This guide explains how to compile GtkRadiant 1.6.x from source code on Windows operating systems. + The source code is obtained from + id Software's official GtkRadiant SVN repository, which is open to the public (details follow). + These instructions are aimed at developers wanting to test changes to GtkRadiant source code. + The instructions below have been executed successfully on + Windows XP 32 bit (some late service pack) and on Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. Since 64 bit systems have not been tested by me, I cannot + give any advice on how to complete these instructions on those systems. (Also, I'm an advanced UNIX user but a complete Windows nub.)
+This guide is divided into the following main sections. I choose to use MSYS instead of Cygwin in this + tutorial because using MinGW/MSYS is the documented and supported way to compile ioquake3. The need for MinGW/MSYS is + really only to execute a single SCons build target; you could presumably execute those needed steps by + hand if you really don't want to bother with installing MSYS (but you're on your own if you choose that route). +
+The following URL can be used as a coarse guide for installing MinGW: + http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Getting_Started. + The needed steps are reproduced below. +
+Download the mingw-get program. We're going to use mingw-get + as opposed to the graphical installer mingw-get-inst . You can download the most + recent version of mingw-get from + this SourceForge page. + (That page also contains a readme.txt file that has very useful information on how to use + mingw-get , for your reading pleasure.) Download the binary zip file version; + the downloaded file should have a name along the lines of mingw-get-0.1-mingw32-alpha-5-bin.zip . +
++ Extract the zip file you just downloaded to C:\MinGW . I would use that exact location; I will be referring to + that location in the rest of the instructions. After extraction, double check that there exists a file + C:\MinGW\bin\mingw-get.exe . If such a file does not exist, you extracted at an incorrect level or you downloaded + the wrong zip archive. +
++ You need to add C:\MinGW\bin to your PATH system environment variable. Don't forget that the semicolon + character is the separator for the elements in PATH . The steps to find where PATH can be edited are roughly + as follows on Windows XP: +
++ We're going to update the mingw-get program with the latest version and pull in the latest distribution manifest. + Open up Command Prompt. Execute the following commands: +
+++C:\MinGW> mingw-get update +C:\MinGW> mingw-get upgrade mingw-get ++
+ The above commands can be executed from any directory; C:\MinGW happened to be the currect directory in my case. +
++ Note: If you execute mingw-get without any arguments, you might get an unpleasant-looking error. + This is normal. +
++ We're all done installing the base of the MinGW system. You don't need to install any additional mingw-* packages + to get GtkRadiant to compile (because we're using different software to actually compile GtkRadiant). +
+We're now going to install MSYS, which sits on top of MinGW.
++ Open up Command Prompt. Execute the following command: +
+++C:\MinGW> mingw-get install msys-base ++
You can now close the Command Prompt. You won't have to use it again!
++ In your native file exploring application in Windows, navigate to C:\MinGW\msys\1.0 . Here you will find + a file msys.bat . This script is what launches MSYS. You can make a shortcut to this file and place the shortcut + in a convenient location such as your Desktop. You can also use the provided icon msys.ico (in the same + directory) for your shortcut icon. +
++ Now start MSYS by double-clicking msys.bat (or your shortcut). We will use MSYS to install some remaining packages that are needed. + In case you are completely new to MSYS, I'd like to point out that it's much like a UNIX shell. + In fact you can access the C: Windows drive in MSYS via the /c path. +
++ There are many MinGW/MSYS packages you can install; you may even choose to install all of them. + However, for the purposes of compiling GtkRadiant, you will need only the following. Execute this + from your MSYS shell: +
+++$ mingw-get install msys-wget +$ mingw-get install msys-unzip ++
You should now have the two commands wget and unzip at your disposal in the MSYS shell. + We will be needing these commands to successfully execute the SCons build target later on.
+You can leave your MSYS shell open because we will use it again in a little while.
+Side Note: The msys-openssh package comes with traditional scp and ssh commands that work + orders of magnitude faster than WinSCP or PuTTY.
+We will now install the Python programming language, which is needed for SCons to work.
++ The homepage for Python is www.python.org. You should download and install + a version of Python suitable for your version of Windows. I would strongly recommend sticking to a version of Python + that is 2.x.x, not 3.x.x. This is because lots of legacy software that uses Python is known to work correctly + with 2.x.x, but might not necessarily work with 3.x.x. At the time of writing this tutorial, the preferred version of Python + was 2.7.1. For purposes of this tutorial, Python is installed to C:\Python27 . All of the default + options for installing Python should be fine. +
++ The following step is needed since we're going to be calling SCons in such a way that requires the python + command to be in our PATH in MSYS. In your MSYS shell, execute this: +
+++$ mkdir -p /usr/local/bin +$ ln -s /c/Python27/python.exe /usr/local/bin/python ++
You should now have the python command at your disposal in your MSYS shell.
+We will now install SCons, which is a multi-platform substitute for traditional Make.
++ The homepage for SCons is www.scons.org. You should download and install the + latest production release. During the install procedure you will be asked to confirm the location of your Python + installation. +
++ SCons gets installed into C:\Python27\Scripts because it's basically a Python script. + You would normally invoke SCons by using the scons.bat script + in this directory. However, since we will be invoking SCons from MSYS (which is UNIX-like), we're actually going to call the UNIX script version + of SCons, which is the plain-old file scons in this same directory. Furthermore, we're going to make sure that the scons + command is available under MSYS. Execute these commands in your MSYS shell: +
+++$ mkdir -p /usr/local/bin +$ ln -s /c/Python27/Scripts/scons /usr/local/bin/scons ++
+ You now have the scons command at your disposal in the MSYS shell. +
++ We're now going to install a command-line version of the SVN client that we can use from MSYS. We don't need no + stinkin' GUI. Anyhow, command-line SVN is required to perform the SCons build target later on. + In fact, you don't need to touch TortoiseSVN or any other GUI-based SVN client for any part of this entire tutorial. + (I wouldn't touch a GUI-based SVN client with a 10 foot pole given the opportunity to use command-line SVN instead.) +
++ The preferred download site for SVN client for Windows is CollabNet. + You should download and install CollabNet Subversion Command-Line Client, + not CollabNet Subversion Edge or something of any other nature. Unfortunately you'll have to create an account with CollabNet + to download this software, but everything is free. You can use all defaults when installing SVN. +
++ The CollabNet version of SVN client for Windows should automatically modify your PATH , and you should be able to + execute the svn command in MSYS after closing MSYS and starting it again. If this is not the case for some strange + reason, you'll have to tweak your environment to ensure that you can execute the svn command from MSYS. +
++ The GtkRadiant developers are currently using Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 to compile GtkRadiant. Even though Visual C++ 2010 is a newer + version, don't use it [unless you want to be on your own]. You can download Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition from + this Microsoft webpage. +
++ When you install Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition, you can install the bare minimum application without any extras such as + Microsoft Silverlight Runtime or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. For the rest of the install options, the + defaults can be chosen. +
+We are now ready to get the source code for GtkRadiant.
++ Open an MSYS shell. When you start the shell, you will be in what is called your "home directory". You can execute the + pwd command in MSYS to find out which directory you are currently in. For example, when I start MSYS, my + current directory is /home/rambetter . In reality, this path is relative to the MSYS install root. + For example, in the Windows operating system, my home directory is actually C:\MinGw\msys\1.0\home\rambetter . +
++ In any case, we need to create ourselves a work area for purposes of downloading files and compiling software. I would recommend + creating a directory radiant-work in your home directory. So: +
+++$ mkdir radiant-work ++
Now, we're going to change to that directory and get the base GtkRadiant project:
+++$ cd radiant-work +$ svn checkout https://zerowing.idsoftware.com/svn/radiant/GtkRadiant/trunk ./GtkRadiant ++
We created the extra radiant-work parent directory of GtkRadiant because the following step will + place many files into the project's parent directory, and we don't want to litter our home directory with these files.
++ Remember all the work we did earlier in order to install SCons? Well, thanks to all that work we did, + obtaining the remaining things we need for compiling is really really easy: +
+++$ cd GtkRadiant +$ scons target=setup ++
This SCons build target performs several actions:
+We are now finally going to compile GtkRadiant using Microsoft Visual C++.
++ Start Microsoft Visual C++. From the "File" menu, choose "Open" -> "Project/Solution...". + Navigate to your GtkRadiant directory (in my case C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\home\rambetter\radiant-work\GtkRadiant). + Choose the project file radiant_VC9.sln from this directory. +
++ You now have the GtkRadiant project loaded in Visual C++. You can poke around if you like, e.g. open up some source code + files and edit them. +
++ Before you build the project, you might want to select the "Release" target (as pictured below). +
+| + |  |
+
+ To build GtkRadiant, choose "Build Solution" from the "Build" menu. The build will take + about 5 minutes [on a Pentium 4 with HTT], so this would be a good time to go get coffee. +
+If the build completes successfully, you will get a message similar to the following in the output + of Visual C++:
+++radiant - 0 error(s), 1 warning(s) +========== Build: 20 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ========== ++
All of the files needed to run GtkRadiant are going to be in the folder radiant-work\GtkRadiant\install [relative + to your home directory in MSYS]. You can copy the entire install folder to some place such as your Desktop + and you can rename this folder to ZeroRadiant for example. + Then, you will use radiant.exe in that directory to launch the application. +
++ There is one little bit of optional cleanup you can perform on your installation folder. You can remove all SVN-related + files since they are no longer needed and only take up disk space. Let's say that you renamed your installation folder + to ZeroRadiant (as the previous paragraph suggests), and let's say that you're in the MSYS shell, and that your current + working directory is the parent directory of ZeroRadiant. Then, in your MSYS shell, you can execute this command to + delete all SVN-related files (all .svn directories): +
+++$ find ZeroRadiant/ -type d -name '\.svn' -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rf ++
+ That's it! Good luck and thanks for reading my tutorial! If you have comments or suggestions please email me at nlandys@gmail.com . + More information about GtkRadiant is on www.qeradiant.com. +
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