Build Instructions

Compiling manually

Prerequisites

• A C++ compiler supporting at least C++17.
  • This will be GCC >= 8, Clang >= 5, and MSVC >= 19.15
• cmake >= 3.15
• ninja (optional, speeds up builds)
• extra-cmake-modules (optional, available in a submodule)
• Java JDK
• Qt 6.0 or later
  • Alternatively, you can use Qt 5.12 or newer. This will be removed in Prism X (10.0).
• cmark (optional, vendored in a submodule)
• gamemode (used at runtime, only on Linux)
• ghc-filesystem (optional, vendored in a submodule)
• libGL headers (only on Linux)
• quazip (optional, vendored in a submodule)
• scdoc (optional, used to generate manpages)
• tomlplusplus (optional, vendored in a submodule)
• zlib (optional, vendored in a submodule)

Windows (MSVC)

Note

winget is installed by default on newer versions of Windows 11

You should first install winget, a package manager for Windows.

Once winget is available, install the MSVC toolchain with:

$ winget install --exact --id Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools --source winget

We will also be using Git:

$ winget install --exact --id Git.Git --source winget

Qt can then be installed with aqt:

$ winget install --exact --id miurahr.aqtinstall --source winget
$ aqt install-qt windows desktop 6.7.3 win64_msvc2019 -m qtimageformats qtnetworkauth qt5compat

Windows (MSYS2)

MSYS2 may be installed with winget, or by following the setup guide here:

$ winget install --exact --id MSYS2.MSYS2 --source winget

We recommend the CLANG(ARM)64 environment — though MINGW64 may also work on x86_64. After starting the environment, you may run the following to install all dependencies:

$ pacman -Syu pactoys git
$ pacboy -S toolchain:p cmake:p ninja:p extra-cmake-modules:p qt6-base:p qt6-networkauth:p qt6-svg:p qt6-imageformats:p qt6-5compat:p cmark:p quazip-qt6:p zlib:p

macOS

The XCode toolchain can be installed with:

$ xcode-select --install

Qt and other dependencies can then be installed with the following Homebrew command:

$ brew install cmake ninja extra-cmake-modules qt openjdk@17

Linux (Debian)

$ sudo apt install \
  build-essential \
  cmake ninja \
  extra-cmake-modules \
  qt6-base-dev qtchooser qt6-base-dev-tools libqt6core6 libqt6core5compat6-dev libqt6network6 qt6networkauth6 \
  openjdk-17-jdk \
  libg1l-mesa-dev \
  scdoc

Getting the source

We use Git for our version control. The command below will clone the repository, and fetch all submodules that come with it

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/PrismLauncher/PrismLauncher.git
$ cd PrismLauncher

The rest of the documentation assumes you have already cloned the repository.

Building the source

Configuration

Windows (MSVC)

Open “x64 Native Tools PowerShell” in Windows Terminal

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja `
  <# -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" #> ` # If you want to build with optimizations
  -D CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=".\6.7.0\win64_msvc2019\lib\cmake" `
  -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PATH="install" `
  <# -D ENABLE_LTO=ON #> ` # If you want to enable LTO
  <# -D Launcher_QT_VERSION_MAJOR="5" #> # If you want to use Qt 5

Windows (MSYS2)

cmake -S . -B build \
  -G Ninja \
# -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" \ # If you want to build with optimizations
  -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="install" \ # For installing to ./install
# -D ENABLE_LTO=ON \ # If you want to enable LTO
# -D Launcher_QT_VERSION_MAJOR="5" # If you want to use Qt 5

macOS

cmake -S . -B build \
  -G Ninja \
# -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" \ # If you want to build with optimizations
  -D CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/qt" \
  -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="install" \
  -D CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=11 \
# -D CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="x86_64;arm64" \ # to build a universal binary (not recommended for development)
# -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/usr" \ # For building packages. If only installing locally, use "/usr/local"
# -D ENABLE_LTO=ON \ # If you want to enable LTO
# -D Launcher_QT_VERSION_MAJOR="5" # If you want to use Qt 5

Linux

cmake -S . -B build \
  -G Ninja \ # If you installed Ninja
# -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" \ # If you want to build with optimizations
  -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="install" \ # For installing to ./install
# -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/usr" \ # For building packages. If only installing locally, use "/usr/local"
# -D ENABLE_LTO=ON \ # If you want to enable LTO
# -D Launcher_QT_VERSION_MAJOR="5" # If you want to use Qt 5

Compilation

Windows (MSVC)

cmake --build build -- /p:UseMultiToolTask=true /p:EnforceProcessCountAcrossBuilds=true

Windows (MSYS2)

cmake --build build

macOS

cmake --build build

Linux

cmake --build build

Installation

Windows (MSVC)

cmake --install build
cmake --install build --component portable # If you want to install a portable version

Warning

When building on Qt 5, OpenSSL’s DLLs aren’t installed along with the launcher, meaning that you cannot log in.

The solution is to run the following:

robocopy <Path to Qt install>/Tools/OpenSSL/Win_x64/bin/ install libcrypto-1_1-x64.dll libssl-1_1-x64.dll

Replace <Path to Qt Install> with the path to your Qt install. If building for 32bit, replace Win_x64 with Win_x86 and remove -x64 from the DLLs’ names.

Windows (MSYS2)

cmake --install build
cmake --install build --component portable # If you want to install a portable version

macOS

cmake --install build
cmake --install build --component portable # If you want to install a portable version

Linux

cmake --install build
cmake --install build --component portable # If you want to install a portable version
DESTDIR="$pkgdir" cmake --install build # If you're installing for a package

Building with Nix (Linux and macOS)

Nix is a tool for handling reproducible builds across multiple platforms.

After installing Nix, you can run the following command to build a debug package:

nix build --print-build-logs github:PrismLauncher/PrismLauncher#prismlauncher-debug

You can also enter a development shell with all of the tools required to build manually:

nix develop
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="install"
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

Building a Flatpak (Linux)

Flatpaks allow for you to quickly build Prism and run it on any distribution

Make sure Flathub is setup.

# Install Flatpak build tools
flatpak install flathub org.flatpak.Builder

# Clone the source repository
git clone --recursive https://github.com/prismlauncher/PrismLauncher

# Enter the Flatpak directory
cd PrismLauncher/flatpak

# Run the build
flatpak run org.flatpak.Builder \
  --user \
  --install \ # Comment if you only want to build, not install
  --install-deps-from=flathub \
  --ccache \
  --repo=repo \
  builddir \
  org.prismlauncher.PrismLauncher.yml