BUILD_TESTING |
Enable testing. Requires GTest. | OFF |
ENABLE_LOGGER |
Enable logging to the terminal. | OFF |
ENABLE_MEM_RTL |
Enable Real-time library memory management functions (disable to verbose memory allocations). | ON |
FORCE_COLORED_OUTPUT |
Always produce ANSI-colored compiler warnings/errors (GCC/Clang only; esp. useful with Ninja). | OFF |
FORCE_PORTABLE_INSTALL |
Install all files into local directory defined by CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX . |
ON |
USE_EXTERNAL_PLOG |
Use system plog library. | OFF |
USE_VCPKG |
Explicitly control whether or not to use vcpkg for dependency resolution. ON requires the environment variable VCPKG_ROOT to be set. |
Determined by the existence of VCPKG_ROOT in the environment: If it exists, vcpkg is used. |