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Dark GDK / how do I get Visual Studio to use the correct version of DX9 SDK?

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 14th Sep 2009 18:01 Edited at: 14th Sep 2009 18:38
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I've had the November 2007 version of the SDK installed on my system for some time with no obvious problems. However, I'm now trying to use DarkGDK and I keep getting a linker error:



I've been told that I need the August 2007 SDK which I have now installed (after two and half hours of download!!) - but I keep getting the same error. I'm sure there's a simple solution but I'm a real novice when it comes to Visual Studio and am stuck.

Edit I found four threads discussing this problem but just don't understand the advice given. For example, this is what Mike Johnson says:

Quote: "Some changes have been made in the DirectX SDK November 2007 release which meant the multiplayer functionality in the GDK is affected. For now this means you will have to install the August 2007 SDK. You can still have both installed. Just make sure that the paths are set up correctly in your compiler so the August SDK has priority."


How exactly do you set up the paths correctly? What paths? Where do I find them? What should they read? Etc, etc?

All I am trying to do is to get some simple demos to run - I haven't even started programming yet.

Edit2 OK. Worked out how to add a new library search path - I had simply failed to notice that one option was a Drop-down list. Sad, but true.

Now have a new problem. Every demo I've tried builds and runs - but all I get is a blue screen (and some relevant text if I'm lucky). I'm using things like the Spheremapping sample that comes with Dark GDK.
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jezza
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Posted: 14th Sep 2009 18:39
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The paths can be found from Tools->Options Then from the left pane Project and Solutions->VC++ Directories
You will need to add the library and include directories for the August SDK before the DirectX ones already there, and possibly remove the ones there already.
You could also just make a dummy dplayx.lib and use your current SDK.


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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 14th Sep 2009 18:50
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Thanks - but you obviously didn't see my second edit.
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dark coder
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Posted: 14th Sep 2009 19:02
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Quote: "Now have a new problem. Every demo I've tried builds and runs - but all I get is a blue screen (and some relevant text if I'm lucky). I'm using things like the Spheremapping sample that comes with Dark GDK."


Make sure you run it from the editor, that way the CWD is correctly set. Looking at the spheremapping demo it uses the path "$(TargetDir)\..\..\..\bin\", so if you want to be able to run the exe from explorer you'd need to copy it there and run it. If you run it from /Release then it will attempt to load media from /Media which isn't in there.

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 14th Sep 2009 19:19 Edited at: 14th Sep 2009 19:47
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I'm running it from the Visual Studio editor.

When I run it from /Release I just get a blue window just as I do when I run it from the VS editor.

When I run it from the Samples/Bin folder I still get a blue window plus the strapline at the bottom. Edit The sound works too. For some reason the newly compiled exe file isn't showing 3D.

When I run the original executable (in the Samples/Bin folder) that came with the GDK it runs fine.

So something else is the problem. Could the November 2007 SDK be causing problems even though I've placed the August 2007 SDK higher up the list of included libraries?

Both the August and November 2007 SDK samples run fine - it seems to be just a GDK problem for some reason.
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dark coder
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Posted: 14th Sep 2009 19:53
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Interesting, which version of GDK are you using? I just compiled it using 7.4 as posted in the sticky on this board and it works fine from both VS and Samples/Bin.

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 14th Sep 2009 20:01 Edited at: 14th Sep 2009 20:52
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I hope I'm using u7.4 - but since this is the first time I've used the GDK I'm probably (certainly?) doing something wrong.

All I did was copy the new VS folders over the old ones. Perhaps I did something wrong there? The projects seem to compile fine.

Edit Oops - just checked. I don't think I copied everything I was supposed to. Will try again and report back.

Edit2 Copied the extra stuff but still get the same problem. It seems quite likely that I've fouled up the GDK installation somehow. I'll try re-installing and then testing the demos BEFORE upgrading to u7.4.

Thanks for your help. We'll get this sorted out somehow I'm sure.

Edit3 OK. Uninstalled and reinstalled GDK. Now the demos still won't run correctly from the editor or from the Release folder - but they do show a rotating white cube.

However, they all run correctly if I move the executables to the Samples/Bin folder. This is progress of a sort I suppose but I haven't yet tried upgrading.

Why would I get just a spinning white cube?

Edit4 I've just upgraded more carefully to u7.4 and I've got the same problem as before - blank blue window when run from the editor or from /Release, blank blue window plus strapline when run from Samples/Bin.

Even more baffled now.

Dark Coder Why do your executables work from either location when the code seems to point to a relative media directory? Should something else be set in the VS editor?
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Mista Wilson
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 00:04
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@Green gandalf - There is a couple of updates that you need to apply to 7.4 for it to render.... initially the release had link errors, which were solved, but broke the 3D renderer, mike then fixed that for us, about halfway down the 7.4 sticky you can find the patch, it has only 2 lib files in it, basic3d and one other.

Your problem sounds to me like you have missed the extra 3D-renderer repair update..

If it ain't broke.... DONT FIX IT !!!
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Todd Riggins
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 00:14
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Yeah definetly get that update Mista Wilson suggested

Quote: "- but they do show a rotating white cube."


Sounds like your trying to select one project out of the solution explorer and trying to run it where you still get the spinning cube? If thats what you are doing, when selecting a single project to run from inside the editor like that, right click the project name in the solution explorer, select "Set as Startup Project" and then run it. Hope that helps...

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 15th Sep 2009 01:09
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Quote: "Your problem sounds to me like you have missed the extra 3D-renderer repair update.."


Quite possible - but I thought I had checked the dates and convinced myself that the version in the first post was the latest. Why didn't Mike change that instead of posting half way down the thread? [Of course I'm often guilty of the same thing myself. ]

Quote: "Sounds like your trying to select one project out of the solution explorer and trying to run it where you still get the spinning cube? If thats what you are doing, when selecting a single project to run from inside the editor like that, right click the project name in the solution explorer, select "Set as Startup Project" and then run it. Hope that helps..."


Yes that helped enormously, thank you. I was wondering whether something like that might be the problem - I'm new to all this VS stuff.

Thanks everyone. Problems all solved. All I need now is some practice at this C++ stuff. For me, coding is usually the easy bit - IDEs always seem to confuse me.
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