Open main menu

Compiling ScummVM with Minimalist GNU for Windows (MINGW) and MINimal System 2 (MSYS2)

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

NOTE
This guide covers only the compilation under MinGW64 and MSYS2, and makes heavy use of the pacman package manager, which may not be available under other MinGW setups.

For an older version of the guide, please go to the bottom of this page.

Things needed

Setup MinGW and MSYS

NOTE: This guide is a vast simplification of that found here. While this article should be enough, we recommend you read through the entire guide.

Download

Download and execute the MSYS2 bundle for your architecture from here.

Update the core of MSYS2

In the installation folder run msys2-shell.bat, which should open a MSYS2 terminal. Type the following command, to update the core dependencies of the environment:

<syntax type="bash"> $> update-core </syntax>

Restart the MSYS2 terminal. Type the following command, to update the managed packages: <syntax type="bash"> $> pacman -Su </syntax>

Download and install the compilation toolchain

In the MSYS2 terminal, type: <syntax type="bash"> $> pacman -S mingw-w64-<env>-toolchain </syntax> where <env> is either x86_64 or i686, depending on your architecture (64-bit and 32-bit, respectively).

This command will fetch and install the packages needed for compiling, including (but not limited to) GCC 5.x, GDB, and libwinpthread-git.

Install make

In order to compile properly the project utilizes Makefiles, which are build configuration files that the compiler uses to compile, link and solve dependencies. "make" is the software that runs the Makefiles.

MSYS2 does not support make out of the box, but it has its own implementation. Install it by typing:

<syntax type="bash"> $> pacman -S make </syntax>

Install the needed libraries

In order to compile properly, ScummVM needs you to have certain libraries installed. All the libraries in the list can be installed with similar commands: <syntax type="bash"> $> pacman -S mingw-w64-<env>-<library> </syntax> where <env> is the environment as previously stated, and <library> is the name of the library, as stated in the list (e.g. pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL):

  • SDL Mandatory.
  • nasm Optional, for faster compile of scalers.
  • flac. Optional, for FLAC support.
  • libogg and libvorbis Optional, for OGG support.
  • libmad Optional, for MP3 support.
  • libmpeg2 Optional, for MPEG2 cutscene support.
  • zlib. Optional, for compressed saved games.
  • libtheora. Optional, for Broken Sword 2.5.
  • libfaad2. Optional, for AAC support.
  • libpng. Optional, for PNG support.
  • freetype. Optional, for TTF support.
  • fluidsynth. Optional, for soundfont MIDI support.

Let's get compiling!

Finally, we are ready to compile the project! To do that, just open a MSYS2 console, navigate to the source folder where you have cloned scummvm.git, and type the following commands: <syntax type="bash"> $> ./configure # Executes a bash script that helps you configure. $> make # Executes the make program, which triggers the compilation. </syntax>

If everything went well, you should have a big executable in the compilation folder, named scummvm.exe. The size of the executable comes from the debug symbols embedded in the file, so you can run the following command to shrink it: <syntax type="bash"> $> strip scummvm.exe </syntax>

Ready to go!

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

Common Issues

  • If the executable compiles correctly, but you get a "somelibrary.dll missing" error when executing it, you just need to add the following path to your PATH variable: <installdir>/msys<env>/mingw64/bin/

Compilation in older versions of MinGW and MSYS

MinGW and MSYS

Download MinGW:

Download MSYS and the MSYS Developer Tools:

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 latest Development Libraries file for Mingw32.
  • NASM Optional, for faster compile of scalers
    • You need the latest Win32 binary (2.10.07 at the time of writing).
  • FLAC. Optional, for FLAC support
    • You need the latest flac source code.
  • libogg and libvorbis Optional, for OGG support
    • You need the latest libogg and libvorbis (not vorbis) source code.
  • libmad Optional, for MP3 support
    • You need the latest libmad source code.
  • libmpeg2 Optional, for MPEG2 cutscene support.
    • You need the latest libmpeg2 source code, currently v0.5.1.
  • zlib. Optional, for compressed saved games.
    • You need the latest zlib source code.
  • libtheora. Optional, for Broken Sword 2.5.
    • You need the latest libtheora source code.
  • libfaad2. Optional, for AAC support.
    • You need the latest libfaad2 source code.
  • libpng. Optional, for PNG support.
    • You need the latest libpng source code.
  • freetype. Optional, for TTF support.
    • You need the latest freetype source code.
  • fluidsynth. Optional, for soundfont MIDI support.
    • You need at least v1.0.9. Newer versions than this should work, but require GTK's glib and CMAKE to build.

Precompiled libraries

To ease the whole process, a package of all the needed precompiled libraries has been created. All you need to do is:

Installing MinGW and MSYS

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

  • Create a directory called mingw in the root directory of drive (ie C:\MinGW\ )
  • Extract all the mingw packages to the mingw directory
  • 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


Additional information about MinGW and Windows Vista

In order to get MinGW properly working under Windows Vista, you need to do the following: Go to Control Panel->System, and click on "Advanced System Settings" to the left. Then click on "Environment variables" and on the bottom window ("System variables"), select the "Path" variable and edit it. This variable tells windows where to look for binaries when it can't find them in the current folder. You'll find a lot of directories there separated by semicolons.

Make sure that the MinGW bin directory is included in the path (e.g. C:\MinGW\bin), which should already be included there from the MinGW installer. Also, make sure that the libexec path is included too (e.g. C:\MinGW\libexec\gcc\mingw32\3.4.2), which is needed in Vista to get MinGW properly working

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, and copy both files to 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 the 'include/SDL' folder to MinGW's include folder, copy all the files in the 'lib' folder to MinGW's lib folder and copy all the files in the 'bin' folder to MinGW's bin folder.

If you do wish to recompile SDL from source code, please note the following:

  • Check that the libSDL source file src/main/win32/version.rc contains the correct version. This was incorrectly listed as v1.2.14 for the v1.2.15 release, needed an additional patch.
  • Note the README here, especially the need to include the DirectX development header and libraries from here to ensure that the "dsound" rather than the "waveout" / "winmm" fallback audio driver is used.

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 --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw


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 --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw


libmad

Unzip the libmad archive in a folder. Open MSYS, go to the libmad folder. If you are using gcc 4.4 or higher, run the following command:

sed -i '/-fforce-mem/d' configure

Then issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw


libmpeg2

Unzip the libmpeg2 archive into a folder. Open MSYS, go to the libmpeg2 folder.

Then issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-sdl --disable-shared --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

Note that if you are compiling x64 i.e. for a 64-bit target, then currently (v0.5.1), the following patch is needed: <syntax type="diff"> --- libvo/video_out_dx.c.orig 2014-02-17 16:38:24.000000000 +0100 +++ libvo/video_out_dx.c 2014-02-17 16:39:34.000000000 +0100 @@ -92,7 +92,7 @@

    switch (message) {

    case WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED:

- instance = (dx_instance_t *) GetWindowLong (hwnd, GWL_USERDATA); + instance = (dx_instance_t *) GetWindowLongPtr (hwnd, GWLP_USERDATA);

       /* update the window position and size */
       point_window.x = 0;

@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@

    /* store a directx_instance pointer into the window local storage
     * (for later use in event_handler).
     * We need to use SetWindowLongPtr when it is available in mingw */

- SetWindowLong (instance->window, GWL_USERDATA, (LONG) instance); + SetWindowLongPtr (instance->window, GWLP_USERDATA, (LONG) instance);

    ShowWindow (instance->window, SW_SHOW);

</syntax>

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 --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw


FluidSynth

We use fluidsynth 1.0.9, since later versions requires GTK.

Unzip the fluidsynth archive in a folder, open MSYS, go to the fluidsynth folder and apply the following patch:

<syntax type="diff"> --- include/fluidsynth.h +++ include/fluidsynth.h @@ -28,13 +28,7 @@

#endif

#if defined(WIN32)

-#if defined(FLUIDSYNTH_DLL_EXPORTS) -#define FLUIDSYNTH_API __declspec(dllexport) -#elif defined(FLUIDSYNTH_NOT_A_DLL) -#define FLUIDSYNTH_API -#else -#define FLUIDSYNTH_API __declspec(dllimport) -#endif +#define FLUIDSYNTH_API

#elif defined(MACOS9)
#define FLUIDSYNTH_API __declspec(export)

</syntax>

Then issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

libpng

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

./configure --disable-shared --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw


libtheora

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

./configure --disable-shared --disable-examples --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw


libfaad2

Unzip the libfaad2 archive in a folder, open MSYS, go to the libfaad2 folder and apply the following patch:

<syntax type="diff"> --- frontend/main.c +++ frontend/main.c @@ -31,7 +31,9 @@

#ifdef _WIN32
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#include <windows.h>

+#ifndef __MINGW32__

#define off_t __int64

+#endif

#else
#include <time.h>
#endif

</syntax>

Then issue these commands to compile the library:

./configure --disable-shared --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw


freetype

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

./configure --disable-shared --prefix=/mingw
make

To install the library, type:

make install prefix=/mingw

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