🍀SFML Starter template

Note: Tested on Windows 10 and Windows 11

This is the starter template and guide to set up SFML on Windows with MinGW and Visual Studio Code.

We didn't find any useful articles or YouTube videos so we tried to set up the project on my own

🏛️Template Structure

1. Assets

In this folder, you put all your images animation, and sound.

2. build

In this folder all the build file and SFML dlls are stored you can execute the main exe from here.

3. headers

This folder contains sfml headers and user can create their own headers file too. but you need to make changes to the Makefile.

4. src

This is the source file where you write and structure your code.

5. main.cpp

Here, it is only the starter code you can link the source file from src.

6. MakeFile

Note: Change makefile as you need. This makefile is not suitable for larger project.

all: compile link

compile:
	g++ -Iheaders/sfml/include -c main.cpp

link:
	g++ main.o -o main -Lheaders/sfml/lib -lsfml-graphics -lsfml-window -lsfml-system -lopengl32 -lsfml-audio

	main

In case the MakeFile is not working, you can manually type the following command to build.

g++ -Iheaders/sfml/include -c main.cpp

g++ main.o -o main -Lheaders/sfml/lib -lsfml-graphics -lsfml-window -lsfml-system -lopengl32 -lsfml-audio

.\main

If ./main dosen't work try /main or main on terminal

7. Bat File

If, you are using a Windows Machine, you can directly run the bat file for building project.

echo Building project 

g++ -Iheaders/sfml/include -c main.cpp

g++ main.o -o main -Lheaders/sfml/lib -lsfml-graphics -lsfml-window -lsfml-system -lopengl32 -lsfml-audio

main

🛠️Installation and setup

1. Visual Studio Code

Download and install vs code from code.visualstudio.com and install the C/C++ extension.

2. MinGW

Download and install MinGW from mingw-w64.org or sourceforge.net (We recommend msys2 as it makes things a lot easier). You can find on msys2 website to install it.

3. SFML

Download sfml from sfml-dev.org website and MinGW. You can choose 32-bit or 64-bit version depending upon your platform.

Now structure the file system as below and you are good to go.

⚙️To compile

Use this command on the terminal.

1. Using MakeFile

mingw32-make -f MakeFile

2. Using Bat File

.\run.bat