vgmstream can be compiled using one of several build scripts that are available in this repository. Components are detailed below, but if you are new to development you probably want one of these:
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/macOS).
64-bit support should work but hasn't been throughly tested (may have subtle decoding bugs in some codecs), since most used components are plugins for 32-bit players. Windows libraries for extra codecs are included for 32-bit only at the moment.
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.
This guide is mainly geared towards beginner devs, introducing concepts in steps. Many things may be obvious to experienced devs, so feel free to skim or skip sections.
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 **macOS** may be installed with a package manager like *Homebrew*, but using *Clang* is probably easier.
Any versions that are not too ancient should work, since vgmstream uses standard C. GCC usually comes with *Make*, a program that can be used to build vgmstream.
### Microsoft's Visual C++ (MSVC) / Visual Studio / MSBuild (compiler)
Alt C compiler (**Windows** only), auto-generated builds for Windows use this. Bundled in:
- Visual Studio (2015/2017/2019/latest): https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
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 can include MSVC v142 (2019) toolset, 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 **macOS** and may used as a replacement of GCC without issues.
- https://releases.llvm.org/download.html
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).
You can compile faster using `make -j 5` instead of the last `make` command (replace `5` with the number of cores your CPU has plus one), but please note that, with multiple jobs, in case any issues occur the output will become useless.
The output files `vgmstream-cli.wasm` and `vgmstream-cli.js` will be located in the `embuild/cli` directory.
Or with the base makefiles (the output may need to be renamed to .js):
```sh
git clone https://github.com/vgmstream/vgmstream
cd vgmstream
make vgmstream-cli CC=emcc AR=emar strip=echo
```
Load `vgmstream-cli.js` in a web page, you will be able to call the `callMain()` function from the browser developer console. Parameters to vgmstream can be passed in an array: `callMain(["-i", "input_file.pcm"])`. Files can be accessed through Emscripten [File System API](https://emscripten.org/docs/api_reference/Filesystem-API.html) (`FS`).
Default build scripts are included in the source that can compile vgmstream, though limited in some ways.
**For MSVC**: there is a default Visual Studio `.sln` file 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:
It's also possible to call MSBuild and pass those values from the CMD, see foobar section for an example.
Once finished resulting binaries are in the *./Release* folder. Remember you need to copy extra `.dll` to run them (see [USAGE.md](USAGE.md)).
**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).
# warning: installs stuff, check all "apt install"
./make-build.sh
```
### CMake (builds)
A 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 using the existing scripts and files. Needs v3.6 or later:
On **Linux**, the CMake script can automatically download and build the source code for dependencies that it requires. It is also capable of creating a statically linked binary for distribution purposes. See `./make-build-cmake.sh` (basically install desired deps then `mkdir -p build && cd build`, `cmake ..`, `make`).
You can compile faster using `make -j 5` instead of the last `make` command (replace `5` with the number of cores your CPU has plus one), but please note that, with multiple jobs, in case any issues occur the output will become useless.
The output files are `build/cli/vgmstream-cli` (CLI decoder), `build/cli/vgmstream123` (CLI player), and `build/audacious/vgmstream.so` (Audacious plugin).
For more information and options see the full guide in the [CMAKE.md](CMAKE.md) file.
Note that doing in-source builds of CMake (`cmake .` in vgmstream's root dir) is not recommended, as that may clobber default build files (try `cmake -S . -B build` or building some `./build` subfolder).
### autotools (builds)
Autogenerated *make* scripts, used by some modules (mainly Audacious for **Linux**, and external libs).
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`
- Both must be installed/copied in a dir without spaces (with spaces autoconf seemingly works but creates buggy files)
- If you don't have Git, try compiled GNU tools for Windows (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html)
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)
```bat
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\mingw\i686-8.1.0-release-win32-sjlj-rt_v6-rev0\mingw32\bin
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Git\usr\bin
gcc.exe (...)
```
For **Linux**, GCC/make/autotools should be included already, or install with a package manager, also depends on *Make*.
```sh
sudo apt-get install gcc g++ make autoconf automake libtool
```
Typical usage involves creating Makefiles with `bootstrap` and `configure`, `make` (with the correct makefile) to compile, and `make install` to copy results. This varies slightly depending on module/lib (explained later).
```sh
./bootstrap
./configure
make -f Makefile.autotools
sudo make -f Makefile.autotools install
```
External libs using autotools can be compiled on **Windows** too:
```bat
sh.exe ./bootstrap
sh.exe ./configure
mingw32-make.exe -f Makefile.autotools
mingw32-make.exe -f Makefile.autotools install
```
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 this command so that `.dll` files 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 at the moment.
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 (not part of this project):
You may try CMake instead as it may be simpler and handle libs better. See the build steps in the [Cmake section](#cmake-builds). 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).
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.
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.
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, please [notify us](https://github.com/vgmstream/vgmstream/issues) if that happens.
Take note of other plugins stealing extensions (see [USAGE.md](USAGE.md#common-and-unknown-extensions)). 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. See the build steps in the [Cmake section](#cmake-builds). 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
They are compiled in their own sources, and the resulting binary is linked by vgmstream using a few of their symbols (see [BUILD-LIB](BUILD-LIB.md) doc).
Currently vgmstream's repository contains pre-compiled external DLL libraries for **Windows**, while other systems link to system libraries or include static copies using CMake.
Adds support for multiple codecs: ATRAC3 (`.at3`), ATRAC3plus (`.at3`), XMA1/2 (`.xma`), WMA v1 (`.wma`), WMA v2 (`.wma`), WMAPro (`.xwma`), AAC (`.mp4`, `.aac`), Bink (`.bik`), Smacker (`.smk`), AC3/SPDIF (`.ac3`), Opus (`.opus`), Musepack (`.mpc`), FLAC (`.flac`), etc. Vorbis, MPEG and PCM and a few others are also included for rare cases.
