Difference between revisions of "Running Oolite-Windows"

Latest revision as of 19:56, 19 August 2024

Overview

The Windows port of Oolite is built from the same source as the Mac OS X and Linux versions, and has all the features of those versions.

All OXPs should be compatible with the Windows port.

Building

Note that this page is referenced as 'Building' from https://github.com/OoliteProject/oolite however this page does not contain any build information.

Check out https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Developing_Oolite#On_Windows_2 instead.

Getting and installing the compiled game

The latest recommended release, 1.90 can be downloaded from Oolite.space.

To install, run the installer that you have just downloaded.

The game has been tested on Windows Vista SP2, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. This game uses OpenGL, and you are advised to run the latest 3D graphics drivers from your 3D card manufacturer.

It will not run on the DOS-extender versions of Windows such as Windows 95, 98 or ME.

For Windows XP, the last version compatible with the OS is 1.84.

Important note for Vista users!

Summary:

DATA LOSS and OXP MALFUNCTION can appear if you install an early version of Oolite (1.65 - 1.72.x) on Vista. Oolite 1.73 and later releases have corrected this issue by using a different default installation directory, instead of one inside program files, as before.

Do This

When asked by the installer, change the Oolite install directory to a different location, one outside C:\Program Files\, like

C:\Oolite\
C:\Games\Oolite\

etc.

Don't Do This

It is STRONGLY recommended NOT to use the folder C:\Program Files\Oolite\ or any path including the following:

%ProgramFiles%
%ProgramData%
%SystemRoot%

Why?

Vista rearranges some files outside the Oolite folder structure without visible alias/redirects, which completely hides all saved games and causes some OXP add-ons to malfunction. This is because Vista virtualizes files in those locations for legacy processes. You can read more about this problem on this Oolite forum thread. The Microsoft explanation is here: [1].

Recovering Your Commanders Saved Under Vista

If you have already installed Oolite on a Vista machine and wish to move your saved games to a new and safer file location:

Examine location C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app\oolite-saves\

or

Use Windows Explorer to search for the string " *.oolite-save " with the Windows search option "include system and hidden files" checked (turned on).

For example, the default commander, if saved, might be found in this path: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app\oolite-saves\Jameson.oolite-save

Running the game

Find the Oolite icon in the Start -> Programs menu and click on it. Alternatively double click the Oolite program icon on the desktop. Note that the following key combination will get you out of 'graphics related trouble':

Shift-Escape: Quit Oolite immediately

If your game seems to have unreasonably low fps performance (check this in-game by hitting SHIFT-F) it is strongly recommended you visit your graphic cards' suppliers website and download and install the latest drivers.

Installing OXPs

You will need to find where the oolite.app folder is placed: versions 1.65 to 1.72.x should default to C:\Program Files\Oolite, later versions default install is C:\Oolite, to avoid clashes with Vista's virtual folders feature(see above). Create an AddOns folder beside the oolite.app folder. Put OXPs in here. NB: most OXPs zip files contain a folder with a README file and the actual OXP directory (somename.oxp) as a sub-folder - in this case, it's best to unzip the OXP somewhere else and then copy the unpacked .oxp folder into AddOns.

Filming your game

You can record video of the game with the Windows Gamebar shortcut keys. <Windows>+<Alt>+R starts the recording, the same combination stops it. The video gets saved in C:\Users\<YourUserName>\Videos\Captures, with a filename like 'Oolite v1.89 - Jul 23 2020 2020-07-29 19-35-26.mp4'.

(another_commander)

Notes for amd64 users

64-bit builds of Oolite for Windows are available and the development environment used defaults to 64-bit executables generation. They are the recommended ones for 64-bit OSes. However, the 32-bit version should run on 64-bit Windows without issues as well.

Building from Source

Developing_Oolite#On_Windows

Links

Deployment to Test Release updater (2015)
Building Oolite Windows from source - The Easier Way (2009 - to date)
a_c's overview of developing Oolite-Windows (2023)

Windows 11: Forcing Auto HDR on any version of Oolite (2023)
Capture game footage on Windows 10 (2015)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+[[File:Windows1.0.png|right]]
 ==Overview==
 The Windows port of Oolite is built from the same source as the [[Running Oolite-Mac|Mac OS X]] and [[Running Oolite-Linux|Linux]] versions, and has all the features of those versions.
@@ Line 4: / Line 5: @@
 All OXPs should be compatible with the Windows port.
-==Getting and installing the game==
+==Building==
-{| width="100%" style="border: 2px solid  #000033; background-color: #ffffff; padding: .1em; cellpadding: 0; cellspacing: 0; color: #000000;"
-|'''The latest release can be downloaded from [http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3577 the BerliOS project].''' New releases are announced on [http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewforum.php?f=8 the Oolite forum].
+Note that this page is referenced as 'Building' from https://github.com/OoliteProject/oolite however this page does not contain any build information.
-|}
+Check out https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Developing_Oolite#On_Windows_2 instead.
+==Getting and installing the compiled game==
-The latest recommended release, 1.77, or the last official stable release, 1.76.1, can be downloaded from [http://www.oolite.org/download.shtml Oolite.org].
+The latest recommended release, 1.90 can be downloaded from [https://www.oolite.space/download/ Oolite.space].
 To install, run the installer that you have just downloaded.
-The game has been tested on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. This game uses OpenGL, and you are advised to run the latest 3D graphics drivers from your 3D card manufacturer.
+The game has been tested on Windows Vista SP2, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. This game uses OpenGL, and you are advised to run the latest 3D graphics drivers from your 3D card manufacturer.
 '''It will not run on the DOS-extender versions of Windows''' such as Windows 95, 98 or ME.
+'''For Windows XP, the last version compatible with the OS is 1.84.'''
 ===Important note for Vista users!===
@@ Line 33: / Line 40: @@
 <h5>Why?</h5>
-Vista rearranges some files outside the Oolite folder structure without visible alias/redirects, which completely hides all saved games and causes some OXP add-ons to malfunction. This is because Vista virtualizes files in those locations for legacy processes. You can read more about this problem on [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5610 this Oolite forum thread]. The Microsoft explanation is here: [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.06.uac.aspx].
+Vista rearranges some files outside the Oolite folder structure without visible alias/redirects, which completely hides all saved games and causes some OXP add-ons to malfunction. This is because Vista virtualizes files in those locations for legacy processes. You can read more about this problem on [https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=5610 this Oolite forum thread]. The Microsoft explanation is here: [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.06.uac.aspx].
 <h5>Recovering Your Commanders Saved Under Vista</h5>
@@ Line 54: / Line 61: @@
 ===Installing OXPs===
 You will need to find where the oolite.app folder is placed: versions 1.65 to 1.72.x should default to C:\Program Files\Oolite, later versions default install is C:\Oolite, to avoid clashes with Vista's virtual folders feature(see above). Create an AddOns folder beside the oolite.app folder. Put OXPs in here. '''NB:''' most OXPs zip files contain a folder with a README file and the actual OXP directory (somename.oxp) as a sub-folder - in this case, it's best to unzip the OXP somewhere else and then copy the unpacked .oxp folder into AddOns.
+===Filming your game===
+{{QuoteText|Text=You can record video of the game with the Windows Gamebar shortcut keys. <Windows>+<Alt>+R starts the recording, the same combination stops it. The video gets saved in C:\Users\<YourUserName>\Videos\Captures, with a filename like 'Oolite v1.89 - Jul 23 2020 2020-07-29 19-35-26.mp4'.|Source=([https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=275049#p275049 another_commander])}}
 ===Notes for amd64 users===
-No builds for 64-bit versions of Windows have yet been made, however, given the proper availability of graphics and sound drivers, the 32-bit version should run on 64-bit Windows. 32 bit Windows running on amd64 hardware should not have an issue.
+-bit builds of Oolite for Windows are available and the development environment used defaults to 64-bit executables generation. They are the recommended ones for 64-bit OSes. However, the 32-bit version should run on 64-bit Windows without issues as well.
-==Revised build from Source==
-'''Updated 14th May 2012 by another_commander'''
-Seeing that, despite the quite comprehensive wiki instructions on how to make an Oolite executable, building from source on Windows is still a quite complicated matter, I have created a package that will hopefully simplify the process a lot and allow even the relatively inexperienced users to have a razor bleeding edge version of the game to play with and test. Please note that bleeding edge versions may cause spontaneous combustion of your computer, so you use them at own risk.
-The download link to the Oolite Development Environment - Light Edition is this:
-http://terrastorage.ath.cx/Marmagka/c0a11a8fe8b5124823a91ff1d90065ff/OoliteDevelopmentEnvironment_LE_20110212.zip
-The package contains the Objective-C compiler plus Posix environment (MinGW/MSYS), the Subversion package version 1.4.3 required for checking out and updating the source code and the required gnustep-base 1.20.1 files. No other downloads will be required.
-Instructions on how to build an Oolite trunk executable from zero:
-Download the environment and unzip it to a folder of your choice. IMPORTANT: The zip file you downloaded must be decompressed maintaining the folders' path structure, check your unzip program's documentation if you are not sure how to do this. Also note that in the unlikely case that your system is using drive letter O:, you will need to edit the files msys_x/1.0/msys.bat and msys_x/1.0/etc/fstab and change the references to o: to an unused drive letter.
-Once unzipped, you must run the msys.bat file, found in <RootOfWhereTheEnvironmentWasInstalled>\msys_x\1.0. You can create a shortcut to desktop for this file if you want. Once run, the environment will start up. The rest of the steps are:
-''1. Create our working directory:''
-* <code> mkdir /d/myoolite </code> - to create a folder called myoolite under D:\. This is where we will check out the code.
-*<code> cd /d/myoolite </code> - to enter our working directory.
-''2. Check out the oolite code:''
-* <code> svn co http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/oolite-linux/trunk </code> - this will start copying the source code from the repository to your working dir. This might take a while.
-* Once done, do a <code> cd trunk </code> to enter in the trunk folder, where the actual build will take place.
-''3. Build the source:''
-* <code>  make debug=no </code> - That's it! Go get a coffee while it builds, then come back and you will find two new folders under trunk: obj and oolite.app. obj contains the object files produced by the compiler and you don't need to worry too much about it. And of course you all know what oolite.app is.
-''4. Profit:''
-Double click the oolite.exe file that resides in your <code>D:\myoolite\trunk\oolite.app </code> folder. You should see the splash screen followed by the familiar rotating Cobra. Now you can go and improve your Elite rating and give us some feedback from your testing while you're at it.
-If at any later time you would like to update to the code that will be current by then, all you need to do is start up MSYS, then
-* <code> cd /d/myoolite/trunk </code>
-* <code>svn up </code>
-* <code>make debug=no </code>
-Good luck!
-==Old Building Oolite from source==
-'''Updated on 09 January 2009 - (left here for reference, please use the instructions above).'''
-'''Acknowledgments and thanks to Kaks for providing them:'''
-'''Important note: It is recommended that all packages for Windows be installed in paths that do not contain spaces. The same recommendation applies for the Windows username of the account the build is performed from. There have been reports of MSYS/make problems in such cases.'''
-# If you have an older version of GNUstep(GNUstep-base-1.11.1-gui-0.10.1-3 - from the wiki howto), uninstall it, then delete its root directory if it's still there(c:\GNUstep).
-# Google & download the following 2 packages, and - this is important - install them in this sequence: http://ftpmain.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/binaries/windows/gnustep-system-0.19.2-setup.exe, http://ftpmain.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/binaries/windows/gnustep-core-0.19.2-setup.exe
-# Google & download tortoiseSVN, install.
-# You now need the dependencies files for Windows. Download Local_20090108.zip [ftp://ftp.alioth.net/oolite/Local_20090108.zip].
-# Go to the Windows Start menu, navigate to and select ''Start>Programs>GNUstep>Shell''
-# At the prompt :
-## <code>mkdir /Local </code>
-## <code>mkdir /Local/oolite </code>
-## <code>mkdir /Local/oolite/trunk </code>. The first slash & the upper case L are very important!
-# From windows, extract the directories inside Local_20090108.zip to <code>C:\GNUstep\Local </code>
-# Still from windows go to <code>C:\GNUstep\Local\oolite\trunk </code>
-# It's empty. Right click>SVN checkout. The repository is <code>svn://svn.berlios.de/oolite-linux/trunk </code>. Wait for it to finish.
-# From inside the GNUstep shell
-## <code>export PATH=$PATH:/Local/bin </code>
-## <code>cd /Local/oolite/trunk </code>
-## <code>make debug=no</code>
-# We're now ready to launch the compiled oolite! From inside the GNUstep shell:
-## <code>cd /Local/oolite/trunk </code>
-## <code>openapp oolite.app </code>
-''' The instructions below are valid only for versions prior to 1.70, only use them as an alternative if the updated ones fail for whatever reason.'''
-# Download and install the necessary software
-## Download and install svn for Windows: [http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html#binary-packages]. Accept all defaults given by the installer.
-## Download and install GNUstep for windows: [ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/binaries/windows/base-1.11.1-gui-0.10.1/GNUstep-base-1.11.1-gui-0.10.1-3.exe]. Accept all defaults given by the installer.
-## Download the SDL files required to build Oolite: [http://prdownload.berlios.de/oolite-pc/Local.zip]
-## Unzip this file to <code>c:\GNUstep\Local</code>
-# Get the source and build it (note, the source comes from the oolite-linux project)
-## Start the GNUstep command line (<i>Start -> Programs -> GNUstep Development -> MSYS for GNUstep</i>) and issue the following commands:
-## <code>cd $GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT</code>
-## <code>export PATH=$PATH:$GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT/bin</code>
-## <code>mkdir oolite</code>
-## <code>cd oolite</code>
-## <code>svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/oolite-linux/trunk</code>
-## <code>cd trunk</code>
-## <code>make</code>
-# To run the game in the build environment:
-## Before running the first time: <code>cp $GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT/bin/*.dll oolite.app</code>
-## <code>openapp oolite.app</code>
-Assuming you have installed one of Nic's releases as detailed above, you can easily keep updating the installation from the latest source. In the <code>$GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT/oolite/trunk</code> directory, issue the commands:
-# <code>export PATH=$PATH:$GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT/bin</code>
-# <code>svn up</code>
-# <code>rm -rf oolite.app/Resources; make</code>
-You only need to issue the export PATH command when you first start the command line. The rm -rf command before make is required because GNUstep for Windows cannot parse the XML plist file format, and the build fails when it tries to read one of these generated each time the build is performed. This failure is not important, and the process still works, but it is annoying.
-Then use the following script to copy the new files over the existing installation:
-<pre>
-OA="/c/Program Files/Oolite/oolite.app"
-cd $GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT/oolite/trunk
-if [ oolite.app/oolite.exe -nt "$OA/oolite.exe" ]; then
-    echo "Updating oolite.exe"
-    cp oolite.app/oolite.exe "$OA/oolite.exe"
-fi
-for a in AIs Config Images Models Music Sounds Textures; do
+==Building from Source==
-    for b in Resources/$a/*; do
+[[Developing_Oolite#On_Windows]]
-        c=`basename $b`
-        if [ $b -nt "$OA/Contents/Resources/$a/$c" ]; then
-            echo "Updating with $b"
-            cp $b "$OA/Contents/Resources/$a/$c"
-        fi
-    done
-done
-</pre>
-If you want to edit the source, Notepad++ has good Objective-C support and is free: [http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/]
+==Links==
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17502 Deployment to Test Release updater] (2015)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5943 Building Oolite Windows from source - The Easier Way] (2009 - to date)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=292289#p292289 a_c's overview of developing Oolite-Windows] (2023)
-Also see the Oolite-PC forum: [http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewforum.php?f=8]
-[[Category:Oolite]]
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=21546 Windows 11: Forcing Auto HDR on any version of Oolite] (2023)
+*[https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=17886 Capture game footage on Windows 10] (2015)
+[[Category:Oolite]] [[Category:Help pages]]
+[[Category:Factual]]