Install the tools

Labrador builds on Windows, with the Microsoft C++ compiler. Everything it needs comes with two installs.

1. Install Visual Studio 2022 or newer, with the Desktop development with C++ workload. The free Community edition is enough.

   That workload brings the compiler, CMake, Ninja, vcpkg and the Windows SDK. In the installer, check that C++ CMake tools for Windows and vcpkg package manager are ticked under the workload; current versions tick both by default.

2. Install Git for Windows, if you do not have it.

3. Open the x64 Native Tools Command Prompt. Type “x64 Native Tools” into the Start menu; it is installed with Visual Studio. Every command in this guide runs in it.

   It has to be the x64 prompt. It puts the 64-bit compiler, CMake, Ninja and the shader compiler on your PATH and points VCPKG_ROOT at the copy of vcpkg that Visual Studio installed. The plain Developer Command Prompt sets up 32-bit tools, and an ordinary command prompt sets up none.

4. Check it. Each of these should print a version or a path rather than an error:

   cmake --version
   ninja --version
   where cl fxc git
   echo %VCPKG_ROOT%

   If echo %VCPKG_ROOT% prints %VCPKG_ROOT% back, your version of Visual Studio did not set it. Set it to the VC\vcpkg folder inside your Visual Studio installation, for example:

   set VCPKG_ROOT=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\vcpkg

Choose a short folder

Make a folder for your projects close to the root of a drive, such as C:\dev, and use it in the steps that follow.

The longest path inside the Labrador repository is 148 characters, and Windows limits a whole path to 260 unless long paths are enabled. A clone into a deeply nested folder fails with Filename too long. If you would rather keep your usual folder, tell Git to use long paths first:

git config --global core.longpaths true

Only for the Vulkan renderer

Labrador builds its Direct3D 11 renderer by default, and nothing else on this page is needed for it. To build the Vulkan renderer as well, install the Vulkan SDK and make sure VULKAN_SDK is set. It is the one dependency that does not come with Visual Studio or Windows.