Compiling under VS2008

In this tutorial you will learn how to get the Source SDK to compile under Visual Studio 2008 and Visual C++ Express 2008. There are several things you're going to have to do to get it working. Before you begin, create your mod.

Note:There is no need to have the Microsoft Platform SDK installed, as VC2008 already contains the needed files.

Note:You will still encounter occasional "precompiled header skipped" warnings after following this guide. Don't worry, they're harmless!

Upgrade to Service Pack 1

If you installed VS2008 before August 2008 it will probably need updating to SP1. The service pack will presumably be offered through Windows Update eventually, but for now you'll need to manually download it:

• Visual Studio update
• Visual C++ Express update (choose vcsetup.exe)

Service Pack 1 improves error reporting and fixes issues with Intellisense database corruption, alongside other improvements not directly relevant to the Source SDK.

Upgrade the project files

Visual Studio will prompt you to upgrade the project files. If you've been working on your mod in a previous version of the VS you'll probably want to have it make a backup of the project file, though this is a good time to do a backup of the entire source tree yourself anyway. Otherwise you can just do the conversion in-place.

Tip:For clarity, you may want to rename the project file from whatever_2005.sln to whatever_2008.sln.

Fix a compiler crash

The 2008 compiler crashes on line 348 (OB code) of client/c_vguiscreen.cpp (bug report here):

dist = c_x / tan( M_PI * scaled_fov / 360.0 );	

Replace it with:

float dist_denom = tan( M_PI * scaled_fov / 360.0f ); 	 
dist = c_x / dist_denom;

Fix file copying

Right-click > Properties on the Server and Client projects. You will need to do this for both the Release and the Debug configuration; four times in all.

1. Navigate to Configuration Properties > Custom Build Step.
2. Click on Command Line, then click on the ... button that appears on the right.
3. Replace the contents of the new dialogue with the first code block below.
4. Click on Outputs and paste in the second code block below.

Warning:Remember to change "client" to "server" in the code blocks below when appropriate, and, of course, to fill in the actual target destination.

Command Line

if exist "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.dll" attrib -r "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.dll"
copy "$(TargetDir)"client.dll "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\"
if exist "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.pdb" attrib -r "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.pdb"
if exist "$(TargetDir)"client.pdb copy "$(TargetDir)"client.pdb "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\"

Outputs

<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.dll;<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.pdb

Fix debug compilation

Right-click > Properties on the Server and Client projects. Making sure that you are working on the Debug configuration (top left of properties dialogue):

1. Change Configuration Properties > C/C++ > General > Debug Information Format to Program Database (/Zi).
2. Change Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Code Generation > Runtime Library to Multi-threaded (/MT).
3. Change Configuration Properties > Linker > Input > Ignore Specific Library to libc;libcd;libcmtd (just an extra 'd' on the end).

Lastly, a function needs commenting out at line 727 (OB code) of server/memoverride.cpp:

void __cdecl _invalid_parameter_noinfo(void)
{
    Assert(0);
}

Get rid of the whole thing. Remember to launch your mod with -allowdebug

Fix missing symbols

If you see missing symbols such as: ConVar_Register you'll need to add tier3.lib to the Link Libraries folder.

Disable /Wp64

You'll receive warnings about the Wp64 option. You can ignore them if you like, but it's a simple matter to sort them out too: right-click > Properties on both the Server and Client projects, then change Configuration Properties > C/C++ > General > Detect 64-bit Portability Issues to No.

Fix "missing CTeamTrainWatcher" error

The Orange Box multiplayer project is currently missing a few files - it will compile but not load a map. Single-player mods are not affected.

See Error on map: "Client missing DT class CTeamTrainWatcher" to resolve the issue.

Install the DirectX SDK (for shaders)

To create new shaders you will need the MS DirectX SDK (March 2008). Once installed, follow the below instructions below to incorporate it with your project.

1. Go to Tools - Options: Projects and Solutions - VC++ Directories
2. Select "Include files" and add "...\Microsoft DirectX SDK (March 2008)\Include"
3. Select "Library files" and add "...\Microsoft DirectX SDK (March 2008)\Lib\x86"
4. In the Solution Explorer right click 'client_hl2', and select Properties.
5. In the client_hl2 properties window, navigate to Linker - Input
6. Select the 'Additional Properties' row and click the '...' on the right hand side of the row
7. If there is already an entry here, take a new line after it (a space will suffice if you cannot create a new line), and type ' user32.lib ' without the quotes.
8. Repeat these steps for the server.