NFRev1/docs/pages/1_install.md

@page install Installation @tableofcontents

This page details how to get started with the engine by using the template project.

@section prereq Prerequisites

In order to develop an NF application, you must first have the following:

• Visual Studio 2022 or later (MSVC v143 or later)
• A 64 bit computer as NF is 64 bit only
• A compatible graphics card (See @ref issues)
• Apt C++ knowledge
• The engine itself

The current version of the engine can be downloaded here.

@note Windows Security may first need to scan some of the included binaries and your build output before they can be run. You should never get a message from Windows Security that a virus has been found in any of these files.

Inside the zip file, you will find:

• example - The example app complete with the source and a build
• manual - An offline version of this manual
  • index.html - The homepage
• redist - MSVC Redistributable (See @ref packaging)
• template - A template MSVC project already setup to work with the engine

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@section projSetup Template Setup

In the template folder, you will find:

• assets - Contains assets (See @ref assets)
• bin - Output directory for both configurations
• dep - Contains the engine
• src - The source folder with a main.cpp file
• template.sln - The Visual Studio solution

template.sln can be opened in Visual Studio 2022. This, as well as the name of the project (NFApp by default), can be renamed at any time.

@note The template project is setup to build Debug and Release configurations. The Debug configuration includes a console window with debug output. The Release configuration does not have this console window. By default, the current configuration can be changed in the top toolbar.

Once the solution has been opened, you can find the main.cpp file inside the src folder as shown below.

@image html blankproject.png "The template opened in Visual Studio" width=70%

To build the project, go to Build -> Build Solution or Build Project. Both do the same thing since there's only one project in the solution initially. You could also hit the default keyboard shortcut of Ctrl-Shift-B.

@note After your application is built, your assets are also built and placed into the output assets directory. As your project grows, this could take longer and longer, so this can be disabled in the project properties dialog under Build Events -> Post-Build Event. Change "Use In Build" to "No" and save.

NF is a statically-linked library. This means that your build will not rely on any external dlls other than the MSVC redistributable.