Tutorial: Compiling the Engine, Editor, and Game This tutorial walks you through the steps to build the lumberyard engine, editor, plugins and tools,

including how to build a game project. At the end of the tutorial you will have game project that runs in

the editor and standalone.

You will learn how to do the following:

• Configure your project

• Build with lmbr_waf from the command line

• Build and run the editor with Visual Studio

• Run the standalone game

Prerequisites This tutorial assumes you have installed Lumberyard and set up your development environment and

that you are familiar with programming concepts in general.

You must have the following before starting this tutorial:

• Windows 7 or higher (64bit)

• Processor – Intel Quad-Core (I 2300), AMD Octo-Core (FX810), or better

• Memory – 8 GM RAM or higher

• Graphics card – NVIDIA GeForce 660Ti, Radeon HD790, or better

• Disk space – 8 GB minimum

For Visual Studio 2013

• Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013

• Visual Studio 2013 [Community/Pro/Ultimate] with update 4

For Visual Studio 2015

• Visual Studio 2015 [Community/Pro/Ultimate] With update 3

• Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2015

• The optional MFC add on for Visual Studio 2015.

Note:(In Visual Studio 2015 if you don't install the MFC stuff your build will fail).

Installing the MFC add on for Visual Studio 2015

**Use this step only if you are compiling with VS2015***

1. Build SetupAssistant.exe by running the following batch file: ..\dev\Code\Tools\AZInstaller\build.bat

2. Open dev\SetupAssistantUserPreferences.ini in a text editor and modify the Downloader location based on where you installed Lumberyard.

3. Run dev\Tools\LmbrSetup\Win\SetupAssistant.exe A. On the Get started page select all run and compile options except android/mobile and linux. Also, select

your the version of Visual Studio you have then press Next. B. On the Required software page install all the required software you are missing then press Next C. On the Install required SDKs page press "Install all" to get all the 3rdParty libraries you need.

4. Open CMD prompt (Admin Prompt required to enable Incredibuild) at project root ..\dev Run the following command: lmbr_waf.bat configure.

5. Return to the CMD Prompt, if you closed it, reopen it at the project root. 6. Run the following commands:

A. Versions 1.3 to 1.6

1. lmbr_waf.bat build_win_x64_profile -p all

B. Versions 1.7 and newer

1. If using Visual Studio 2013: lmbr_waf.bat build_win_x64_vs2013_profile -p all 2. If using Visual Studio 2015: lmbr_waf.bat build_win_x64_vs2015_profile -p all

7. If all goes well, you should be ready to go when the build is complete!

Step 1: Configure Your Project The first step in the tutorial is to configure your project using lmbr_waf (pronounced “Lumber Waf”).

The configure command will ensure that all the paths to the required 3rd party libraries exist and will

also generate a Visual Studio solution.

To configure your project

1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the dev folder inside the Lumberyard SDK root folder.

For example, if you installed Lumberyard in C:\LumberyardSDK, navigate to C:\LumberyardSDK\dev

2. Type the following at the command prompt and press ENTER.

lmbr_waf configure

The configure command instructs the Waf build system to do some essential tasks like running

SetupAssistant in batch mode to ensure the correct 3rdParty libraries are accessible from

dev/Code/SDKs. It also generates the LumberyardSDK.sln Visual Studio solution in the

dev/Solutions folder.

3. After the command completes, check the output for any errors and address those before

continuing. Errors in the configure command output are usually from missing 3rd party libraries.

Run SetupAssistant again if you see any of these errors and install those missing libraries.

After the configure command completes successfully you have the correct 3rd party libraries and a

Visual Studio solution.

Step 2: Building with lmbr_waf After you configure the Lumberyard SDK, you’re ready to build. The first method of building is the

simplest and is also suitable for automated building. It uses the same lmbr_waf tool that configured the

Lumberyard SDK in step 1.

To build with lmbr_waf

1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the dev folder inside the Lumberyard root folder.

For example, if you installed Lumberyard in C:\LumberyardSDK, navigate to

C:\LumberayrdSDK\dev

2. Type the following at the command prompt and press ENTER.

a. lmbr_waf build_win_x64_vs2015_profile -p all --progress

(if you have Visual Studio 2013 installed)

b. lmbr_waf build_win_x64_vs2013_profile -p all –progress

The parameters passed to lmbr_waf tell it to build the Windows x64 profile specification. The

“all” parameter instructs lmbr_waf to build everything (engine, editor, game etc.) and the

“progress” parameter adds a nice little visual indicator that shows the percent complete.

3. Go make some coffee. Seriously, this could take a while.

4. When the build process completes, check the output for errors and address those before

continuing. Again, errors typically arise from missing or incorrect 3rd party libraries.

You have now built the engine, editor, plugins, tools and sample game project. If you navigate to the

dev/bin64 folder you will see all the binaries have been updated.

Step 3: Build with Visual Studio If you intend to actively work on the code for a project or debug a project you’ll want to build and run

using Visual Studio. This step in the tutorial will show you how to build and run your project with Visual

Studio.

To build with Visual Studio

1. Navigate to the dev/Solutions folder and open LumberyardSDK.sln in Visual Studio.

After the solution opens take a look at the Solution Explorer panel. The various projects are

organized into the following folders:

FOLDER DESCRIPTION

AZ Framework Amazon Framework projects which provide common core utility,

tools, API and application base classes.

Common Common engine interfaces used by games, the editor, plugins and the

resource compiler.

CryEngine Core engine projects including the renderer, audio, physics, scripting

and other related projects.

EngineModules Engine modules like the LySystemModule used by the LyShine User

Interface system.

Game All game projects live here, including the GameCore framework and

CryAction.

Gems All enabled Gems with code will appear here.

Network Network related modules like GridMate and

GridMateGameLift appear here, if networking is enabled.

Pipeline Various DCC pipeline projects including the Maya exporter.

RC The Resource Compiler project and related projects.

Sandbox All editor and editor plugin related projects live here.

Tools The GemRegistry, PRT, Shader Cache Generator and other similiar

tools.

2. Select the “[All] Profile” build configuration for x64

3. Set the Editor project as the startup project because this is the project we actually want to run

after the build process completes. To do this, expand the Sandbox folder in the Solution

Explorer, right click the Editor project and select “Set as Startup Project”.

4. Press BUILD > Build Solution (CTRL + SHIFT + B for you wizards) and go make some coffee.

After the build is complete you are ready to run the editor from Visual Studio.

Step 5: Run Your Game in the Editor This step in the tutorial will show you how to run your game in the editor. The dev/bootstrap.cfg

configuration file contains a setting named sys_game_folder that tells the engine which folder is the

active game folder. If you created a new game project with the Project Configurator, a new folder was

created with the same name as your project and the system.cfg was modified to point to that new

folder. When you run the editor from Visual Studio, the Editor will use the bootstrap.cfg file to

determine which game folder to use for all your game-related content.

To Run Your Game in the Editor

1. In Visual Studio, press the “Local Windows Debugger” button (F5) to run the editor.

2. The editor will launch and prompt you to sign in with your Amazon.com account. If you haven’t

already created an Amazon.com account, now would be a good time to do so.

3. After you sign in, the editor will display an initial dialog with options to open a level or create a

new level.

4. Press “New Level” and the New Level window will appear.

5. Enter something creative for your level name like “HelloLevel” and press “OK”.

6. Because we left the option to use terrain enabled, the Generate Terrain Texture window will

appear. Press “OK” to use the default settings.

7. After the terrain texture is finished generating you will see the main viewport fill with blue sky,

infinite water and flat terrain. Congrats, you just made the most boring level ever.

8. Open the Database View by clicking the Database View button in the Tool Bar.

9. Click the Prefabs Library tab and then press the Open button to open a new Prefab library.

10. Select the character_controllers.xml library and press OK.

11. Click the Sphere_Controller Prefab and drag it into the main viewport to create an instance of it

in the scene.

That’s the only object we need in the scene to move around. If you want to improve the lighting

you could also add an environment probe and adjust the time of day, but we won’t cover that in

this tutorial.

12. Press CTRL+G to enter game mode or use the Game > Run Game menu option.

13. You’re now running your game in the editor. After your senses recover, press ESC to leave game

mode and return to regular editor mode.

You may be tempted to ship your game with the editor and have everyone run your game in the editor,

but that would be a BAD IDEA. (don’t do it)

Step 6: Run the game outside the editor This step in the tutorial will show you how to run the standalone version of your game.

To run the game outside the editor

1. Before running the game outside the editor you must export the level so it is optimized. Select

File > Export to Engine (or CTRL + E if can’t reach your mouse)

This will prepare the level to be run by the standalone version of your game.

2. Navigate to dev/Bin64 and run SamplesProjectLauncher.exe.

An empty black window will appear. Don’t panic. The window is black because your game doesn’t have

a level loaded.

To load a level

1. Click in your empty game window to give it focus (if your mouse is hidden, it already has focus)

2. Press the TILDE key (`) to show the console.

3. Type ‘map HelloLevel’ in the console and press ENTER to load the map.

4. Press the TILDE key (`) again to hide the console.

Drive around your map with the A, W, S and D keys. Revel in its’ Spartan environment. Count the

squares in the terrain texture. Stare at the sun.

To quit the game

1. Press the TILDE key (`) to show the console

2. Type “quit” in the console and press the ENTER key.

Related tasks and tutorials Now that you have achieved Lumberyard developer Nirvana, here are a few related tutorials and links to

relevant documentation:

• Tutorial: Creating a gem with code

• Tutorial: Creating a new project

Want to learn more about Lumberyard? Visit the complete Lumberyard Tutorials Page.

We would love to hear from you! Head to our Tutorial Discussion forum to share any feedback you have,

including what you do or don’t like about our tutorials or new content you would like to see shortly.