Project Installation Guide for Windows 11 with Visual Studio Code

Welcome to the project! This guide is designed to help you set up the project on a Windows 11 system using Visual Studio Code (VS Code) as smoothly as possible. Follow these steps to get started.

Running the Project

To run the project, you need to compile the source code using a C++ compiler and the SDL2 library. You can compile the project using the following command:

Build and Run: Open the main.cpp file in the src folder, and press Ctrl+Shift+B to build the project. You can then run the compiled executable from the terminal.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
./gameengine

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed on your system:

Visual Studio Code: Download and install from https://code.visualstudio.com/
Git: Download and install from https://git-scm.com/download/win
SDL2: Download the development libraries for SDL2 from https://www.libsdl.org/download-2.0.php. Choose the SDL2-devel-2.x.x-VC.zip (Visual C++ 32/64-bit) package.

Setting Up SDL2

Extract SDL2: Unzip the SDL2 development library package to a known location on your system, e.g., C:\libs\SDL2.
Configure Environment Variable:
- Right-click on This PC and select Properties.
- Click on Advanced system settings and then Environment Variables.
- Under System Variables, find Path, and click Edit.
- Add a new entry pointing to the lib\x64 directory inside your SDL2 folder, e.g., C:\libs\SDL2\lib\x64.
- Click OK to close all dialogues.

Install dependencies using

To install the dependencies, run the following command in the in MSYS2 terminal:

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2 mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2_ttf mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2_mixer mingw-w64-x86_64-lua

Note: You may have to configure the IDE to use the correct compiler and linker flags (MSYS2).

Setting Up the Project in VS Code

Clone the Repository: Open VS Code, launch the Terminal (`Ctrl+``), and clone the project repository by running:
```
git clone <repository-url>
```
Open the Project: In VS Code, go to File > Open Folder and select the cloned project directory.
Install C/C++ Extension: Install the Microsoft C/C++ extension for VS Code from the marketplace if you haven't already.

Configure the Project:

Create a new file named c_cpp_properties.json inside the .vscode folder at the root of your project.
Add the following configuration, adjusting paths as necessary:

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Win32",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                "C:/libs/SDL2/include"
            ],
            "defines": [
                "_DEBUG",
                "UNICODE",
                "_UNICODE"
            ],
            "compilerPath": "C:/MinGW/bin/g++.exe",
            "cStandard": "c17",
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "intelliSenseMode": "gcc-x64"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

Replace "compilerPath" with the path to your compiler executable, e.g., the path to cl.exe for MSVC.

Troubleshooting

SDL2 Not Found: If you encounter an error about SDL2 not being found, ensure that the SDL2 path is correctly added to the system PATH variable.
Compiler Errors: If you encounter errors related to the compiler, ensure that the compiler path is correctly set in the c_cpp_properties.json file.