From Windows 10 to OTS development machine for dummies

I made this tutorial on clean machine just after installing Windows 10 Pro (64bit) on 2020-02-16.
Installing everything took around 1 hour.
In this tutorial we will use Visual Studio 2019, not 2017 recommended for TFS compilation. It will work!

What do you need before start?

Windows 10
Web Browser (tutorial created with Google Chrome)

What will you have after completing this tutorial?

GIT client integrated with Windows 10
‘linux console’ integrated with Windows 10
Visual Studio 2019 Community with C++ dev tools – IDE that let you compile TFS/OTClient easily (generate ‘.exe’ file)
vcpkg – C++ Library Manager for Windows, it will let you compile TFS/OTClient without searching for C++ libraries for hours
IDEA Community Edition with EmmyLUA plugin – free version of IDE that let you manage ‘data’ folder easily (XML and LUA files)
MariaDB database, PHP 7.4 and Apache2 server – website for your OTS
The Forgotten Server 1.2+ running on your PC
Gesior2012 for TFS 1.2+ running on your PC

1. Install GIT for Windows with environment integration

Download it from site (version 64-bit Setup): https://git-scm.com/download/win
‘Setup’ version will integrate Git with Windows explorer.

Unselect GUI option. It’s useless. You will have better Git GUI in IDEA.

Change line ending to ‘as is’. On GitHub most of code uses Unix-style endings.

2. Install Visual Studio 2019 Community with C++

Download it from site: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/

Select “Community” version. It will start download. After download run installer.

Select packet “Programming classic applications in C++”.

Select packet “English language”. It’s required to install TFS compilation libraries.

After installation run Visual Studio for first time to make it configure itself.
You don’t need Microsoft Account to use it. Click ‘Not now, maybe later’.

3. Install vcpkg – C++ library manager for Windows

Open Git Bash (‘linux console’) in folder ‘C:\’

Type in console: git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git

git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git

cd vcpkg

Open website: https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg and find newest tagged version

Link: https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg
Newest tagged version should be stable. I tried master branch and it did not work with all libraries. You can always use old version, not newest. I used for this tutorial: 2020.01

git checkout 2020.01

It will switch version of vcpkg to version from 2020.01

./bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

To build vcpkg. You must do it after downloading from GitHub and after every version change.

Run **Windows PowerShell** as Administrator (another black console..)

Change path in console to **vcpkg** path
Type: cd C:\vcpkg

cd C:\vcpkg

In console type: .\vcpkg integrate install

.\vcpkg integrate install

This will integrate vcpkg C++ library manager with Visual Studio we installed before.
After integrating with Visual Studio close PowerShell. We don’t need administrator rights anymore.

If you closed **Git Bash** console we opened at start, open it again in **vcpkg** folder.

Copy current libraries list from official TFS wiki (for 64-bit): https://github.com/otland/forgottenserver/wiki/Compiling-on-Windows-%28vcpkg%29

Libraries list at 2020-02-17:

vcpkg install boost-iostreams:x64-windows boost-asio:x64-windows boost-system:x64-windows boost-filesystem:x64-windows boost-variant:x64-windows boost-lockfree:x64-windows luajit:x64-windows libmariadb:x64-windows pugixml:x64-windows mpir:x64-windows cryptopp:x64-windows

./ means ‘run’

We got all libraries for TFS!

4. Download TFS and compile engine

Create folder:

C:\ots

Download newest TFS. Type: **git clone https://github.com/otland/forgottenserver.git**

git clone https://github.com/otland/forgottenserver.git

C:\ots\forgottenserver\vc14\theforgottenserver.sln

It will open TFS project in Visual Studio.

Click ‘OK’ when VS ask you about changing target platform.

Change build type to **Release** and build target platform to **x64**.
Previously we installed C++ libraries for 64-bit platform – we can compile only 64-bit version.

If you plan to do many changes in sources and compile in often, you may try to use Debug build type.
It should link faster and reduce time of building solution.

Start compilation of TFS. It can take few minutes.

Open folder: **C:\ots\forgottenserver\vc14\x64\Release**

C:\ots\forgottenserver\vc14\x64\Release

Copy all .dll files and .exe file to folder: **C:\ots\forgottenserver\**

C:\ots\forgottenserver\

TFS is ready. Now we need to install database server and import TFS database schema.

5. Install MariaDB, PHP and Apache2 servers

Link: https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html

During installation deselect components we won’t use for OTS development.

Start **Apache**, **MySQL** and open phpMyAdmin site (database administration site).

If Apache fails to start, it’s probably because some other application is already using port 80.
Common problem is Skype. Turn off Skype, start Apache, start again Skype – you got website and Skype working.

In **phpMyAdmin** open page with new user account configuration.

Type username **forgottenserver**
Type secure password for that user
**Check** ‘Create database with same name and grant all access.’

New database will appear in left panel. Click it and go to Import page.

Choose file: **C:\ots\forgottenserver\schema.sql**

C:\ots\forgottenserver\schema.sql

and click Import.
We got database for our OTS! Time to configure game server.

Open folder **C:\ots\forgottenserver** and copy file **config.lua.dist** to **config.lua**

6. Install IntelliJ IDEA, configure game server and run it for first time!

What is IntelliJ IDEA? It’s IDE for Java and Android development.
What is IDE? It’s ‘Integrated Development Environment’.
Why do I need it? To develop code faster, automatically detect simple bugs and make cleaner code.

Choose folder: **C:\ots\forgottenserver**

C:\ots\forgottenserver

Go to **Plugins** and install **EmmyLua**

Configure your password to database user **forgottenserver** in file **config.lua**

7. Install website (Gesior2012)

 C:\xampp\htdocs

Remove all files from **C:\xampp\htdocs**

Open **Git Bash** in folder C:\xampp\htdocs

Type: **git clone https://github.com/gesior/Gesior2012.git .**

git clone https://github.com/gesior/Gesior2012.git .

Yes. There is space and dot at end. We want to download Gesior2012 to current folder. Not to folder C:\xampp\htdocs\Gesior2012

git checkout TFS-1.2

Change Gesior2012 version to TFS-1.2 (exactly change git branch to TFS-1.2)
Same as we did during vcpkg installation. Download from GitHub with git clone and then change version.

From now you will edit every directory in IntelliJ IDEA 🙂

PHP files are not colored in IntelliJ IDEA Community edition 🙁
LUA plugin is free, but PHP is available only in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate (paid / 30 days trial) or as separate application PHPStorm (it’s IntelliJ IDEA with PHP plugin).

Open website http://127.0.0.1 and click link to installation.

Refresh site. Error about IP should disappear.
There will be probably some errors about **cache** folder.

We got to set **cache** folder **not read-only**.

When it asks about ‘To all files and sub-directories’ click Yes.

Click link to Step 1 in left side menu.
Type path to TFS: **C:\ots\forgottenserver**

C:\ots\forgottenserver

Continue steps 2-5.

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