Installation

Windows

0: Obtain the source code

For programmers, this is a trivial step. Simply clone this repository.

For non-programmers, this may be more difficult to understand. We use the tool git to check out the source code and track changes. If you want to use git, you'll need to do the following:

• Download the Git installer
• Run the Git installer, making sure to check any box that asks whether to add Git to the path. Adding a program to the path allows it to be found when typed into a command line.
• Reboot, to ensure your path is updated with Git.
• Make a GitHub account
• Open a command prompt (e.g. by typing cmd.exe into the Windows search panel). Change directories to the place where you'd like to install the game.
• Run git clone https://github.com/spaderthomas/firmament.git

Congratulations. You now have the source code. Follow the rest of the guide to build it.

1: Install Visual Studio 2019

Install the community edition of Visual Studio 2019. When the installer prompts you to choose what components to install, make sure that "Desktop development with C++" is checked.

2: Install Python

If you don't have Python, install the latest stable release from here by selecting the latest version, scrolling to the bottom, and downloading + running the 64-bit installer.

In the installer:

• Make sure the option to install Pip is selected
• Make sure "Add Python to environment variables" is selected

3: Reboot

Adding things to your path can be finicky -- it's easiest to reboot to make sure that any command prompts you open have the updated path.

4: Install tdbuild

This project uses my simple build tool, tdbuild. You need to install tdbuild using Python's package manager, Pip. It's as easy as pip install tdbuild from any command prompt. For any non-programmers: Press the Windows key, then type in cmd.exe. Run the entry called Command Prompt. From here, type in the pip command.

5: Build

To build this project, you need to open a Visual Studio command prompt. This command prompt has the C++ linker, compiler, etc. already inserted into the path. If you try to build in a regular command prompt, you will not be able to find the build tools, and it will not work.

To open a VS command prompt, press the Windows key and search for "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019". Selecting it should open a prompt. You'll use this prompt to build.

Change directories into the root of the project. For non-programmers, run something like cd C:/Path/To/Where/Project/Is. Once you are in this directory, run tdbuild setup. This will generate a few machine-specific files you need to build the project. Then, run tdbuild to build the project. You'll get some messages from the build tool. Once it builds, run tdbuild run to run the engine.