Installing development environment (IDE)
Writing plugins with plugin-sdk implies the use of Microsoft Visual Studio or Code::Blocks. A detailed list of supported development environments can be found below.
| IDE | Creating a new project | Multi-target project | Compiler |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio 2022 | Project Wizard | Yes | msbuild |
| Visual Studio 2019 | Project Wizard | Yes | msbuild |
| Visual Studio 2017 | Project Wizard | Yes | msbuild |
| Visual Studio 2015 | Project Wizard | Yes | msbuild |
| Code::Blocks | Project Wizard | Yes | mingw-w64 |
When installing Visual Studio, make sure that you have selected these components:
- Common tools for VC++
- Windows SDK
In case if you want to develop plugins with Windows XP support, you also need these components:
- Windows XP Support for C++
! The names of these components may differ slightly in different versions of Visual Studio.
Visual Studio 2022 is distributed in three main versions - Community, Professional and Enterprise.
You can download Visual Studio 2022 at the page https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
The Community version is available for free, Professional and Enterprise versions are available for trial period.
In the installer window, select the "Develop classic applications in C++" component, and on the right, in the "Summary" section, select these components:
For more detailed settings, go to the "Individual components" tab. Here you can enable the Git and GitHub extensions for Visual Studio.
In the "Language Packages" tab, select the languages you want.
When you start Visual Studio for the first time, you need to select a color theme, as well as the parameters of the development environment ("Visual C++").
Download the latest Code::Blocks version at the official Code::Blocks website (Download the regular version there, usually called as codeblocks-***-setup.exe, where *** is a Code::Blocks version).
Once you launched Code::Blocks installer, click Next on Welcome screen, and accept License Agreement. Select Full installation type on Choose components screen:
Then, select destination folder and click Install. Run Code::Blocks after installation. Skip Compilers auto-detection window if it was shown.
Now, you need to install mingw-w64 tools. For details, see Installing mingw-64.
After mingw-w64 is installed, open Code::Blocks and go to Settings > Compiler... and open Toolchain executables tab.
Select Compiler's installation directory (a directory where mingw-w64 was installed) and then setup all other parameters as shown on a screen below:
Save your changes by pressing OK button.
Try to avoid paths with space characters in Code::Blocks. This applies to project folder path, along with paths to plugin-sdk folder, paths to CLEO SDK and DirectX SDK folders and paths to GTA folders.