Skip to content

Develop and extend ObjectiveFrame

ObjectiveFrame is a C++ application built upon several libraries. To build the application, required libraries have to be built. The main library used is Ivf++, an object-oriented 3D scene graph library encapsulating the OpenGL library. The second library is GLFW for creating OpenGL windows and providing a source of window events.

Prerequisites

Before building ObjectiveFrame, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed:

  1. CMake (version 3.24 or higher)
  2. Download from cmake.org

  3. Ensure cmake is in your PATH

  4. C++ Compiler with C++20 support

  5. Windows: Visual Studio 2022 or later (with C++ workload)

  6. Linux: GCC 10+ or Clang 12+ 

    # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake

# Fedora/CentOS
sudo dnf install gcc-c++ cmake

  7. Git (for cloning repositories)

  8. Download from git-scm.com

vcpkg Setup

ObjectiveFrame uses vcpkg for dependency management. The build system automatically detects vcpkg in the following locations:

  1. VCPKG_ROOT environment variable
  2. Common installation paths:
  3. Windows: c:/vcpkg or e:/vcpkg
  4. Linux: $HOME/vcpkg or /usr/local/vcpkg

Installing vcpkg

If you don't have vcpkg installed:

# Clone vcpkg
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git c:/vcpkg

# Bootstrap vcpkg
c:/vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

# Optionally set VCPKG_ROOT
$env:VCPKG_ROOT = "c:/vcpkg"

# Clone vcpkg
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git ~/vcpkg

# Bootstrap vcpkg
~/vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

# Optionally set VCPKG_ROOT
export VCPKG_ROOT=$HOME/vcpkg

Dependencies

ObjectiveFrame requires the following packages (automatically installed via vcpkg):

  • PNG
  • JPEG
  • ZLIB
  • glfw3
  • GLEW
  • OpenGL
  • CURL
  • ChaiScript (header-only)

See vcpkg.json in the root directory for the complete list of dependencies.

Building ObjectiveFrame

The build system works with both single-config and multi-config generators.

Windows (Visual Studio)

# Configure the project
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022"

# Build Release configuration
cmake --build build --config Release

# Build Debug configuration
cmake --build build --config Debug

Alternatively, open build/objframe2.sln in Visual Studio and build from there.

Linux (Makefile/Ninja)

# Configure for Release
cmake -S . -B build-release -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Build Release
cmake --build build-release

# Configure for Debug
cmake -S . -B build-debug -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

# Build Debug
cmake --build build-debug

Using Ninja (Faster builds)

On both Windows and Linux, you can use Ninja for faster builds:

# Install Ninja
# Windows: choco install ninja
# Linux: sudo apt install ninja-build

# Configure with Ninja
cmake -S . -B build-ninja -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Build
cmake --build build-ninja

Build Options

You can customize the build with these CMake options:

  • CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE: Set to Release, Debug, or RelWithDebInfo
  • CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX: Installation directory
  • BUILD_TESTING: Enable/disable tests (default: ON)

Example: 

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=./install

Running ObjectiveFrame

After building, you can run ObjectiveFrame from the installation directory:

# From Release build
.\bin\Release\objframe.exe

# From Debug build
.\bin\Debug\objframe.exe

# From Release build
./build-release/objframe

# From Debug build
./build-debug/objframe

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

  1. vcpkg not found: Ensure VCPKG_ROOT is set or vcpkg is in a standard location
  2. CMake errors: Make sure you have CMake 3.24+
  3. Compiler errors: Ensure your compiler supports C++20
  4. Missing dependencies: Run vcpkg install manually if needed

Manual vcpkg Installation

If automatic dependency installation fails:

# Install dependencies manually
vcpkg install --triplet x64-windows  # Windows
vcpkg install --triplet x64-linux    # Linux

Contributing

When contributing to ObjectiveFrame:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch
  3. Make your changes
  4. Test your build on both Windows and Linux
  5. Submit a pull request

Building Ivf++

Ivf++ is not automatically built via vcpkg. You need to build it manually. The recommended approach is to clone and build Ivf++ in a directory next to the objectiveframe project source.

Prerequisites for Ivf++

  • CMake 3.24+
  • vcpkg (same setup as ObjectiveFrame)
  • C++20 compatible compiler

Building Ivf++

# Clone Ivf++ repository next to objectiveframe
cd ..
git clone https://github.com/jonaslindemann/ivfplusplus.git

# Create build directory
cd ivfplusplus
mkdir build
cd build

# Configure and build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build . --config Release

# Install (optional, or set IVFPLUSPLUS_DIR)
cmake --install . --prefix ../install

Integration with ObjectiveFrame

Set the IVFPLUSPLUS_DIR environment variable to point to the Ivf++ installation:

$env:IVFPLUSPLUS_DIR = "..\ivfplusplus\install"

export IVFPLUSPLUS_DIR=../ivfplusplus/install

Or pass it to CMake: 

cmake -S . -B build -DIVFPLUSPLUS_DIR=../ivfplusplus/install

Building GLFW

GLFW is automatically installed via vcpkg. No manual building required.