Metamod:Source Environment

This article explains how to set up your Windows or Linux environment to compile Metamod:Source's 1.6's sample plugins.

This article does not guarantee that you will be able third-party plugins, which may have their own build environment requirements. However, it creates a baseline for making sure you can successfully build plugins against both the 1.6 and 1.4 API.

Note: You can use Valve's HL2SDK source tree, but we have our own available. It fixes all of Valve's mistakes such that you can build on both GCC and Visual Studio with no warnings or errors.

Note: This article will not work against Metamod:Source 1.4 or its sample plugins. Metamod:Source 1.6's sample plugins will build against the 1.4 API, however. See the Sample Plugins (Metamod:Source) article.

Requirements

Windows

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 (Express or higher) is supported and used for official builds.
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 (Express or higher) is officially unsupported, but works fine.
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2003 7.1 is unsupported. It is capable of building compatible binaries against the original (non-Orange Box SDK) only.
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2003 7.0 or lower cannot be used.

If you are installing Visual C++ 2005 Express, it may not come with Microsoft's Platform SDK installed. If this is the case, you must manually install the Platform SDK. You can find directions on how to do this and test your setup here. According to Microsoft, Visual C++ 2008 "streamlines" the Platform SDK installation for you.

Linux

For Linux, Metamod:Source requires the GNU C/C++ Compiler (from GCC):

• Version 4.1 is used for official binaries and is guaranteed to build.
• Versions 3.4 through 4.2 are guaranteed to be binary (ABI) compatible. Metamod:Source and its sample plugins will probably build fine on them.
• Any GCC version below 3.4 cannot be used.

Setup

Getting the Files

This section describes which files you must obtain and how to obtain them. Do not worry about where to place them yet -- that will be discussed on a per-platform basis. You can download the files anywhere you'd like.

The recommended method of getting the required files is via Subversion. We have our own Subversion Tutorial if you prefer that method.

• To build Orange Box or Metamod:Source 1.6 plugins:
  • Metamod:Source 1.6+. As of this writing (Feb 2008), 1.6.0 is the latest stable version.
    • Subversion: svn://svn.alliedmods.net/sourcemm/tags/sourcemm-1.6.0
    • Web Tarballs: 1.6.0
  • HL2SDK, Episode 1 Edition
    • Subversion: svn://svn.alliedmods.net/sourcemm/hl2sdk
    • Web Tarballs: click here
• To build Episode 1/Original Metamod:Source 1.4 plugins:
  • Metamod:Source 1.4+. As of this writing (Feb 2008), 1.4.3 is the latest stable version.
    • Subversion: svn://svn.alliedmods.net/sourcemm/tags/sourcemm-1.4.3
    • Web Tarballs: 1.4.3
  • HL2SDK, Orange Box Edition
    • Subversion: svn://svn.alliedmods.net/sourcemm/hl2sdk-ob
    • Web Tarballs: click here

Linux

As of this writing, SourceMod's Makefiles are hardcoded to use a binary called "gcc-4.1" You can override this, for example:

make CPP=gcc

Otherwise, you can also just create a symlink:

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.1

Note that you must use gcc and not g++. Using g++ creates a libstdc++ dependency, which may interfere with Valve's libstdc++ usage and will cause platform portability problems in general.

Metamod:Source's Makefiles have a strict directory organization. You must have a top-level folder. For this document, we'll assume it is called sourcemm, though it can be named anything. The layout of sourcemm should be:

• sourcemod/
  • hl2sdk - symlink or folder containing the HL2SDK for Episode 1
  • hl2sdk-ob - symlink or folder containing the HL2SDK for Orange Box/TF
  • sourcemm-1.4 - symlink or folder containing any Metamod:Source version 1.4.2 or higher. You only need this if you want to build against Metamod:Source 1.4.
  • sourcemm-1.6 - symlink or folder containing any Metamod:Source version 1.6.0 or higher.

If you are using a 64-bit version of Linux, you may need to install extra packages to be able to compile SourceMod. On Debian-based distros, these are typically:

#prerequisites
#apt-get install g++-4.1 gcc-4.1 make subversion
#apt-get instal libz libz-dev
#only needed if you want to use the build tool
#apt-get install mono mono-devel
#32-bit support
apt-get install ia32-libs
apt-get install lib32z1 lib32z1-dev
apt-get install libc6-dev-i386 libc6-i386

Windows

On Windows, there is no particular directory layout required -- environment variables are used instead. The directions below apply to Windows XP, and are assumed to be similar for other versions of Windows.

• Open the Control Panel (for example, via Start -> Settings).
• Open the System control. If you don't see it, you may need to switch to "Classic view" (either via the left-hand pane or by going to Tools -> Folder Options).
• Click the Advanced tab.
• Click the Environment Variables button.

You can add your environment variables to either your User settings or your System settings. Create a new variable for each item in the list below. The item names are in fixed-width font and their value descriptions follow.

• SOURCEMM16 - Path to Metamod:Source 1.6.0+
• SOURCEMM14 - Path to Metamod:Source 1.4.2+
• HL2SDK - Path to HL2SDK Ep1/Original
• HL2SDKOB - Path to HL2SDK Ep2/OrangeBox