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sfml-vscode-boilerplate

A cross-platform SFML 2.5.1 & C++17 build environment for Visual Studio Code

Features

  • GCC & Clang Compiler Configuration
  • Debugger support or standalone Debug build
  • Static Profiler (gprof)
  • Automated dependencies
  • Automated production build task
  • Cross-platform build environments (Windows, Linux & MacOS)
  • Bash terminal integration
  • Optionally auto-generate assembly from compiled objects (using objdump)
  • Optional precompiled header (cross-platform as well)
  • Optional Keybindings (F8, F9 & F10)
  • Optionally build on Raspberry Pi! (see bottom of Readme)

Prerequisites

Windows

MacOS

Linux

  • Get SFML 2.5.1 from your distro if it has it, or compile from source

All

Installation

Windows

  1. Download & Extract SFML to C:/SFML-2.5.1/ where the bin/lib/include folders are contained within
  2. Download & Extract MinGW to C:/mingw32/ where the bin/lib/include folders are contained within

MacOS

  1. Install "Command Line Tools" in MacOS if they're not already installed (type "git" in terminal or something)
  2. Follow the "Installing SFML" directions here: https://www.sfml-dev.org/tutorials/2.5/start-osx.php#installing-sfml

Linux

  1. Ensure the GCC Toolchain is installed (sudo apt install build-essential)
  2. Run sudo apt install libsfml-dev. The SFML version you got will vary depending on the distro. 2.5.1 is included in Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo for example.

All

  1. Download & Install Visual Studio Code if you don't already have it.
  2. Install the official C/C++ Extension, reload the window & wait for the dependencies to install.
  3. If on Windows, install Git Bash, and ensure the "terminal.integrated.shell.windows" property in the project's settings.json is set to bash.exe's correct location (default: C:/Program Files/Git/bin/bash.exe). We'll be using this for the terminal in our workspace so that the Makefile can run in both Windows, Mac & Linux
  4. In settings.json Ensure Path in the terminal.integrated.env.windows object is set to the correct location of the compiler's executable (example: C:\mingw32\bin) and the SFML directory is correct as well. Keep in mind Paths should be separated by a semi-colon with no spaces between.

Note: You can manage the "Path" environment variable from Windows if you'd like, but I've found sandboxing it in VS Code is better for tracking things like .dll dependencies.

Configuration

At this point, everything you need is installed

  1. Open the sfml-vscode-boilerplate folder in VS Code. You should see an lime-green status bar at the bottom (color-picked from the SFML logo).
  2. With Main.cpp (or any source file) open, check the lower-right to ensure "Win32/Mac/Linux" is the configuration set (this should be auto-selected by the C++ plugin). If it is not correct, hit Ctrl+Shift+B and select C/Cpp: Select a configuration... and choose the platform you're working on.
  3. At this point you should be able to run a build task (Ctrl+Shift+B > Build & Run), but it'll be nicer to add keybindings for these tasks so you can build with 1 keypress.
  4. Open the .vscode folder and click on the _keybindings.json file. This is not an officially recognized file, but just contains the keybindings you can copy into the actual keybindings.json file.
  5. Go into File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts & click on the keybindings.json link at the top.
  6. Copy the keybindings into this file. Feel free to change them if you don't like them later.
  7. Hit the F9 key to run the Build & Run: Release task. It should run the Makefile, find the compiler, build the Main.cpp into Main.o, and launch the sample SFML app. Shift+F9 will launch the basic Debug build, and F8 will launch the actual Debugger alongside the Debug build.

Adding Source Files

Source files and folders are automatically detected by the Makefile. It looks for them in the "src" folder, and at the moment builds from .c, .cpp & .rc files.

Makefile Environment

The environment variables used by the Makefile are managed from the env folder in separate .mk (Make) files, organized by build type & platform, so you can customize which SFML libraries to include if you want, or pretty much anything without having to edit the tasks.json. Each file is outlined below:

./build.sh: Contains the build scripts that tasks.json calls

./env/.all.mk: All platforms & builds

./env/.debug.mk: All platforms, Debug build  
./env/.release.mk: All platforms, Release build  

./env/windows.all.mk: Windows, All builds  
./env/windows.debug.mk: Windows, Debug build  
./env/windows.release.mk: Windows, Release build  

./env/linux.all.mk: Linux, All builds  
./env/linux.debug.mk: Linux, Debug build  
./env/linux.release.mk: Linux, Release build

./env/osx.all.mk: MacOS, All builds  
./env/osx.debug.mk: MacOS, Debug build  
./env/osx.release.mk: MacOS, Release build

./env/rpi.release.mk: Linux (Raspberry Pi), Release build

Environment Variables

The environment variables that can be added to each .mk file are outlined below. If you need a line-break anywhere simply add a "\" character. You can set base variables in *.all.mk and then build specific variables using "VAR := $(VAR)" syntax in *.debug.mk or *.release.mk. The heirarchy goes:

./env/.all.mk
./env/.(build).mk
./env/(platform).all.mk
./env/(platform).(build).mk

CFLAGS:
Compiler flags to use.

MAX_PARALLEL_JOBS:
Max number of parallel jobs to run, based on number of cpus cores available

CLEAN_OUTPUT:
If set to 'true', the build output will only show the path/filename of the source file being built as well as the linking step and a couple helpful messages. All other commands will be hidden (including assembly dumps)

DUMP_ASSEMBLY:
If set to 'true', *.o.asm files will generate within the bin/(Build)/asm folder. The bin folder is hidden from VS Code by default, but you can open the asm folder in a seaparate instance and browse the assembly that way if you'd like to, or customize it from settings.json.

PRECOMPILED_HEADER:
Define a precompiled header file (no extension). If this variable is not defined in the env files, then the precompiled header will not be used. This file will be excluded from Rebuild/Build tasks, but if the bin/(build) directory is removed, it will be as well.

If you're unfamiliar with how precompiled headers work, these speed up compile time by precompiling commonly used includes like standard libraries and the SFML includes. The PCH.hpp gets implicitly included in each cpp file, so you don't need to manually include it each time like with Visual Studio. When it actually compiles, it can be large, but it does not affect the size of the final binary (which would be the same size with or without the PCH).

PRECOMPILED_HEADER:=PCH

LIB_DIRS:
Add any additional lib directories (full path)

LIB_DIRS= \
  C:/sfeMovie/lib \
  C:/myLibraries/lib

INCLUDE_DIRS:
Add any additional include directories (full path)

INCLUDE_DIRS= \
  C:/sfeMovie/include \
  C:/myLibraries/include

LINK_LIBRARIES:
Add any additional link libraries

LINK_LIBRARIES= \
  XInput \
  user32 \
  something

FLAGS_RELEASE:
Additional compiler flags for the particular build (including prefix)

BUILD_FLAGS= \
  -mwindows

BUILD_MACROS:
Macros to include in the build

BUILD_MACROS= \
  _DEBUG

BUILD_DEPENDENCIES:
Dependency .dll/.so files to include in the bin/(build) folders

BUILD_DEPENDENCIES= \
	C:/SFML-2.5.1/bin/openal32.dll

Build: Production

I thought it was important to include a build task that creates a final "build" folder and copies the files in the bin/Release folder, any dependency .dlls, and any other directories into it. It's accessed via (Ctrl+Shift+B > Build: Production) and uses a couple special environment variables:

PRODUCTION_DEPENDENCIES:
Files & folders to copy into the "build" folder upon using the "Build: Production" task.

PRODUCTION_DEPENDENCIES= \
  C:/mingw32/bin/libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll \
  C:/mingw32/bin/libstdc++-6.dll \
  C:/mingw32/bin/libwinpthread-1.dll \
  C:/SFML-2.5.1/bin/openal32.dll \
  C:/SFML-2.5.1/bin/sfml-audio-2.dll \
  C:/SFML-2.5.1/bin/sfml-graphics-2.dll \
  C:/SFML-2.5.1/bin/sfml-network-2.dll \
  C:/SFML-2.5.1/bin/sfml-system-2.dll \
  C:/SFML-2.5.1/bin/sfml-window-2.dll \
  content

PRODUCTION_EXCLUDE:
Files & extensions to exclude from the production build.

PRODUCTION_EXCLUDE= \
  *.psd \
  *.rar \
  *.7z \
  Thumbs.db

PRODUCTION_FOLDER:
The folder the production build will go into. This can be an absolute path or a relative path. Defaults to "build" if not defined.

PRODUCTION_FOLDER=build

Production building in MacOS

Option 1: The "Build: Production" script now works on MacOS. It creats a bundle & a basic dmg, but it does no code signing whatsoever! You must do that yourself (for now). There's a lot to document about, but for now: it requires a CFResourcesBundle.cpp file to change the working directory if run inside of a bundle, an Info.plist.json that gets compiled to the binary Info.plist, an icon that gets compiled to an *.icns file. See osx.all.mk for additional production environment variables. Be aware some of it is still pretty experimental.

Option 2: Use Xcode to bundle your final build! It's as simple as that. Otherwise your game/program will launch through a terminal window. Follow the rest of the directions outlined HERE, copy your code-base in the Xcode project folder, and you should be good to go.

Profile: Debug

Running the Profile: Debug task will build the Debug target (if necessary) and generate a profiler_analysis.stats file from a gmon.out file using gcc's "gprof" profiler. You can then examine the stats file in the workspace.

Note: You might see a "BFD: Dwarf Error: Could not find abbrev number ###" error in the terminal. I'm not sure what this means yet, but it doesn't seem to stop the stats from generating.

Include directories & .vscode folder

If you need to add additional external libraries, these are a couple different places to keep in mind.

  • .vscode/c_cpp_properties.json - You'll see compilerPath & includePath. The compilerPath includes all the compiler's directories so, the includePath only needs the root project directory and any additional libraries you want to include. SFML is included as well in this boilerplate. See details below.

    • "compilerPath" - Path to the compiler's binary to use (in our case, it's MinGW GCC.
    • "includePath" - Used by the C/C++ extension for additional include directories. The relative project directoy is included by default. You can also add directories recursively with /**

  • .vscode/settings.json - Contain all of your workspace settings & overrides VS Code's main settings.json. Here are some settings of interest:

    • "files.exclude" - Add any filetypes you want to exclude from the folder panel.
    • "files.encoding" - This uses the same encoding as CodeBlocks (windows1252), but feel free to change it to suit your needs.
    • "editor.fontFamily" - I set this to Courier by default. Change/remove this line if you want to stick to VS Code's default (Consolas), or your own preference. Same with "editor.fontSize" & "editor.lineHeight".
    • "terminal.integrated.env.****" - Environment variables for use when the terminal runs. Note: These override the OS defaults.

  • .vscode/launch.json - Used to store the configuration to launch the debugger.

  • .vscode/tasks.json - Used to store the task definitions (Build & Run commands, etc.).

  • .vscode/_keybindings.json - As mentioned before, this is used purely to store handy keybindings that one can add themselves, and not recognized by VS Code.

Creating an application icon on Windows

There's some interesting nuances to creating Windows icons, so I've included two easy-to-use shell scripts that will create an icon for you from .png files:

win-make_icon_from_all.sh
win-make_icon_from256.sh

They only require you to install ImageMagick, available here: https://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php#windows (top-most binary)

The "win-make_icon_from_all.sh" script looks for 4 files: icon_16.png, icon_32.png, icon_48.png & icon_256.png. Edit them in the program of your choice & run the script using git bash and you'll get an app.ico file that you can import in src/Win32/Icon.rc. The WindowsHelper class will read all the icons from the .ico file, and pick out the 16x16 & 32x32 ones for use as the application icon, while windows uses the other sizes for explorer.

The "win-make_icon_from256.sh" script is even simpler. You make one icon - icon_256.png, and it will generate the other sizes for you and output the app.ico file.

You can obviously modify these scripts to support other sizes used in edge cases (scaling factors use 20, 40, 64 & 96 for instance), but the 4 included are the most widely used.

Multiple Projects

Recently, I wanted to avoid duplicate Makefiles in my various projects, so I found a nice little solution to do this.

  1. Start by creating a folder structure where something like SFML is your root folder for SFML projects, and the sfml-vscode-boilerplate is contained within. We'll rename it to sfml-project1.
  2. Copy the Makefile from sfml-project1 to the root SFML directory
  3. Edit the Makefile in sfml-project1, replace the entire contents to simply have:
include ../Makefile
  1. Copy the build.sh from sfml-project1 to the root SFML directory
  2. Edit the build.sh in sfml-project1, replace the entire contents to simply have:
#!/bin/bash
bash ../build.sh $1 $2 $3
  1. Make a copy of sfml-project1 and call it sfml-project2
  2. Open either project in vscode, and they should each should compile! Voila! You can now use a shared Makefile between projects this way

Notes

  • This configuration assumes all source files are contained within the src folder, but uses the root as the working directory for assets & things referenced in your project. It also includes a content folder if you'd like to contain those asset files further (recommended).
  • By default, this configuration uses C++17. You can change the compiler flags in env/<platform>.all.mk under CFLAGS.

This will be an ongoing project that I'll try to update as new SFML versions come out. Updating SFML releases should be relatively painless as I'll keep the Prereqs up to date as well. Feel free to offer suggestions/report issues if there's anything I missed, or could do better.

That should be all you need to get started. Happy game making and/or programming!

Build Without VS Code (experimental)

If you have a reason to build your project without Code (on Raspbian or something), you can run build.sh the following way:

  1. Use any bash terminal (Git Bash if Windows).
  2. Run a variation of the following:
bash build.sh (build|buildrun|rebuild|run|buildprod|profile) (Debug|Release)

For instance, to Build & Run Release, you'd use:

bash build.sh buildrun Release

If you run the script without any parameters, it's the same as the following:

bash build.sh buildprod Release

If the build mode is not Debug or Release, it will default to Release. If you need to, change the "Path" variables within the build.sh file in the "if [[ $VSCODE != 'vscode' ]] ; then" block.

Build on Raspberry Pi (experimental)

I'll maybe make a full guide for this, but I'd recommend doing your development on another machine, and then just pulling the project via git and building it on the Pi with the build script in the previous section. Raspbian Lite (as of 1/6/2019) only comes with GCC 6.x, so you'll want to add GCC 8.x via this guide and compile SFML 2.5.1 from source. Once your app/game is compiled, you can launch it via startx & matchbox-window-manager (after enabling OpenGL from raspi-config).

In the precompiled header (src/PCH.hpp), I added an extra SFML define for the Pi aptly named SFML_SYSTEM_PI so you can conditionalize parts of your code for PI specific things (think "kiosk mode"). From there, you're in the wild west.# WireWorld