Problems building code from Visual Studio

[Gildor]

After that I opened Visual Studio 2017 -> File -> Open -> Folder -> and then I chose UEViewer-master folder that I put on the Desktop. At this point I wasn't really sure what to do, so I selected a random .cpp file -> Right Click -> Build: I get error: "bash.exe": build.sh: No such file or directory

I'm using VS2019, probably VS2017 wasn't mature enough for using custom project? It is possible that your Desktop folder has spaces somewhere, and bash or VS can't handle that.

So then I decided to copy and paste the build.sh file to C:\BuildTools-master\bin and build again. This time build succeeded.

That's not a solution ...

First - what should I select for debugging I have: x86-Debug, x86-Release, x64-Debug and x-64-Release. I assume I need to choose x86-Debug?

"Release" has much less possibilities for debugging due to compiler optimizations.

Second - from the Select Startup Item dropdown I have the following options - No arguments, UI_Dev.sln, UI_Dev.vcxproj and Use cmdline.cfg. I assume the UI_ ones are for the UI testing you mentioned in the readme that shouldn't be touched. So should I use "No arguments" or "cmdline.cfg"?

"No arguments" should launch UModel's startup UI. "cmdline.cfg" will use command line parameters from Docs/cmdline.cfg file, if you'll make one.

And my biggest problem - when I launch the program I get "The code execution cannot proceed because SDL2.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix the problem.".

build.sh copies SDL2.dll next to umodel.exe. If you have this file missing, then build didn't go well.

I am not really sure how to properly build and then debug the code? For example when I open Core.h inside it the line #include "Build.h" is underlined in red saying "cannot open source file "Build .h"". But when I open the Build.h header, the error is gone. And also, I opened multiple .cpp and .h files and Visual Studio starts acting weird - it would underline a lot of code marking it for errors but then after a while the errors disappear. I am not sure what's going on?

I don't have this problem with VS2019. By the way, custom build support in VS is very buggy - even in VS2019, so I'm using it VSCode for most of development, unless I need a better debugger.

For instance ...
- When I'm using "devenv.exe <umodel-folder>" command in a shortcut, VS2019 always starts with Solution Explorer closed, I need to manually open this window. If I'm starting VS2019 with no parameters, and then select previously opened UModel's directory, Solution Explorer appears as it should. This problem didn't exist before, so this is a newly introduced "feature" (like Microsoft does with Skype, Windows etc - they're adding more and more bugs to software).
- A few days ago, I used UModel with Fortnite, with no problems. Changed a line of code - then opening of Fortnite started to crash UModel. I even updated the game, it didn't help. Using older umodel.exe didn't help. I've closed all VS2019 instances (including my WORK project, not just UModel), started again - crash disappeared.
- Sometimes "launch options" do not appear. I have 2 .sln options there, but no "cmdline" or "no arguments" options. I've restarted VS a few times, etc - after 30 minutes of "fight" I've got these options again, and I have no idea why they appeared again.
- Previously (and may be now), editing of "cpp properties json" file from VS2019 crashed the editor. It displayed an exception message, then file started to be displayed without any syntax highlighting, with no possibility to put any cursor for editing (or even copy-pasting) anything.
- And so on ...

[Gildor]

Open .vs/tasks.vs.json
Try replacing all

Code:

"args": [ "build.sh ...

with

Code:

"args": [ "./build.sh ...

I.e. adding "./" before build.sh.

[Gildor]

Well, for debug reasons - insert "pwd; ls; ./build.sh..." there.
This will print current directory name and its contents - the directory where "build.sh" is attempted to run. May be the directory is wrong, or may be build.sh is not recognized.

[Gildor]

I need to know OUTPUT

If build.sh will be in "ls" output, use "ls -l" instead, it will print attributes of all files. "x" means "executable" there - Unix has this as a separate flag. For me, all files are listed as executable on Windows and Linux (VM), but if not - bash won't run the script, I think.

Also take a look at WHICH bash.exe is executed. May be you have another one, which doesn't work?

I'm actually lost ...

[Gildor]

Damn, nice ... Bash can't recognize BUILTIN command.

Try the following then. Open command prompt, "cd" to the umodel's directory. Check that it is correct (e.g. using "dir" command, see "build.sh" etc there).

Start bash.exe

In bash, type "./build.sh" and run.

[Gildor]

Try "ls" and "pwd" commands in bash ...
(I'll separate discussion to own thread)

[Gildor]

The problem here is that when you started bash, it points to the wrong directory.
When I use CMD and "cd" to umodel's directory, then run bash - it will keep current directory. In your case, starting bash points to bash.exe directory, what's wrong.