Because each module has different quirks one can't use a single tool for everything. You should be able to build most using a standard *compiler* (GCC/MSVC/Clang) using common *build systems* (scripts/CMake/autotools) in any typical *OS* (Windows/Linux/Mac).
64-bit support may work but has been minimally tested, since main use of vgmstream is plugins for 32-bit players (extra codec libs for Windows are included for 32-bit only ATM, and there may be bugs in some codecs and formats).
Though it's rather flexible (like using Windows with GCC and autotools), some combos may be a bit more complex to get working depending on your system and other factors.
On Linux it should be included by default in the distribution, or can be easily installed using the distro's package manager (for example `sudo apt-get install gcc g++ make`).
On Mac may be installed with a package manager like *Homebrew*, but using *Clang* is probably easier.
Any not-too-ancient versions should work, since vgmstream uses standard C. GCC usually comes with *Make*, a program that can be used to build vgmstream.
Visual Studio Community (free) should work, but you may need to register after a trial period. Even after trial you can still use *MSBuild*, command-line tool that actually does all the building, calling the *MSVC* compiler (Visual Studio itself is just an IDE for development and not actually needed).
Instead of the full (usually huge) Visual Studio, you can also get "Build Tools for Visual Studio", variation that only installs *MSBuild* and necessary files without the IDE. Usually found in the above link, under "Tools for Visual Studio" (or google as MS's links tend to move around).
When installing check the "Desktop development with C++" group, and optionally select "MFC support" and "ATL support" sub-options to build foobar2000 plugin (you can modify that or re-install IDE later, by running installed "Visual Studio Installer"). You could include MSVC v141 (2017) compatibility too just in case, since it's mainly tested with that.
Older versions of MSVC (2010 and earlier) have limited C support and may not work with latest commits, while reportedly beta/new versions aren't always very stable. Also, only projects (`.vcxproj`) for VS2015+ are included (CMake may be able to generate older `.vcproj` if you really need them). Some very odd issues affecting MSVC only have been found and fixed before. Keep in mind all of this if you run into problems.
### Clang (compiler)
Alt C compiler, reportedly works fine on Mac and may used as a replacement of GCC without issues.
Should be usable on Linux and possibly Windows with CMake. For default Makefiles may need to set compiler vars appropriately (CC=clang AR=llvm-ar and so on).
**For MSVC**: there is a default Visual Studio `.sln` that should be up to date (run `./msvc-build-init.bat` first, or see the foobar section to get extra dependencies manually, then open). A PowerShell script also automates compilation (on Windows 7 may need recent .NET framework and PowerShell versions), simply run `./msvc-build.bat`.
First you may need to either open the `.sln` and change project compiler (*PlatformToolset*) and SDK (*WindowsTargetPlatformVersion*) to your installed version, or edit `msvc-build.ps1` and set the variables near *CONFIG*. To avoid modifying files you can also create a file named `msvc-build.config.ps1` with:
**For GCC/CLang**: there are basic Makefiles that work like usual with *make* (like `make vgmstream_cli EXTRA_CFLAGS="-DVGM_DEBUG_OUTPUT`). Artifacts are usually in their subdir (*./cli*, *./winamp*, etc).
On Windows this compiles with extra libs enabled by default. On Linux there is no fancy autodetection (try CMake or autotools for that), so you need to make sure libs are in your system and pass flags to enable them manually (install/compile libs then `make vgmstream_cli VGM_VORBIS=1 ...`). Check or run `make-build.sh` for a basic example that builds CLI and vgmstream123 with most libs enabled for a Ubuntu-style distro (if you get errors on your system just tweak or comment out offending parts).
Tool used to generate common build files (for *make*, *VS/MSBuild*, etc), that in turn can be used to compile vgmstream's modules instead of existing scripts/files. Needs v3.6 or later:
Note that doing in-source builds of CMake (`cmake .` / selecting `./vgmstream` as output dir) is not recommended and may clobber default build files (try `cmake -S . -B build` / using some `./build` subfolder).
For Windows you must include GCC, and Linux's sh tool in some form in PATH. Simplest would be installing *MinGW-w64* for `gcc.exe` (and related tools), and *Git* for `sh.exe`, and making PATH point their bin dir.
- ex. `C:\mingw\i686-8.1.0-release-win32-sjlj-rt_v6-rev0\mingw32\bin` and `C:\Git\usr\bin`
A trick on Windows is that you can temporary alter PATH variable in `.bat` scripts (PATH is used to call programs in Windows without having to write full path to .exe)
For Linux, GCC/make/autotools should be included already, or install with a package manager (`sudo apt-get install gcc g++ make autoconf automake libtool`), also depends on *Make*.
External libs using autotools can be compiled on Windows too, try using `sh.exe ./configure`, `mingw32-make.exe`, `mingw32-make.exe install` instead. Also for older libs, call `sh.exe ./configure` with either `--build=mingw32`, `--host=mingw32` or `--target-os=mingw32` (varies) for older configure. You may also need to use `mingw32-make.exe LDFLAGS="-no-undefined -static-libgcc" MAKE=mingw32-make.exe` so that `.dll` are correctly generated.
On Linux you usually need dev packages of each (for example `libao-dev` for vgmstream123, `libvorbis-dev` for Vorbis, and so on) and they should be picked by CMake/autotool scripts.
With no extra libs (or only some) enabled vgmstream works fine, but some advanced formats/codecs won't play. See *External libraries* for info about those extra codecs.
Simplest way is using the *./Makefile* in the root folder, see inside for options. For compilation flags check the *Makefile* in each folder. You may need to manually rebuild if you change a *.h* file (`make clean`). On Windows this will build with external libs enabled, but Linux can't ATM.
Also, on Linux you can't build *in_vgmstream* and *xmp-vgmstream* (given they are Windows DLLs...). Makefiles have been used in the past to cross-compile from Linux with MingW headers though, but can't generate native Win code at the moment (should be fixable with some effort).
*Autotools* should build and install it as `vgmstream-cli`, this is explained in detail in the Audacious section. It enables (some) extra codecs. Some Linux distributions like Arch Linux include pre-patched vgmstream with most libraries, you may want that instead:
You may try CMake instead as it may be simpler and handle libs better. Some older distros may not work though (CMake version needs to recognize FILTER command). You may also need to install resulting artifacts manually. Check the *CMAKE.md* doc for some extra info too.
**With MSVC**: To build in Visual Studio, run `./msvc-build-init.bat`, open `vgmstream_full.sln` and compile. To build from the command line, just run `./msvc-build.bat`.
The build script will automatically handle obtaining dependencies and making the project changes listed in the foobar2000 section (you may need to install some PowerShell .NET packages). You could also call MSBuild directly in the command line (see the foobar2000 section for dependencies and examples).
While the official name for the CLI tool is `vgmstream-cli`, `test.exe` is used on Windows for historical reasons. If you want to reuse it for your own project it's probably better renaming to `vgmstream-cli.exe`.
Requires MSVC (foobar/SDK only links to MSVC C++ DLLs). To build in Visual Studio, run `./msvc-build-init.bat`, open `vgmstream_full.sln` and compile. To build from the command line, just run `./msvc-build.bat`.
foobar has multiple dependencies. Build script downloads them automatically, but here they are:
FDK-AAC/QAAC can be enabled adding *VGM_USE_MP4V2* and *VGM_USE_FDKAAC* in the compiler/linker options and the project dependencies, otherwise FFmpeg is used instead to support .mp4. FDK-AAC Support is limited so FFmpeg is recommended.
In theory any foobar SDK should work, but there may be issues when using versions past *2018-02-05*. For those you need to change *RuntimeLibrary* from *MultiThreadedDebug* and *MultiThreaded* to *MultiThreadedDebugDLL* and *MultiThreadedDLL* (to match newer SDK settings). Mirror in case official site is down: https://github.com/vgmstream/vgmstream-deps/raw/master/foobar2000/SDK-2018-02-05.zip
You can also manually use the command line to compile with MSBuild, if you don't want to touch the `.vcxproj` files, register VS after trial, get PowerShell dependencies for the build script, or only have VC++/MSBuild tools.
Windows CMD example for foobar2000 (manual build):
Requires the dev version of Audacious (and dependencies), autotools (automake/autoconf) or CMake, and gcc/make (C++11). It must be compiled and installed into Audacious, where it should appear in the plugin list as "vgmstream".
The plugin needs Audacious 3.5 or higher. New Audacious releases can break plugin compatibility so it may not work with the latest version unless adapted first.
CMake should handle all correctly, while when using autotools, libvorbis/libmpg123/libspeex will be used if found, while FFmpeg and other external libraries aren't enabled at the moment, thus some formats won't work (build scripts need to be fixed).
If you get errors during the build phase we probably forgot some `#ifdef` needed for Audacious, notify and should be quickly fixed.
Take note of other plugins stealing extensions (see README). To change Audacious's default priority for vgmstream you can make with CFLAG `AUDACIOUS_VGMSTREAM_PRIORITY n` (where `N` is a number where 10=lowest)
You can try building with CMake. Some older distros may not work though (CMake version needs to recognize FILTER command), and may need to install resulting artifacts manually (check ./audacious dir).
To update vgmstream it's probably easiest to remove the `vgmstream` folder and start again from *base vgmstream build* step, since updates often require a full rebuild anyway, or call `git clean -fd` or maybe `git reset --hard`.
May also need to take `vgmstream.h`, `streamfile.h` and `plugins.h`, and trim them somewhat to use as includes for the `.so`.
For MSVC, you could add `__declspec(dllexport)` to exported functions in the "public" API of the above `.h`, and set `<ConfigurationType>DynamicLibrary</ConfigurationType>` in `libvgmstream.vcxproj`, plus add a `<Link>` under `<ClCompile>` to those libs (copy from `vgmstream_cli.vcxproj`).
- libs usually only compile with either GCC or MSVC, while vgmstream supports both compilers, so linking to the generated binary (compatible) is much easier
Currently repo contains pre-compiled external libraries for Windows (32-bit Windows DLLs), while other systems link to system libraries. Ideally vgmstream could use libs compiled as static code (thus eliminating the need of DLLs), but involves a bunch of changes.
Below is a quick explanation of each library and how to compile binaries from them (for Windows). Unless mentioned, their latest version should be ok to use, though included DLLs may be a bit older.
MSVC needs a .lib helper to link .dll files, but libs below usually only create .dll (and maybe .def). Instead, those .lib are automatically generated during build step in `ext_libs.vcxproj` from .dll+.def, using lib.exe tool.
Use MSVC (use `g719.sln`). It can be built with GCC too, for example, using [the CMake script from this repository](../ext_libs/libg719_decode/CMakeLists.txt).
vgmstream's FFmpeg builds for Windows remove many unnecessary parts of FFmpeg to trim down its gigantic size, and are also built with the "vgmstream-" prefix to avoid clashing with other plugins. Current options can be seen in `ffmpeg_options.txt`. Linux usually links to the system's FFmpeg without issues.
FSB uses two incompatible, older libcelt versions. Both libraries export the same symbols so normally can't coexist together. To get them working we need to make sure symbols are renamed first. This may be solved in various ways:
- using dynamic loading (LoadLibrary) but for portability it isn't an option
- It may be possible to link+rename using .def files
- Linux/Mingw's objcopy to (supposedly) rename DLL symbols
- Use GCC's preprocessor to rename functions on compile
- Rename functions in the source code directly.
To compile we'll use autotools with GCC preprocessor renaming:
- take the .dlls from ./bin/bin, and rename libcelt.dll to libcelt-0061.dll and libcelt-0110.dll respectively.
- you need to create a .def file for those DLL with the renamed simbol names above
- finally the includes. libcelt gives "celt.h" "celt_types.h" "celt_header.h", but since we renamed a few functions we have a simpler custom .h with minimal renamed symbols.
You can also get them from the official git (https://gitlab.xiph.org/xiph/celt) call `./autogen.sh` first, then pass call configure/make with renames (see `./make-build.sh`).
Should be buildable with MSVC (in /win32 dir are .sln files, but not up to date and may need to convert .vcproj to vcxproj) or autotools (use `autogen.sh`, or script below).
You can also find a release on Github (https://github.com/xiph/speex/releases/tag/Speex-1.2.0). It has newer timestamps and some different helper files vs Xiph's release, but actual lib should be the same. Notably, Github's release *needs*`autogen.sh` that calls `autoreconf` to generate a base `configure` script, while Xiph's pre-includes `configure`. Since getting autoreconf working on Windows can be quite involved, Xiph's release is recommended on that platform.
If all goes well, use generated .DLL in ./bin/bin (may need to rename to libspeex.dll) and ./win32/libspeex.def, and speex folder with .h in bin/include.
It was a straight-up decompilation from Sony's libs (presumably those found in SoundForge), without any clean-up or actual reverse engineering, thus legally and morally dubious.
