lr-irogb/docs/setup-windows.md

Windows Setup

This repo has two common Windows build paths:

• gbc_full: the main SDL3 + ImGui desktop app
• gbc_wasm: the raylib + Emscripten web build

git must be available during the first CMake configure because several dependencies are downloaded with FetchContent.

Do not edit CMakeLists.txt to enable frontends. Use CMake options such as -DBUILD_FULL=ON and -DBUILD_SIMPLE=ON.

Desktop build (gbc_full)

1. Install MSYS2.
2. Open the MSYS2 CLANG64 terminal and fully update it:

pacman -Syu
pacman -Syu

If the first update asks you to restart the shell, close it, reopen MSYS2 CLANG64, and run the second command.

3. Install the required tools and packages:

pacman -S --needed git mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-clang mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-ninja mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-sdl3 mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-curl mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-nlohmann-json

4. From the repository root, configure the build:

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_FULL=ON -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:/msys64/clang64

5. Build the executable:

cmake --build build --target gbc_full

Notes:

• You may need to add C:\msys64\clang64\bin to PATH so the SDL3 and libcurl DLLs can be found.

Web build (gbc_wasm)

1. Install the latest emsdk.
2. In a fresh terminal, run:

emsdk install latest
emsdk activate latest
emsdk_env.bat

3. Make sure cmake, ninja, and git are on PATH.
4. From the repository root, configure the build:

emcmake cmake -S . -B build-emscripten -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_SIMPLE=ON

5. Build the web target:

cmake --build build-emscripten --target gbc_wasm

The web output is written to build-emscripten/ and you can use any HTTP server to host it.

If you want the native raylib desktop frontend instead of the web build, configure with -DBUILD_SIMPLE=ON on a normal desktop toolchain and build gbc_simple.