Compiling on Windows using MSVC

Requirements

Visual Studio 2015 or newer including "Desktop development with C++"
CMake
vcpkg (included with Visual Studio)
Git

Visual Studio with C++

Install Visual Studio (VS) from visualstudio.microsoft.com
In the VS installer, select "Desktop development with C++":
Confirm the installation.

This will install the C++ compiler used in later steps. VS is also the recommended IDE for Luanti.

You may notice that the C++ tools include CMake, but is should also be installed separately for compatibility with Luanti.

CMake

Install from cmake.org/download. Once installed, you should be able to run cmake-gui from the start menu:

Installing the dependencies

Start up the CMake GUI (Win > search "cmake-gui" > open)
Select Browse Source... and select path/to/minetest (where you've cloned the repo)
Select Browse Build... and select path/to/minetest/build (a new folder that CMake will prompt to create)
Select Configure
Choose the right Visual Studio version and target platform. Currently, Luanti uses Visual Studio 16 2019, but newer VS versions should work as well. The VS version has to match the version of the installed dependencies.
Choose Specify toolchain file for cross-compiling
Click Next
Select the vcpkg toolchain file e.g. C:/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
Click Finish
Wait until CMake generates the cache file (this may take about 10-30 minutes, depending on your device)
If there are any errors, solve them and hit Configure
Click Generate
Click Open Project

Compile Luanti

There are two ways to compile Luanti: via Visual Studio or via CLI.

Compile in Visual Studio

Compile Luanti inside Visual Studio.
- If you get "Unable to start program '...\x64\Debug\ALL_BUILD'. Access is denied", try compiling via the CLI instead.

Compile via CLI

While in the path/to/minetest folder, run the following script in PowerShell:

$vs="Visual Studio 17 2022" # or "Visual Studio 16 2019", etc., whatever matches your system
$toolchain_file="C:/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" # ensure this path is correct
cmake . -G $vs -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$toolchain_file -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_CURSES=OFF
cmake --build . --config Release

Windows Installer using WiX Toolset

Requirements:

In the Visual Studio 2017 Installer select Optional Features -> WiX Toolset.

Build the binaries as described above, but make sure you unselect RUN_IN_PLACE.

Open the generated project file with Visual Studio. Right-click Package and choose Generate. It may take some minutes to generate the installer.

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