First I should use Linux.. but I have to do it on Windows…
Has anyone manage to compile or use hcustom with Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 the free version. I have more lib that it comes with :wink: meaning for some other packages that required the commercial version of VC++ it compiles fine.
All my setting are fine but when I try to compile for example SOP_Star.C
I have the following:


C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 8.0.474\toolkit\samples\SOP>hcustom SOP_Star.C
Making ‘SOP_Star.o’ and ‘CDOCUME~1/gerome/MYDOCU~1/houdini8.0/dso\SOP_Star.dll’ from ‘SOP_Star.C’
Error running cl
Argument list:
0: cl
1: -TP
2: SOP_Star.C
3: -DUT_DSO_TAGINFO=“3262197cbf154c062cab08a87312b4df047befd58f7c87fa59d592554743ed893fde2a8e853269590c08adce2298310e5beee409f5d6ea5
e41043dea67fa97865bbe45a0ff924994a364d41247ba56b9f90198b5e5”
4: -TP
5: -DVERSION=8.0.474
6: -DOFSTREAM_PERMISSIONS=, 0666
7: -DI386
8: -DWIN32
9: -DSWAP_BITFIELDS
10: -DDLLEXPORT=__declspec(dllexport)
11: -I
12: .
13: -I
14: CProgram Files/Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003/include
15: -I
16: CProgram Files/Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003/PlatformSDK/include
17: -I
18: CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.474/custom/include
19: -I
20: CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.474/toolkit/include
21: -Ox
22: -MD
23: -GX
24: -GR
25: -DSESI_LITTLE_ENDIAN
26: -DMAKING_DSO
27: -FoSOP_Star.o
28: -LD
29: -link
30: /libpath:CProgram Files/Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003/lib
31: /libpath:CProgram Files/Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003/PlatformSDK/lib
32:
33: CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.474/custom/houdini/dsolib/*.a
34: -out:CDOCUME~1/gerome/MYDOCU~1/houdini8.0/dso/SOP_Star.dll

I think the answer you seek is here.

http://www.odforce.net/wiki/index.php/HDKFrequentlyAskedQuestions [odforce.net]

Something to do with not being able to link to dll's

It looks like the MSVCDir environment variable is set to something like “CProgram Files/Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003”. Change that value to the 8.3 format path (to get rid of the spaces). So something like “cprogra~1/micros~1”. That should fix it.

Mark

Does that mean the free version will actually work? All this time I've thought you had to have the full one, which ain't cheap.

I'm afraid I don't know that for sure. I was just addressing the problem at hand (I've seen those error messages before, and I'm pretty sure it's an MSVCDir problem). I didn't even realize the free version was any different than the real version… I expect if they were going to handicap the free version they would limit the GUI tools, not the command-line stuff (which is all you need for the HDK). Hopefully le_monkey_butt will let us know if the free version works or not. Or perhaps there is someone else out there who knows for sure?

Mark

Well, he did say that he's got “more libs than it came with”… complete with a wink…

Cheers Mark, MSVCDir has to be declared the way you said it.
Regarding the lib that dont come with the Free Toolkit most of them can be done this way http://libsh.org/win32/build.html. [libsh.org]
Now it compiles but I still have to jungle with some librairies. As soon as I have it working I will post the entire thing.
To be continued…

What about the VC++ Express edition? Can we use that to compile successfully?

What about the VC++ Express edition? Can we use that to compile successfully?

I am going to have a go today. since the VC++ 2005 Express is free.

Sometimes defeat has to be admitted. Due to the lack of patience and time I wont carry on… it really looks like that the commercial version of VC is needed.
VC++ Express has some missing headers too and a lot of headers throught errors. I did not manage to compile with it.

First all, you can't use MSVC 2005 as Houdini is currently compiled using MSVC 2003. That's what it says when you run hdkinstall. I recall trying the MSVC 2003 free edition when it came out and it wouldn't let you link to .dll's making it useless for HDK building.