Compile Linux OpenGL Application on Windows? - c++

Question

I have made a OpenGL application which I can compile fine on Linux. It uses static .a librarys. Now I tried compiling with MinGW (and .lib libraries) and g++, but the resulting main.exe displays this error when I try to execute it: https://i.imgur.com/dpidmsw.png.
g++.exe -std=c++11 -Wall -o main.exe Main.cpp FastNoise.cpp shader.cpp texture.cpp glew32.lib glfw3.dll -lglu32 -lopengl32
When using cmake with the CMakeGUI to create a Visual Studio Project it works fine:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
add_definitions(-DGLEW_STATIC)
set (CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
add_executable(main Main.cpp texture.cpp shader.cpp FastNoise.cpp)
find_package(OpenGL REQUIRED)
include_directories( ${OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIRS} )
IF (WIN32)
target_link_libraries(main ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/GLEW_1130.lib ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/glfw3.lib ${OPENGL_LIBRARIES} ${GLUT_LIBRARY} ${X11_LIBRARIES})
configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/vertex.glsl ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Debug/vertex.glsl COPYONLY)
configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/fragment.glsl ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Debug/fragment.glsl COPYONLY)
configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/dirt.bmp ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Debug/dirt.bmp COPYONLY)
ELSE()
include_directories( ${X11_INCLUDE_DIRS} )
find_package(X11 REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(main ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/libGLEW.a ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/libglfw3.a ${OPENGL_LIBRARIES} ${GLUT_LIBRARY} ${X11_LIBRARIES} X11 Xxf86vm pthread dl Xrandr Xinerama Xcursor)
ENDIF()

Answer 1

Just because you have static libraries that doesn't mean that these are in any way system independent. The static libraries you have are all built for a Linux target. They expect to talk with Linux operating system functions using the a calling convention (i.e. the way functions are to be called) that's different from Windows. Essentially you're trying to shove a square peg through a round hole here. It doesn't work that way.
To build for Windows you need also all the prerequisites being ported and built for Windows, too. Luckily all the libraries you mention have Windows ports, so that's not a problem.
I fixed it by adding these praeprocessor definitions:
…
You fixed nothing. You just lied to something (compiler, your program source code, etc.) about the toolchain it's built with and the target it's built for.
If you start redefining system level preprocessor definitions, you're doing something very, very wrong.
Here's what you should do (well, what I recommend): Head over to http://www.msys2.org/ and grab the MSys2 installer. Install it, launch the MinGW… environment (there's a 32 bit and a 64 bit environment). MSys2 uses the Pacman package manager of the Arch Linux distribution. Use that to install the toolchain (make, binutils, gcc) – make sure you install the right variant, the package database has packages for msys, mingw32 and mingw64 – and all the development libraries you need. There are packages for GLEW, GLFW3 and so on available.
Next install CMake. I strongly recommend not to use the MSys2 package, but the standalone installer from https://cmake.org/ – the CMake installed this way knows how to work with MSys/MinGW …and more.
Then create a CMakeLists.txt for your project, and use that to create the build environment. The nice thing about CMake is, that it's cross platform and knows a ton of build systems and compiler environments. If your project is structured sanely and you don't do crazy stuff (or you do crazy stuff and put the right straightjackets around it so it doesn't go on a rampage) you'll get something that you can build effortlessly on or for most target environments.