Compiling ScummVM/MinGW

Compiling ScummVM with Minimalist GNU for Windows (MINGW)

MinGW is "a collection of freely available and freely distributable Windows specific header files and import libraries combined with GNU toolsets that allow one to produce native Windows programs that do not rely on any 3rd-party C runtime DLLs".

More information can be found at the MinGW homepage

Things needed

MinGW and MSYS

To download MinGW, visit its download page

Downloading MinGW for the first time can be a daunting task, as there are a lot of packages to download. The ones you need are in the "Current" section (apart from MinGW-5.0.0.exe, which is in the "Proposed" section).

Download the following:

• The MinGW automated installer 5.0.0
• MSYS 1.0.10
• msysDTK

The following are downloaded through the automated installer, but you can install them here to have everything ready:

• binutils
• gcc-core
• gcc-g++
• mingw32-make
• mingw-runtime 3.8 (downloaded automatically) OR mingw-runtime 3.9 (the current version)
• w32api 3.3 (downloaded automatically) OR w32api 3.5 (the current version)

Note that the above downloads are the current ones, and can change in the future. To get the latest versions (if one of the links above is broken), visit the MinGW download page and download the latest versions there. The latest packages for MinGW (but not MSYS) can be downloaded through the automated installer MinGW-5.0.0.exe.

Check the "Installing MinGW and MSYS" section below for instructions on how to create your ScummVM compilation environment

Libraries needed

• SDL 1.2.

You need the file SDL-devel-1.2.9-mingw32.tar.gz (1.2.9 is the latest version at this time)

• NASM

• libogg and libvorbis for OGG support

Note that the libraries included in the "vorbis" package won't work. You need libogg and libvorbis, not vorbis

• libmad for MP3 support

• libmpeg2 for MPEG-2 support

Get the latest mpeg2dec release from this page, libmpeg2 is included there

• zlib. You need the latest zlib source code.

• FLAC. You need the latest full source code (1.1.3).

Installing MinGW and MSYS

Both MinGW and MSYS need to be installed and working to compile ScummVM.

• First, install MinGW through its automated installer.
• Then, install MSYS. After installation, a new console window will appear, asking if you wish to proceed with the post install. Answer 'y' to that prompt. You will then be asked if you have MinGW installed. Answer 'y' to that and then type in the path of your MinGW directory using forward slashes (e.g. C:/MinGW). Make sure that there is no "make" utility in the MinGW bin folder, as this will clash with the make utility in MSYS. With the recent packages described in the section above, you shouldn't have that problem.
• After both MinGW and MSYS are installed correctly, install MSYS DTK

MSYS primer

From the developer's webpage: "MSYS or Minimal SYStem is a POSIX and Bourne shell environment use with MinGW. It provides a hand picked set of tools to allow a typical configuration script with Bourne syntax to execute. This allows most of the GNU packages to create a Makefile just from executing the typical configure script which can then be used to build the package using the native MinGW version of GCC".

For more information, check the MinGW FAQ page

MSYS commands can be confusing for people using Windows, as MSYS emulates a Bourne shell environment, which is found in most Unix/Linux distributions. The available commands can be viewed by typing "help" in the command prompt. Help on a specific command is available by typing "help" followed by the command, e.g. "help alias".

Note that MSYS uses forward slashes between folder names, not backward slashes, as is the case with Windows. Additionally, some special characters like the space need to be escaped with a backward slash("\"). Drives are mounted to folders, so drive "C:" would be under folder "/c". Therefore, to switch to directory:

C:\Program Files\Test Folder

we would switch to:

/c/Program\ Files/Test\ Folder

The basic commands you'll need are:

cd - changes the current drive and directory
pwd - shows the current drive and directory
ls - lists files in a folder
make - makefile, used to compile projects
strip - remove debug information from executable files

Note that if you wish to run a file from the current folder, you need to specify it before the file name, i.e. if you wish to run "test" from the current folder, you should type:

./test

Building the libraries

Now, we need to compile the required libraries and tools.

NASM

First of all, we need nasm. So unzip the nasm archive in a directory, copy "nasmw.exe" to "nasm.exe" (because some projects call one and others call the other) and copy both files in MinGW's bin directory. Alternatively, you can include the folder you unzipped the files in your system path. To do this, go to Control Panel->System, Advanced tab->environment variables and edit the "PATH" variable in the system variables list, adding the folder where you placed the aforementioned files. Directories in the system path are split with a semicolon (;), e.g. "C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin;C:\MinGW\bin;C:\nasm".

Note that changes to the PATH will be reflected on newly opened command prompts only, so if you got any open already, close them to avoid confusion

SDL

SDL is already compiled and needs no further changes, so we can skip the compilation step for it

After extracting the contents of the SDL archive in a folder, copy all the files in SDL's include folder in MinGW's include folder and all the files in SDL's lib folder in MinGW's lib folder. Also, copy SDL.dll and i386-mingw32msvc-sdl-config in MinGW's bin folder. Rename i386-mingw32msvc-sdl-config to sdl-config

Now, we need to setup SDL. Go to SDL's folder and type:

make install prefix=/mingw

Note the forward slash, since you are using MSYS.

zlib

Unzip the source code in a folder, open MSYS, go to the zlib folder and issue this command to compile the library:

make -f win32/makefile.gcc

After compilation, copy zlib.h and zconf.h inside MinGW's include folder and libz.a inside MinGW's lib folder

You can do this using Explorer or by typing these commands in MSYS inside the zlib folder:

cp -p libz.a /mingw/lib
cp -p zlib.h zconf.h /mingw/include

libogg

libogg should be compiled before libvorbis and libFLAC Unzip the libogg archive in a folder, open MSYS, go to the libogg folder and issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

Alternatively, when everything is compiled, copy the include\ogg folder inside MinGW's include folder. So, you should end up with an ogg folder in MinGW's include folder. Also, copy the src\.libs folder as-is inside MinGW's lib folder, and also copy the files from the src\.libs folder inside MinGW's lib folder (because ogg libraries are searched both in the lib and in the lib\.libs folder)

You can do this using Explorer or by typing these commands in MSYS inside the libogg folder:

cp -p include/ogg /mingw/include
cp -p src/.libs /mingw/lib
cp -p src/.libs/* /mingw/lib

libvorbis

Unzip the libvorbis archive in a folder, open MSYS, go to the libvorbis folder and issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

Alternatively, when everything is compiled, copy the include\vorbis folder inside MinGW's include folder. So, you should end up with a vorbis folder in MinGW's include folder. Also, copy lib\.libs folder from libvorbis folder as-is inside MinGW's lib folder, and also copy the files from the lib\.libs folder from libvorbis folder inside MinGW's lib folder (because vorbis libraries are searched both in the lib and in the lib\.libs folder)

You can do this using Explorer or by typing these commands in MSYS inside the libvorbis folder:

cp -p include/vorbis /mingw/include
cp -p src/.libs /mingw/lib
cp -p src/.libs/* /mingw/lib

libmpeg2

Unzip the mpeg2dec archive in a folder, open MSYS, go to the mpeg2dec folder and issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

Alternatively, after you compile mpeg2dec, go to its include directory, create a folder "mpeg2dec" in there and copy all files from the include folder in this subfolder. So you should end up with 2 directories, "include" and "include\mpeg2dec" with the same files. This is needed, as ScummVM includes files from the "mpeg2dec" directory. Copy this mpeg2dec folder inside MinGW's include folder. Then, copy lib\.libs folder from libmpeg2 folder as-is inside MinGW's lib folder, and also copy the files from the lib\.libs folder from libmpeg2 folder inside MinGW's lib folder (because libmpeg2 libraries are searched both in the lib and in the lib\.libs folder)

You can do this using Explorer or by typing these commands in MSYS inside the mpeg2dec folder:

mkdir include/mpeg2dec
cp -p include/* include/mpeg2dec
cp -p include/mpeg2dec /mingw/include
cp -p libmpeg2/.libs /mingw/lib
cp -p libmpeg2/.libs/* /mingw/lib

libmad

Unzip the libmad archive in a folder, open MSYS, go to the libmad folder and issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

Alternatively, when everything is compiled, copy (...) inside MinGW's include folder. [TODO]

FLAC

Unzip the flac archive in a folder, open MSYS, go to the flac folder and issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

Alternatively, when everything is compiled, copy (...) inside MinGW's include folder. [TODO]

Compiling ScummVM

To compile ScummVM, issue the following commands inside the scummvm folder (where Makefile resides):

./configure
make

After compilation, you'll end up with a very big scummvm.exe (around 16MB). This is because debug symbols and information are embedded by default in the exe file, making it very big. To remove all the unneeded debug information from the executable, thus reducing its size by about 12MB, go to the folder where the compiled scummvm.exe file is and run the following command:

strip scummvm.exe

Ready to go!

OK this should be all of it (thankfully), so you should be good to go.