Lately I've been experimenting with the Allegro game library, but I'm having some trouble setting it up in the following scenario:
I would like to create a cross-platform project (for at least Linux and Windows binaries, preferably also OS X) using CMake that utilizes the Allegro game library, but is able to build using MSVC instead of MinGW for the Windows Binaries.
I tried linking statically to the MinGW standard libraries, but the supplied Allegro binaries for MinGW are still dynamically linked, so I'd rather just use the proper Windows compiler.
Does anyone know if it is possible to extract the binaries from the Nuget package or if there's a more proper way to use MSVC and Allegro while still maintaining a cross-platform source code?
I'd prefer not having to build Allegro from source, but if I have to, any links to guides would be helpful.
I'm not using bloodshed dev c++ , instead I'm using orwell dev c++ , I got Allegro 5 and installed the package (as a .zip file) but it says 'allegro5/allegro.h: No such file or directory'. Maybe I'm using the wrong type of header or is it another problem?Thanks!
That means you did not install the Allegro files in the correct place. I´m not familiar with the GCC Toolchain that Orwell uses (Im a Visual Studio guy), but what you need to do is place them on a place where the compiler can find them. Then make a makefile with the instructions on how to build this program with the correct Allegro libraries linked.
Here is the wiki article for installation on Code::Blocks, Maybe it can help you installing on DevC++, however, I think the binaries listed here might be newer than the ones on the Allegro's wiki page.
Preamble
If anything I wrote is not correct, please be so kind and correct me. I am a php developer mainly - I am not into this compiling stuff. I know there are a lot of topics around the www but they seems to be either old/outdated, very complex or links to a bunch of files on sourceforge (I have no clue what files I should download and what to do with them after downloading them).
Searching a couple of days by now
I am researching for a couple of days by now and tried different compilers and settings but I don't get a standalone executable for a c++14 programme.
First compiler
The first compiler I used was cygwin. I was able to compile it with c++14 but on other computers cygwin had to be installed as well as a cygwin dll was missing. I googled and figured out that programmes compiled using Cygwin requires this dll but cannot be included to the programme itself - or did I missed something?
Current compiler
I then switched to MinGW which seems to be a better choice as it allows to compile standalone executables which is correct as I am able to do so. Well, the MinGW setup I downloaded from http://www.mingw.org/ installed among other the gcc version 4.8.1. I need 4.9.1 for c++14.
As the title says I want to configure it in Netbeans but if there is a proper tutorial for a command line compiling it's no problem either but I try to avoid using another IDE as we use it at work, too.
drangon.org
I also heard about http://www.drangon.org/mingw/ but there are tons of links linking to similiar stuff.
My goals
Get a better understanding about gcc and this compiling stuff in general.
Install gcc 4.9.1 (preferred into MinGW as it's currently installed)
Configure it in Netbeans 8.
I suggest you to try MinGW-w64. (Download.)
It's similar to MinGW, but have better multitreading support, can easily compile x64 applications, and what's more important, at this moment it uses GCC 4.9.2.
By the way, MinGW applications require some .dlls to work too. Usually you just provide these libraries with your application, but another option is to add -static flag at linking phase. Applications that are compiled with it do not require any external library files (unless you're using 3rd party libraries that don't support static linking).
I regularly use Code::Blocks and MinGW for my C/C++ projects. I would like to be able to use OpenCV, since it has a nice library for computer vision projects. They have dropped support for MinGW. I have heard you can build it on your own somehow, but I have no experience doing this with 3rd party libraries. Can someone explain how to build it in a simple way for MinGW?
There is, or at least there was at least until 2.4.6, precompiled version of opencv that works out of the box with mingw as long as you use the dw2(standard) version of mingw.
since i needed sjlj support i had to build my own version of openCV 2.4.6
I did he following - i am pretty sure it will work for the current openCV version as well
Setup your preferred Mingw Environment - i would strongly recommend to use gcc 4.5 or newer
Intstall Msys
Intall Cmake - you can get a binary package
Start the Cmake GUI
Select the openCV source folder
Click Configure and select MSYS-Makfiles
Errors in the first run of Configure might be resolved if you run Configure again
Click Generate
use MSYS make to run the generated makefile
Copy all desired libraries and include files to your mingw-installation or your project
I would like to create a gui application with Qt, using opencv on Windows XP. I used both Qt and opencv before, but never together. Long story short, I'm unable to get opencv work with Qt.
As on all the forums I searched there are just little pieces of information scattered around, usually with no answer, I summarize here all the steps I've taken.
Downloaded the Qt SDK (4.6.3) for Windows, and used it for some time, successfully.
Downloaded the opencv 2.3.1 megapack for Windows, complete with binaries. I managed to compile my Qt project including opencv successfully, but any opencv function call resulted in a crash. I read on some forums that the binaries in the Windows megapack don't support Qt, and I have to build opencv myself
I downloaded the latest version of CMake (2.8).
I downloaded the source of opencv from here: http://code.opencv.org/svn/opencv/branches/2.3/
I downloaded the source for the version of Qt I had (4.6.3)
I found my old version of visual Studio 2005
I created a VS2005 project with CMake, checking the support for Qt. (WITH_QT checked)
I built opencv in VS2005. It created most of the libraries, but not all. Highgui was among the failed ones. The problem: Qt\4.6.3\src\corelib\global\qconfig.h was not found. There was no qconfig.h at all in the source I downloaded! I found some templates qconfig-large.h, qconfig-small.h etc., so I renamed one of them to qconfig.h. Now I got a screen full of linker errors.
I downloaded the latest Qt source instead (4.8.1). Now there is a source file qbenchmark.h that includes QtTest/qbenchmarkmetric.h which cannot be found.
I gave up, and tried MinGW.
I downloaded the latest MinGW (2011.11.18)
I set CMake to generate a MinGW makefile, but I got the following error:
.
CMake Error at C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-g++.cmake:1 (INCLUDE):
include could not find load file:
C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-gcc.cmake
Call Stack (most recent call first):
C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCXXInformation.cmake:59 (INCLUDE)
True, there is a Windows-g++.cmake file in the Modules/Platform directory, but it references Windows-gcc.cmake which does not exist!
Is there anyone who managed to build opencv with Qt support on Windows, and if yes, how?
Edit:
The problem is definitely with the Qt source. I managed to generate a MinGW makefile, and the build went all OK until it stopped in src/testlib/qtestsystem.h because there was an include for QtCore/qelapsedtimer.h which file is in a completely different directory! Does Qt release incomplete sources, or did I do something wrong?
Edit2
My torment continues. I cleaned everything and started anew. This time without even trying Visual Studio.
I downloaded the latest Qt libs with source (4.8.1)
I downloaded the latest MinGW (2011.11.18)
With CMake I successfully created a Makefile, and built it with MinGW. I got some shiny new libs (libopencv_core231, etv.). I was very happy, but how wrong I was to celebrate that soon!!
I downloaded the latest Qt SDK (strangely, it was 4.8.0, so I set Qt Creator to use the 4.8.1) and created a test program without opencv to see if it works. It worked!
I tried using opencv, just reading and displaying an image. It didn't work. exited with code -1073741511
I tried running the .exe directly, outside of Qt Creator. It complained of a missing libstdc++-6.dll
I did a search for it, and found on in my MinGW install (c:\mingw\bin, 958 KB), and one in my Qt install (c:\qt\mingw\bin, 793 KB) - this mingw came bundled with Qt.
I tried both, by copying them in the same folder where my .exe is, but neither worked. I got "The procedure entry point _ZNSt9exceptionD2Ev could not be located in the dynamic link library libstdc++-6.dll." with both. This was in debug, so I tried release, and I got a similar error, with some other entry point not found.
I searched the forums, and I found suggestions that I should link libstdc++ statically. I inserted -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ at the lines QMAKE_LFLAGS = and QMAKE_LFLAGS_DEBUG = in the file c:\Qt\mkspecs\win32-g++\qmake.conf. This had no effect at all, even after restarting Qt Creator and rebuilding. If I don't copy the libstdc++-6.dll, it still requires it.
Of course, my simple test program without opencv runs from the exe without needing any libstdc++-6.dll, so that means my opencv build is responsible? I wanted to build opencv anew, but I cannot find any CMake settings referring to libstdc++ !
It might be a clue:
When using one of the libstdc++-6.dll files, the error about a missing entrypoint mentions QtGui4.dll. I have a debug build, so it should be QtGui*d*4.dll, shouldn't it? Are there different libstdc++s for debug and release? Either way, I tried to build release, but it didn't work either, same error
Is there no single person on this planet who tried using Qt with QtCreator and opencv 2.3 together on Windows xp, and succeeded? From searching all the forums and Qt archives, I could not find anyone. I'm ready to do the development in Linux, but I'll need a Windows release sooner or later anyway.
I'm trying to resist the temptation of the dark side, which whispers into my ears to forget Qt, MinGW, g++, opencv and try to hack together something in Visual Basic. Oh, the horrors!
Just FYI, I went basically through the same nightmare of combining Qt and OpenCV. This was my experience:
I downloaded the Qt SDK 4.7.4 with Qt Creator 2.4.1 and installed it, no problem.
I downloaded and installed OpenCV 2.4.2 and not knowing that it already came with MinGW...
I downloaded the MinGW compiler which of course had a different version than the one which came already with Qt
This completely messed up my CMake, even when I explicitly told CMake to use the Qt gcc.exe and g++.exe it also used some stuff from my freshly installed MinGW. Probably because I eagerly added every directory to my PATH variable. What a fool I was!
CMake was not able to generate any useful files, so I gave up and installed the OpenCV superpack, hoping this would make things easier.
6.I spent hours wondering, why Qt and OpenCV from the superpack didnt work properly together. I never quite understood. I had the same errors that other users describe here, like console programs crashing as soon as some OpenCV was included. The strange thing is, that I could start the executable manually from FileExplorer (I added all .dlls you could think of to the project folder: opencv_core242.dll, opencv_highgui242.dll, QtCore4.dll, QtGui4.dll and so on...) BUT I could not launch my little test program from within the Qt Creator environment.
I analysed if there was a problem with my DLLs using depends.exe and found out that even though I configured everything to be in DEBUG using the MinGW compiler, my program still tried to use QtCore4.dll and not QtCore4d.dll... So my best guess was, that it was mixing debug and release version.
I gave up using the superpack and again tried to use CMAKE first and then build OpenCV using the Qt MinGW version AND making sure to setup everything for Debug mode and enable the QT option. But no luck with that so far
I stopped using MinGW and switched over to MSVC2010, which works better. However I am still not able to debug the program since the MSVC2010 debugger engine seems to be missing. I dont really know how to manually add this but I am still working on it
So what I can definitely tell is that using Qt and OpenCV for somebody who has little experience is far from trivial!
You should build OpenCV from source, as you already did, it is no hassle. Note that recent versions of OpenCV can be built with and w/o Qt. Highgui optionally uses Qt! It is your choice if you build with or without Qt.
I used Qt libraries together with OpenCV for long time now. I never went for the SDK, instead I used the libs which are built for corresponding VS version. See here: http://qt.nokia.com/downloads/downloads#qt-lib
You can have it for VS2008 and VS2010, but earlier versions are also available built for VS2005. Old versions of Visual Studio suck so hard, why use them anyway.
Then I never had problems pulling it together in a CMake project. It goes along the lines of:
find_package(OpenCV)
find_package(Qt4 ${VOLE_MINIMUM_QT_VERSION} COMPONENTS QtCore QtGui)
find_package(Qt4 ${VOLE_MINIMUM_QT_VERSION} COMPONENTS QtOpenGL)
...
qt4_wrap_cpp(moc_sources ${vole_module_moc_sources})
qt4_wrap_ui(uic_sources ${vole_module_ui_sources})
qt4_add_resources(rcc_sources ${vole_module_rcc_sources})
You know, the usual stuff.
Five man weeks later you may probably get it run under Windows, while under GNU/Linux it is three commands in the shell.
You might have an easier time configuring Qt Creator with OpenCV. This post shows how to achieve that, step-by-step! It displays several screenshots to aid in the process too.