Meowstro - SDL2 Game Project

Overview

Meowstro is a C++ game project using SDL2 and related libraries. The project uses CMake for building with platform-specific dependency management to optimize setup and development across different systems.

Prerequisites

• C++17 compiler (Visual Studio 2022, GCC, Clang)
• CMake (version 3.10 or higher)
• Platform-specific dependencies (see below and in DEPENDENCIES.md)

Platform-Specific Setup

All of my group uses Windows so that's the recommended OS but I will try to make Linux and MacOS work. I made it so those OS get tested in the GitHub Actions too so hopefully everything works with that.

Windows Setup

Install vcpkg and integrate it:

git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
.\vcpkg integrate install

Copy build.default.bat to build.bat (Command Prompt) or build.default.ps1 to build.ps1 (PowerShell), update the vcpkg path, then:

.\build.bat

or

.\build.ps1

Both scripts will:

• Configure the project using the Visual Studio generator (-G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64)
• Use the vcpkg toolchain file
• Build the Debug configuration

The output directory is always build/bin/Debug or build/bin/Release depending on the build type, on all platforms.

Ubuntu Linux

Install SDL2 and development tools from the system package manager:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
    build-essential \
    cmake \
    pkg-config \
    libsdl2-dev \
    libsdl2-image-dev \
    libsdl2-mixer-dev \
    libsdl2-ttf-dev
    
# Note: Requires SDL2 2.30.0+, SDL2_image 2.8.2+, SDL2_mixer 2.8.0+, SDL2_ttf 2.22.0+

Then build directly:

cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON
cmake --build build

macOS

Homebrew:

brew install sdl2 sdl2_image sdl2_mixer sdl2_ttf
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON
cmake --build build

Build Scripts

For convenience, platform-specific build scripts are provided:

• Windows: build.bat or build.ps1 (copy from build.default.bat and build.default.ps1)
• Linux/macOS: build.sh (copy from build.default.sh)

Personal build scripts contain system-specific paths and are ignored in .gitignore.

Running the Game

After building, run the executable:

• Debug build (default): ./build/bin/Debug/meowstro (add .exe on Windows)
• Release build: ./build/bin/Release/meowstro (add .exe on Windows)

The output directory is always build/bin/Debug or build/bin/Release depending on the build type, on all platforms.

Known Issues

Audio Synchronization: There are known synchronization issues between the audio, game logic, and rendering that can cause the game to feel slow or off. Due to time constraints and other priorities, this issue remains unresolved. I (Hugo) will get back to it as soon as I feel like I have time to do so. This project will be worked on in the future with the goal of making the game good enough.

Additional Tools Used in GitHub Actions

• cppcheck
• clang-tidy

Adding Files

Update CMakeLists.txt when adding new source files:

set(SOURCES
    src/existing_file.cpp
    src/new_file.cpp  # Add here
    # ...
)

set(HEADERS
    include/existing_file.hpp
    include/new_file.hpp  # Add here
    # ...
)

Directory Structure

/project-root
│-- .github/               # GitHub-specific files (workflows, templates)
│   │-- workflows/         # GitHub Actions workflows
│   │   │-- build.yml      # Workflow for building the project
│   │-- PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md # Pull request guidelines
|-- aseperite-imgs         # Aseperite files to modify image assets
│-- assets/                # Game assets (textures, sounds, etc.)
│   │-- audio/             # Audio files
│   │-- fonts/             # Font files
│   │-- images/            # Image files
│-- build/                 # CMake build files (includes build/bin/Debug and build/bin/Release)
|-- cmake/                 # copy_if_exists.cmake location
│-- docs/                  # Project documentation
│   │-- design_notes.md
│   │-- how_to_play.md
│-- include/               # Header files
│-- src/                   # Source files
|-- tests/                 # Test files
│-- .gitattributes         # Git attributes file
│-- .gitignore             # Git ignore file
│-- build.default.bat      # Windows batch default build script
│-- build.default.ps1      # Windows PowerShell default build script
│-- build.default.sh       # macOS/Linux default build script
│-- CMakeLists.txt         # Main CMake build script
|-- DEPENDENCIES.md        # List of dependencies/versions used
│-- LICENSE                # Project LICENSE
│-- README.md              # Project README
|-- vcpkg.json             # JSON file w/ dependencies & versions used in vcpkg install