Help compiling Atlas project on Windows

[Filip Chrzanowski]

Hi,

I'm new here and would like to contribute to the source code, but i'm having trouble compiling atlas project on Windows.
I've downloaded wxWidgets 3.0.5 and followed README instructions located in libraries/win32/wxwidgets directory.
However i'm encoutering following errors:

Severity	Code	Description	Project	File	Line	Suppression State	Details
Error	LNK1181	cannot open input file 'C:\Users\Filip\dev\0ad\binaries\system\AtlasUI.lib'	ActorEditor	C:\Users\Filip\dev\0ad\build\workspaces\vs2022\LINK	1

Severity	Code	Description	Project	File	Line	Suppression State	Details
Error	C1083	Cannot open include file: '../../../lib/ vc_lib / mswu /wx/setup.h': No such file or directory	AtlasUI	C:\Users\Filip\dev\0ad\libraries\win32\wxwidgets\include\msvc\wx\setup.h	125	

The setup.h does exist in my project at: C:\Users\Filip\dev\0ad\libraries\win32\wxwidgets\lib\vc_lib\mswu\wx
Could someone provide guidance on a working folder layout and Visual Studio configuration for AtlasUI, or step-by-step instructions to get it to compile?
I'd really appreciate any help.

Thank You!

Edited December 20, 2025 by Filip Chrzanowski

[Stan`]

Hello, 

Could you share the exact steps you followed?  (links as well)

You should be able to use a more recent version of wxwidgets on windows.

[Filip Chrzanowski]

11 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Hello, 

Could you share the exact steps you followed?  (links as well)

You should be able to use a more recent version of wxwidgets on windows.

Contents of the file:
 

Since the wxWidgets library is quite large (~250MB for the include and lib files), and is not needed unless you want to compile Atlas, it is not included in SVN and should instead be installed manually:

* Download the Windows source code from http://wxwidgets.org/downloads/ (at least version 3.0.4)
* Open build\msw\wx_vc17.sln in Visual Studio 2022 (same version as used for the game)
* Select the "Win32" platform
* Select the "Debug" configuration
* Build
* Select the "Release" configuration
* Build
* Copy lib\ and include\ into the game's libraries\win32\wxwidgets folder

then i executed update-workspaces.bat

I noticed that there are some spaces in the path: '../../../lib/ vc_lib / mswu /wx/setup.h'
In my most recent attempt i executed these commands to build the library : 

nmake -f makefile.vc BUILD=release SHARED=0 UNICODE=1

nmake -f makefile.vc BUILD=debug SHARED=0 UNICODE=1

I'm reading this forum thread https://forums.wxwidgets.org/viewtopic.php?t=47200 to find a solution. I'll try adding MONOLITHIC=0 to the commands

[Stan`]

Where did you get the source code for the main game ?  (Just making sure you're not compiling something outdated)

[Stan`]

EDIT: Deleted the other post, no need for two

[Filip Chrzanowski]

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

Where did you get the source code for the main game ?  (Just making sure you're not compiling something outdated)

From Gitea.
Ok, I managed to compile everything without errors just now. The issue was that the old version (3.0.5) was essentialy bugged for windows - created path  ('../../../lib/ vc_lib / mswu /wx/setup.h') had spaces inside. The solution was to download the latest stable version (3.2.9) and compile Win32. First i downloaded development release (3.3.1) which only has x64 (I didn't notice it wasn't stable lol) and it didn't work, so i thought i have to to use the old version. Thanks for trying to help!
Just to be clear - nowdays external contributors can fork gitea repo and make pull request? 

Edited December 20, 2025 by Filip Chrzanowski

[Filip Chrzanowski]

Sorry for that

[Stan`]

19 hours ago, Filip Chrzanowski said:

nowdays external contributors can fork gitea repo and make pull request? 

Yes that's the correct workflow

Welcome to the forums and thanks for your interest in 0 A.D.