Compiling under VS2005

Introduction

The following is a general guide to getting HL2 compiling under VS 2005. Its important to note that the SDK code for HL2 supports VS2005, but only in the the _2005.sln files. Compiling a _2003.sln under 2005 and visa versa will only generate problems and errors. Older versions of the source code did not support 2005, to get them working with 2005 go here.

What's working

Single-player

• Release - client - VS Studio: working & playable
• Release - hl - VS Studio: working & playable
• Release - client - V C++ Express: working & playable (after requirements are fullfilled)
• Release - hl - V C++ Express: working & playable (after requirements are fullfilled)

Multiplayer

• Release - client - VS Studio: working & playable
• Release - hl - VS Studio: working & playable
• Release - client - V C++ Express: working & playable (after requirements are fullfilled)
• Release - hl - V C++ Express: working & playable (after requirements are fulfilled)

Requirements

Necessary steps are needed to enable compiling with the Visual Studio C++ 2005 Express Edition:

Files

• MS DirectX SDK
• Microsoft Platform SDK For Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows SDK For Windows Vista

Setup

Go to Tools - Options: Projects and Solutions - VC++ Directories

• In the upper right drop down box, select "Executable files" and add "...\Microsoft Platform SDK\Bin" (replace with the correct path)

• Then select "Include files" and add "...\Microsoft Platform SDK\Include" and "...\Microsoft DirectX SDK (December 2005)\Include"

• Then select "Library files" and add "...\Microsoft Platform SDK\Lib" and "...\Microsoft DirectX SDK (February 2007)\Lib\x86"

• Finally, in the Solution Explorer right click 'client_hl2', and select Properties, then:

• In the client_hl2 properties window, navigate to Linker -> Input
• Select the 'Additional Properties' row. Then click the '...' on the right hand side of the row
• If there is already an entry here, take a new line after it, and type ' user32.lib ' without the quotes.
• Repeat these steps for 'server_hl2'

Potential problems

Correcting Custom Build Step

The Custom Build step which copies the DLLs to your mod's directory is incorrect in the 2005 solution. When you attempt to run your game, it will crash upon trying to access gpGlobals, with an access violation at memory location 0x0000038.

Note:Only follow this step if you encounter this issue. Often, it is not required

Right-click on the client_sdk project, and go to Configuration Properties -> Custom Build Step -> General. Set the "Command Line" to:

if exist "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin\client.dll" attrib -r "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin\client.dll"
if exist "$(TargetDir)"client.dll copy "$(TargetDir)"client.dll "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin\client.dll"
if exist "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin\client.pdb" attrib -r "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin\client.pdb"
if exist "$(TargetDir)"client.pdb copy "$(TargetDir)"client.pdb "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin"

Set Outputs to:

"c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin\client.dll";"c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\MyMod\bin\client.pdb"

(In both cases, replace the "MyMod" entry with the actual name of your mod directory.)

Click "Apply" (you will lose your changes if you skip this step). At the top-left, bring down the "Configuration" combo box, set it to "Release SDK", and set Command Line and Outputs to the same values. The server_sdk's custom build steps should be correct.

See also

• Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Usage
• Compiling under VS2008
• Compiling under VS2002
• Compiling under VS2005/Older SDK