More out of interest than anything else, but can you compile a DirectX app under linux?
Obviously there's no official SDK, but I was thinking it might be possible with wine.
Presumably wine has an implementation of the DirectX interface in order to run games? Is it possible to link against that? (edit: This is called winelib)
Failing that, maybe a mingw cross compiler with the app running under wine.
Half answered my own question here, but wondered if anyone had heard of anything like this being done?
I've had some luck with this. I've managed to compile this simple Direct3D example.
I used winelib for this (wine-dev package on Ubuntu). Thanks to alastair for pointing me to winelib.
I modified the source slightly to convert the wchars to chars (1 on line 52, 2 on line 55, by removing the L before the string literals). There may be a way around this, but this got it up and running.
I then compiled the source with the following:
wineg++ -ld3d9 -ld3dx9 triangle.cpp
This generates an a.out.exe.so binary, as well as an a.out script to run it under wine.
If this is not about porting but creating, you should really consider OpenGL as this API is as powerful as DirectX and much easier to port to Mac or Linux.
I don't know your requirements so better mention it.
You can't link against wine as it's essentially a call interdictor/translator rather than a set of libraries you can hook into. If linux is important go OpenGL/SDL/OpenAL.
I believe(I've never tried this) you can can compile Linux binarys against winelib. So it works just like a Linux executable, but with the windows libraries.
http://www.winehq.org/site/docs/winelib-guide/index
go to the directory with the source and type in:
winemaker --lower-uppercase -icomdlg32 -ishell32 -ishlwapi -iuser32 -igdi32 -iadvapi32 -ld3d9 .
make
wine yourexecutable.exe.so
If you get this Error:
main.c:95:5: error: ‘struct IDirect3D9’ has no member named ‘CreateDevice’
make sure you have named your file main.cpp and not main.c.
There is currently no way to compile DirectX code to directly target Linux. You would build your application like you normally would, then run it using a compatibility layer like Wine/Cedega.
you can compile a directx apps in linux, but not launching it straight away.
if you use a crosscompilator that makes windows exe and point to the windows sdk and directx sdk.
Although this question is dated, I decided to updated on it, because it keeps popping up for me as the first suggestion for this particular problem.
As the previous answers already suggested you can compile against winelib. However, there are yet another two solutions.
The first solution would be either to use the MinGW provided for your distributions. MinGW is a 'cross-compiler', that compiles either from macOS or linux to windows and has support for DirectX. Note, that C++ libraries compiled with MinGW are not compatible with the MSVC compiler's ABI, thus cannot be consumed. However, the resulting binaries can be executed using Wine.
The second solution would be to use clang as a cross compiler. Clang usually includes the Compiler and Linker needed for Windows out of the box. However, it'll require you to include provide the headers and libraries yourself. On the other hand, libraries compiled this way are compatible with MSVC and, thus, can be consumed by it.
Side note:
Latter allows you to setup an CI server using linux (I did so on a raspberry pi), which creates compatible binaries for end users.
Wine is the only way to run DirectX in Linux
Related
My experience with C++, GCC, MinGW and Cygwin is very limited. However, I already tested it and realized that Cygwin is not the ideal solution for what I am trying to do. Even though a GTK+ program with GTKWebkit works fine on Cygwin, it's not that great in terms of packaging the final project to a single .exe. The dependency on the cywin1.dll, etc... is a deal breaker.
I tested MinGW and it works flawlessly for a standard GTK only application in Windows. And the file size is great!
I tested a standard GCC compiler to compile a GTK & WebKitGtk application on Mac and it worked flawlessly.
But in the windows world where I am getting confused with GTK and WebkitGTK. What I want to do is compile a sample WebkitGTK application on Windows using MinGW. So, all the required libraries are statically linked and has a single .exe.
What are my choices? How do I actually build WebsiteGTK on Windows? Please give me the tools and as much details as you can.
FYI, QtWebkit is not going to cut it. Their licensing terms are not that commercial friendly.
I never did get WebKitGtk to compile on Windows. I think I could have got it to work using cygwin, but that's a non-starter for the project I'm working on.
I ended up using Chromium Embedded Framework instead: https://code.google.com/p/chromiumembedded/. It has clear instructions and sample apps for Mac, Linux, Windows, and mobile.
Here someone says that the easiest way to do that it's to cross-compile from virtual machine. Actually, there is binary there.
He uses OpenSUSE booted through VirtualBox. Then, using osc tool, get the mingw32-webkitgtk from windows:mingw:win32 and build it with osc.
For a few years I was writing programs in Visual Studio for Windows and with GCC (Code Blocks) for Linux. Most of my libs compiled seamlessly as they worked both in Windows and Linux. However at the moment I am a bit confused, as I have to create an app using Cygwin. I don't really understand if I am still in UNIX/Linux environment, just running app on Windows by some "emulation", or I am rather on Windows just having access to some Linux/Unix functionality. From what I understood from the FAQ's and documentation it looks like I just should behave like in Linux environment.
All explanations I found in internet usually are very general and don't explain the detailed differences from programmers viewpoint.
Short question: Can I just write programs like I did for Linux without any major changes when using Cygwin?
Maybe.
A lot of code written for Linux will compile in Cygwin with very few problems, which can mainly be fixed by messing with preprocessor definitions.
However, any code written for linux which:
Uses a Linux driver
Directly accesses the kernel
Relies on any code which does either of these two things (and doesn't have a Windows counterpart)
will quite definitely not work, regardless of how much you modify the code.
Much as it tries to, Cygwin cannot fully emulate (yes it is an emulator, of sorts) everything a POSIX system can normally do. Cygwin is not windows, just a conversion layer from its own machine language.
For more information, read cygwin's wikia
Can I just write programs like I did for Linux without any major
changes when using Cygwin?
The platforms are not identical, so you can not realistically expect to write the program in Linux, and then POOF expect it to build and work under Cygwin. But if you don't use things not available under Windows, then you won't need major changes. And you can write non-trivial programs, which will build and work on both, perhaps needing a few #ifdefs in places.
From your question I take it you want to work on Linux, but write programs for running under Cygwin. In that case you must also build and test it in the Cygwin environment all the time, so:
Use version control, commit often. I recommend a DVCS like git or mercurial which have separate commit and push, it will allow you to do commits more freely.
Whenever you commit/push, do checkout/pull and build on the Cygwin host. You can do this manually or automatically (by simple custom script polling the version control, or by Jenkins or something).
When ever your code stops building or working under Cygwin, fix it before continuing with new code.
If Cygwin is not absolute requirement, then I would look into using Qt SDK. It can be used for non-Qt projects too, the MinGW toolchain on Windows is very similar to gcc on Linux. And if you're willing to use Qt, then it has all sorts of platform-independent features for things you might want to do, such as discover locations of standard directories for saving files, use threads, print things, have GUI...
I make this program in C++ using Code::Blocks on Ubuntu. I need to turn it into a Windows executable binary (.exe file), but I don't know how to do this. Is it possible?
If you meant, compiling an executable for Windows on Linux you might find some pointers on how to do that here.
Both the MinGW32 distribution of GCC and Wine should be available for your distribution.
MinGW has instructions and winegcc wraps a similar compiler that comes with the Wine distribution.
I've used both to compile both applications and libraries for Windows.
You could read here on how to compile wxWidget applications on Linux for Windows using Code::Blocks.
This is a fairly unusual question. What you're asking is that you want to develop on Ubuntu, but the target platform is Windows?
My guess is that you have an assignment to turn in. My belief is that you should go to a lab and compile it and make sure it's working.
However, doing some research, you should try mingw at http://www.mingw.org/
Is there any compiler for C++ that works under W7 and is easy to install, except VC++?
I never get these scripts and linux emulations to work, and really just want to try another compiler.
The nuwen distribultion of the GCC compiler includes the compiler and all necessary supporting tools and libraries as a single Windows installer. You don't need any Linux emulation in order to use it. A similar, slightly smaller pacakage is TDM's MinGW build. Both of these are on GCC 4.5 (as of Aug-2010).
If you want an IDE, then Code::Blocks also comes as a complete system. This has recently (Jul-2010) been heavily improved, and comes with the GCC 4.4.1 compiler, if you want it. You might also want to look at CodeLite, which is also fairly easy to install.
Mingw is generally easier than cygwin. It doesn't come with a port of every unix tools as cygwin does, but the resulting .exes are native (no need for cygwin.dll)
Cygwin includes the gcc compiler and also provides a Unix look and feel which will be the other thing you need to get scripts and linux emulations to work. (This inlcude the libraries Unix libraries will have functions that VC does not have which might be the issue that you are having)
Qt for Windows comes with MingW, which I've found to be reasonably easy to use and install, and the LGPL version is priced right (free as in beer). You don't need to use any the Qt libraries in your application. I'm not sure which version of GCC is currenlty bundled with it. There are no licensing restrictions for the software you develop (unless you're actually modifying and redistributing source code of the LGPL version of Qt).
I have the source code for some very simple command line programs. I was considering the option of compiling them on a Linux machine (they were deveoped here) so they can be used on Windows. If I am not wrong this is called Cross-compiling. I have never tried it, but reading yesterday some information, it seems to be kind of complicated or not successful. I would like to hear about your opinions, and how could I port a simple "hello world" program, which compiles on Linux with g++.
Thanks
Look into mingw, a suite of tools for building Win32 applications in Linux. If the programs don't depend on any Linux-specific functionality not supported by mingw, you should be fine.
Note that cross-compilation is not the same thing as cross-platform. With cross compilation, you compile the code to a Windows executable on the Linux box, then transfer the executable to a Windows box. With cross-platform, you transfer the source code to the Windows box and compile to a Windows executable using a Windows compiler.
The former is quite difficult (but not impossible), the latter is very easy, using a compiler such as MinGW, a others have mentioned.
I cross-compile on a daily basis. But I don't set up cross-compilers on a daily basis. It can be tricky, but it's certainly possible.
As long as you use standard C++ your code will be cross-platform. You can also use cross-platform libraries like STL, boost, Poco, Qt, etc...
Only when you start to use platform specific code you lose portability. For example including <windows.h> will make your code only compilable on Windows. (There are techniques around this like the #ifdef macro. This enables certain code portions only on one platform.)
So a simple hello world program should work on Linux, Mac, Windows or any other platform. You don't need anything special for this.
Note:
Some may mention Cygwin or mingw32. I'll briefly explain what they are:
Cygwin allows you to compile Linux applications using gcc/g++ on a Windows machine.
Mingw32 allows you to compile Windows applications using gcc/g++ on a Windows machine.
Edit:
If you want to setup a system for cross-compilation, then I recommend that you have a look at cmake.
Yes. We are currently compiling a 250 kloc app, running Qt with daily builds. It's working prefectly everyday, although I've to admit it is not distributed outside the company, but only used internal. For official releases, Visual Studio is prefered.
Compiled using mingw standard packages on Debian.