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Setting up your Environment

This guide will walk you through setting up your development environment for Vantor Engine, including cloning the engine with all its dependencies and creating your first project.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have the following installed on your system:

  • Git - Version control system
  • CMake - Build system (version 3.16 or higher recommended)
  • Make and a C++ compiler - GCC, Clang, or MSVC with C++20 support
  • Python 3 - For build scripts and tools
note

Before you clone, make a new project folder where your project will be an change into that directoy

Cloning Vantor Engine​

Vantor Engine uses git submodules for managing dependencies. To clone the repository with all its submodules, use the --recursive flag:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/LukasRennhofer/Vantor.git
tip

If you've already cloned the repository without the --recursive flag, you can initialize and update the submodules with:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Project Structure Setup​

Once you have Vantor Engine cloned, you'll need to create your project structure. Here's how to set up a basic project:

1. Create the Source Folder​

Create a Source folder to contain your source code:

mkdir Source
mkdir Build

Your project structure should now look like this:

MyVantorProject/
├── Vantor/
├── Source/
├── Build/
└── CMakeLists.txt (we'll create this next)

3. Create CMakeLists.txt​

Create a CMakeLists.txt file in your project root with the following content:

CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)

# Include CMake build files
include(Vantor/Vantor/CMake/VantorCMake.cmake)

project(MyVantorProject) # Replace this with your project name
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)

# Add engine subdirectory
add_subdirectory(Vantor/Vantor/Source ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/VantorBuild)

# Add Source Code of project
add_executable(MyVantorProject Source/main.cpp)

# Set up Project Target for Vantor
SetUpVantorTarget(MyVantorProject)

# Include Engine API Includes
target_include_directories(MyVantorProject PRIVATE Vantor//Vantor/Include)

# Link with Vantor
target_link_libraries(MyVantorProject PRIVATE Vantor)
note

Make sure to ajdust the path of the Engine, according to your own environment.

4. Create main.cpp​

Create your main application file in the Source folder

touch Source/main.cpp

Development Workflow​

Here's a typical development workflow when working with Vantor Engine:

  1. Make changes to your source code in the Source folder
  2. Build your project using cmake from the build directory
  3. Test your changes by running the executable
  4. Debug using your preferred debugger or IDE

IDE Setup​

Visual Studio Code​

For VS Code users, create a .vscode/settings.json file:

.vscode/settings.json
{
    "cmake.buildDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}/Build",
    "cmake.sourceDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}",
    "files.associations": {
        "*.h": "cpp",
        "*.cpp": "cpp"
    }
}

CLion​

CLion should automatically detect your CMakeLists.txt file and configure the project.

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

Submodule not found errors:

  • Make sure you cloned with --recursive or ran git submodule update --init --recursive

Build errors:

  • Check that you have a C++20 compatible compiler
  • Verify all dependencies are properly installed

Runtime errors:

  • Check that assets are copied to the correct output directory