I am learning how to build games in Visual C++ and when I upload them so friends can check them out, they all end up with messages saying it can not run. I did some research and found that it is because I am compiling against a Dynamic library instead of a static library. Correct me if I am wrong anywhere please. Upon further research, I found that a lot of people do not advise going this direction but instead include the files needed by my game.
How would I go about distributing my games to friends and make it real easy for them to just open up my .exe and play the game?
If you link to any DLLs, you also need to ship those along. If you produce a single .exe in your output, you probably need your friends to install the MS Visual Studio redistributable package for your version of visual studio. This is an example link for the VS 2010 one, but the one you give your friends should match your version.
There are essentially two options: Keep everything as-is and provide them with the runtime files (also named Microsoft Visual C++ * Redistributable Package or similar; the * has to be replaced with your version, e.g. 2005, 2008 or 2010). Downloads can be found on Microsoft's download site as well as in your Visual Studio installation folder (look for a folder called "Redist").
Alternative solution: In your project settings you're able to select the runtime environment (under linker options). Change your release build to use "Multithreaded" instead of "Multithreaded-DLL".
Related
So I wrote a small script to do some math calculations, but I cant get it to run on another computer. When I try to run it, it says I'm missing multiple dlls. MSVCP140D.dll, VCRUNTIME.dll, and ucrtbased.dll are the ones it says it cant find. The only include I have in the entire doc is iostream, is it somehow linked to specific Visual Studios dlls? and if so how would I go about making it able to run on a different computer.
I am using VS 2019 and windows 10 if that helps in any way.
any and all help appreciated.
You can use static linking of the C Runtime (/MTd or /MT), but it's not recommended in general which is why all VC++ projects default to the DLL version of the CRT (/MDd or /MD).
See Microsoft Docs.
I am working with a setup project of Visual Studio 2015. I want to distribute the 2015 C++ library, vc_redist.x86.exe. But I don't want user to be aware of this pre-requisite, so the idea is that while he is running the .msi, the C++ library will be auto-installed.
I have been reading about the merge modules, but this cannot fix my problem because the setup.exe should be run. Please, could anybody tell me how to deal with this?
Many thanks!
You'll need to change (or create your own custom one) the standard bootstrapper that has documentation starting here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165429.aspx
The bootstrapper packages contain the detection and install logic for the redistributables. For example, the \Bootstrapper\Packages folder has VC redist folders, each with a product.xml and a package.xml about installing them as prerequisites. They have standard command lines such as:
Command PackageFile="vcredist_x64.exe" Arguments=' /q:a
and you can substitute that command with something like those listed here:
http://asawicki.info/news_1597_installing_visual_c_redistributable_package_from_command_line.html
that show the quiet options (as do standard Microsoft docs somewhere).
I have a native Win32 project written in C and wanted to visualize my project's dependencies from external DLLs. Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 let me generate a code map which would not only show all my functions and their dependencies from each other using arrows, but also all external libraries I used, which functions I used from those and which of my functions called which external functions etc..
Now, in Visual Studio 2015, this latter part seems to be missing. I can not get Visual Studio to show my project's external dependencies. I only see the internal ones. So here's my questions: Am I missing something? Do I have to activate a specific option in my project settings? Or are those external dependencies just not working in Visual Studio 2015 right now?
Steps to reproduce: Create a new non-empty Win32-project. In the Architecture menu, select Generate code map for solution. You will only see Win32Project1.exe in the middle of the screen. Meanwhile, Visual C# seems to be fine, showing the external dependencies. Create any C#-project for comparison.
Thank you for taking the time to post this! This looks like a regression, as in Visual Studio 2013 an Externals group with external dependencies is shown for C++.
I've logged a bug on Microsoft Connect so that you're able to track this externally:
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/1694695
I have posted this workaround on the link that Bogdan Gavril listed and hope it helps someone. Unfortunately, it requires that you enable "CLR" support for your project. Basically, it appears that the VC++ linker and librarian is looking for a flag that indicates some type of managed code. At the very least, the code map is dependent on the mscorlib.dll reference injection. To make the CLR issue (which adds a lot of unnecessary bulk for native code) less a problem, simply create a new build configuration for use only when you need code maps with external dependencies. Make sure you've selected "CLR Support" on the general options of the project properties configuration page. Then, clean (probably not necessary) your solution and generate a code map. You will find the external dependencies as expected!
Zac
I am attempting to convert the Microsoft.Health C# class library that is installed as part of the HealthVault SDK, using instructions provided here. After following these instructions, I get the following error when attempting to load the project into Visual Studio 2013.
"The project is targeting frameworks hat are either not installed or
are included as part of future updates to Visual Studio. See
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=287985"
Visiting the link takes me to .NET SDKs and Downloads. Once there, I have no clue on what needs to be done.
I do realize that one will have to leverage the Portable Class Library Contrib project to fill in some missing bits, especially code related to System.Security. This, I will deal with later.
Any one run into a similar problem?
Maybe so late but for those who have the same problem.
I had the same error in a project which was working perfect before updating VS2013 and finally after 3 hours looking for the source of the error I found that the error is about TargetFrameworkProfile.
In my case I sloved it like so:
Right click in the unloaded project in your solution and click Edit.
Find the TargetFrameworkProfile tag and set it as below:
<TargetFrameworkProfile>Profile78</TargetFrameworkProfile>
At a guess, this is because you need to specify the TargetFrameworkVersion and TargetFrameworkProfile properties in the project file. Compare the .csproj you are trying to create to a newly created PCL project file, and make sure that everything that's not specific to your project matches.
I ran into the same issue and got it resolved by installing the latest Visual Studio Update
Being forced to use the garbage version of LE in VS 2012, I cannot get things to build because it is telling me that my install folder path is too long. It literally looks like it is creating the same path, verbatim, inside of another folder. First this fails on the DVD so can I disable that? Second, this appears to be controlled by the variable ISProductFolder but I cannot find how to modify that location.
Can somebody please help?
Well, it is not surprise that each setup tool has its problems. Please note that there are no tools which can accurately detect your application dependencies. The best a tool can do is make suggestions. This is why most setup developers determine the dependencies themselves and manually include them in the installer.
If you're not happy with InstallShield, you can try a different setup tool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software
The free version of Advanced Installer includes a Visual Studio setup project which may help.