Ok, so after a long time of looking on and wondering what it would be like to do some DLL modding I decided to bite the bullet and try. Here's what I did.
I have been tinkering with programming on and off for many years but never really as anything more than a curiosity, so I already had a working installation of Visual Studio 2010 from the Windows 7.1 SDK iso. I had been able to follow sample code and tutorials so felt sure I could get into this.
First step. Read all the posts.
This thread is full of info about the necessity to have VS 2008 so I was fully expecting to install that at some point.
Step two. Testing the water.
I setup the Civ V SDK as outlined here and made the needed changes to a stock DLL source and see what messages I get back, just to make sure VS 2008 is needed.
It is.
Step three. Install VS 2008.
Now this is where the fun starts. The installation file starts and I am greeted with the message here: (right click and load image in a new tab)
Apparently I already have VS2008 and just need to install SP1.
Ok, I can do that. Off to the download page again for the SP1 install. This time the installation file starts and gives me this error:
C'mon Microsoft, either I have VS 2008 or I don't, which is it?
Step four. Minor hiccup.
"No problem", I say to myself, "just uninstall ALL Visual Studio software and start again." A minute or two later I have uninstalled and start the process again.
Same messages again. Apparently I still have an earlier un-updated install on my system.
Step five. Regedit.
So thinking there may be some orphaned references to VS left in the registry I uninstall any software remotely linked to VS 2008, restart Windows and then purge the registry of any mention of
Visual Studio,
2008,
Silverlight or anything else I can think might be linked to VS 2008. Retry the setup software again and... you guessed it, I still have something in my system that tells MS I have Visual Studio 2008 installed.
Step six. A rethink.
Clearly I am having a Sisyphus moment if I think I can tackle that problem with that strategy. How else can I get to playing with the source code? So I look at the ways the compiler would be set up to look for VS 2008 and that's when it hits me I need a bit of outside input.
What I can imagine is the project either is looking for a specific version of the tools needed to compile the source, maybe linker or assembler or it is looking for specific system files that may somehow be used. (not really sure of the 2nd option)
So I was thinking, what if I created a
new VS 2010 project and use the source files to build a DLL?
- Would it work with the executables in the Civ directory?
- Would there be a version mismatch between them or possibly just not do anything?
- In short, is there a way to circumvent the need to have VS 2008 installed?
My immediate answer to those questions is NO! I am not going to be able to work with DLL modding unless I do a complete reformat and reinstall of my system. (that aint gonna happen)
Any ideas? Give up now and be content with xml/sql/lua edits?