In Visual C++ 2008 Express,
After installing the GDK, I was not seeing the GDK wizards appearing in the NEW PROJECT dialog...
I found a workaround for the problem, see bottom of this post for my solution.
Quote: "Are you running in administrator mode?"
Yes
Quote: "Are you using XP or Vista?"
Windows XP (sp2)
Quote: "Can you check the registry. Look for
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\The Game Creators\Dark GDK.
Do you see the key for INSTALL_PATH. Is this pointing to the
correct location?"
Yes, the INSTALL_PATH is correct
Quote: "Go to My Documents\Visual Studio 2008 e.g. -
C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008.
Do you see folders called Dark GDK and Wizards. If so what are
the contents of these folders?"
These folders were missing.
Quote: "Go to the Tools directory of your installation e.g. -
C:\Program Files\The Game Creators\Dark GDK\Tools.
Run Wizards.exe.
Does this program run? Can you now go back to My DocumentsVisual
Studio 2008. Has the contents of this folder changed? "
After running the Wizards.exe program, the folders appeared in the
C:\Documents and Settings\(my username)\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008 folder
This is where the problem occurs...
I have relocated the
"my documents" folder to another partition.
(in my case M
ocument Folder).
MY SOLUTION (work around):
After moving the folder
C:\Documents and Settings\(my username)\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008
to
M:\Document Folder (full path M:\Document Folder\Visual Studio 2008)
I opened Visual C++ Express, and BEHOLD! the wizards now show up.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you have moved or copied these files, you will need to edit each of the .vsz files in the "...\Visual Studio 2008\Wizards" folder to reflect the NEW location of the wizard files, so that Visual C++ 2008 Express will know where to find the files necessary to run the wizard (these files include the default.js file mentioned in several posts here).
To do this, open each of the three .vsz files in a text editor, such as notepad, then...
for "Dark GDK - Game.vsz" - locate the following line:
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = <drive letter>\Documents and Setting\<user name>\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - Game\Dark GDK - Game"
and change it to read
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = <path to your custom my documents folder>\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - Game\Dark GDK - Game"
(in my case -
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = M:\Documents Folder\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - Game\Dark GDK - Game")
for "Dark GDK - 2D Game.vsz" - locate the following line:
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = <drive letter>\Documents and Setting\<user name>\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - 2D Game\Dark GDK - 2D Game"
and change it to read
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = <path to your custom my documents folder>\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - 2D Game\Dark GDK - 2D Game"
(in my case -
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = M:\Documents Folder\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - 2D Game\Dark GDK - 2D Game")
and, for "Dark GDK - 3D Game.vsz" - locate the following line:
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = <drive letter>\Documents and Setting\<user name>\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - 3D Game\Dark GDK - 3D Game"
and change it to read
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = <path to your custom my documents folder>\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - 3D Game\Dark GDK - 3D Game"
(in my case -
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = M:\Documents Folder\Visual Studio 2008\Dark GDK\Dark GDK - 3D Game\Dark GDK - 3D Game")
What I think is happening:
Apparently, the Installer and Wizards.exe program install to the path:
"<drive letter>\documents and settings\<user name>\My Documents", whereas, Visual C++ 2008 Express uses the OS knowledge of the PHYSICAL location of the
"My Documents" folder (which is different, since I moved it, in my case so that "My Documents" points to the directory
"M:\Document Folder")
If you have a custom location for your "My Documents" folder (or if your "My Documents" Folder is named something else):
Until the Installer is modified to put the files in the right place
when you have a custom location for your
"My Documents" folder, the above procedure should correct the problem of the GDK Wizards not appearing in Visual C++ 2008 Express.
After performing these steps, I have been able to successfully build and run several of the samples and tutorials included with the Dark GDK.
I Hope this helps someone.
Regards,
Woozl
edit: correct typos & clarity
