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How to compile Redot Engine

A Guide on Compiling the Redot Engine

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By SinfulBobcat
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How to compile Redot Engine

Platforms

In today’s guide we will go over compiling Redot Engine for:

  • Windows
  • Linux

We will not be going over:

  • Compiling for Android
  • Compiling for Mac
  • Cross-compiling

Refer to the Redot Documentation to find out how you can build Redot for the desired platform or how to cross platform compile.

Compiling for your platform

Click below on any of the following links to figure out how to compile for out platform:

Building for Windows

Prerequisites

1. Getting a C++ compiler

  • Download and install Visual Studio Community.
  • Run the setup and open the Visual Studio Installer.
  • Download the latest version of Visual Studio Community available to you.
  • In the Installing… prompt, select the following option. Desktop View
  • If you already have Visual Studio installed, don’t panic, you can modify your current installation to have the required modules.
  • Open Visual Studio Installer from Windows Search
    • Click on “Modify”: Desktop View

    • Now select the module:

      Desktop View

  • Now hit “Install” or “Modify” depending on your case. This will go ahead and install the required modules.

    This will also install Visual Studio on your PC. There are alternative compilers that can be used to compile by which you can circumnavigate installing Visual Studio on your PC.

2. Install Python.

Make sure to enable Add to PATH in the python installer dialogue.

  • Open the windows terminal.
  • Run python --version and check if it gives you an output like: 
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    $ python --version
Python 3.13.2
  • If it does not, you might need to troubleshoot. I suggest the following wonderful articles on the subject:
  • If it does work, run pip --version.You should get an output like this: 
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    $ pip --version
pip 25.0.1 from C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\pip (python 3.13)
  • If you don’t get this output, consult Installing PIP.
  • Once both are done, proceed.

3. Install SCONS

  • Download and install SCons. This is the build system Redot uses, and makes it very easy to compile the source code.
  • To install SCons, open a new windows terminal and type: 
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    $ python -m pip install SCons

    If you had followed the previous steps to install python properly, this command would install SCons build system for you.

  • After it’s installed, run: 
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    $ SCons --version
SCons by Steven Knight et al.:
      SCons: v4.8.1.08661ed4c552323ef3a7f0ff1af38868cbabb05e, Tue, 03 Sep 2024 17:46:32 -0700, by bdbaddog on M1Dog2021
      SCons path: ['C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Roaming\\Python\\Python313\\site-packages\\SCons']
      Copyright (c) 2001 - 2024 The SCons Foundation
  • If you don’t see that output, or get some error refer to Installing SCons
  • If there is no error, congratulations! You have just finished the prerequisites. Let’s continue.

Getting the source code

Downloading the source code as a zip file is not recomended since it is much easier to update the files later through the other methods

  • Here’s how to download the source code (all methods):
    • Downloading zip.
      • Go to the Redot Engine Repository
      • Click on “Download ZIP”: Desktop View
      • Note the path of the extracted files as it is required later.
    • Downloading via Git:
      • Install Git
        • Open a windows terminal
        • Run the following command: 
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          winget install Git.Git
        • If prompted type Y for yes, and follow through on any installer that may pop up.

        If this doesn’t work for you, go and download Git from its official website, then run the setup and install it on your computer.

      • Once Git is installed, run the following command in the window terminal: 
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        git clone https://github.com/Redot-Engine/redot-engine
      • This is make a local copy of the source code on your machine in a folder called redot-engine.
      • Remember the path of this folder since we need to come back to this when we are going to build the engine.
    • Downloading via Github Desktop:
      • Download and install Github Desktop
      • Sign in with your Github Account, Sign Up if you don’t have one.
      • Click on Clone Repository.
      • Go to URL tab.
      • Search for Redot-Engine/redot-engine, select a folder on your computer and clone it.
      • Note this path as we will be comming back to this later.

Building from Source

Finally we are prepared to build the files. Open the folder where the Redot Engine source code is cloned, and follow through.

  • Type ls in your terminal and hit enter. You should see something like this. Desktop View
  • If you see a different folder structure, you might be in the wrong directory and none of the following commands would work. Make sure you get the path right. Revisit Getting the source code if need be.
  • Once confirmed, generating the binary files is as easy as running: 
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    scons platform=windows
  • Compilation will take some time depending on your hardware, CPU usage will touch 100%, don’t panic its normal. Ideally your computer wouldn’t freeze, make sure to close any other high demand applications before compiling.
  • Once compiled you will find the binaries in the bin folder.

Compiling the Export Templates

On windows, to generate the export templates for windows, run:

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 scons platform=windows target=template_debug arch=x86_32
 scons platform=windows target=template_release arch=x86_32
 scons platform=windows target=template_debug arch=x86_64
 scons platform=windows target=template_release arch=x86_64
 scons platform=windows target=template_debug arch=arm64
 scons platform=windows target=template_release arch=arm64

Run only the set of commands you require.

CONGRATS! You have succesfully compiled Redot Engine for your computer, enjoy! For updating the source, see below.

Updating the source code

  • If you had used a zip file for the source code initially, you have no option, but to revisit the github repository of the Redot Engine.
  • If you have used Github Desktop.
    • Open Github Desktop
    • Click on Fetch Origin
    • Click on Pull Origin
    • This is clone the remote files onto your machine
    • Now open the folder of the repository
    • Run: 
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      scons platform=windows

      to recompile the binaries.

  • If you have use Git.
    • Open the repository folder in windows file manager.
    • Right Click in an empty area and click on Open in Terminal
    • Once in terminal, run: 
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      git fetch
    • After that run: 
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      git pull
    • This will go ahead and clone the updates made to the repository onto your computer.
    • Run: 
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      scons platform=windows

      to recompile the binaries.

If you don’t see any thing on running git fetch that means the repository didn’t have an update. Running git pull after that will output Already up to date.

Building for Linux/BSD

I am using Linux Mint. If you are using any other distro and facing some trouble, leave a comment. Or check the Official Documentation

Prerequisites

Since there are a lot of linux distros click on the one corresponding to you and execute the command in your terminal.

1. Ubuntu/Debian

Run:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
  build-essential \
  scons \
  pkg-config \
  libx11-dev \
  libxcursor-dev \
  libxinerama-dev \
  libgl1-mesa-dev \
  libglu1-mesa-dev \
  libasound2-dev \
  libpulse-dev \
  libudev-dev \
  libxi-dev \
  libxrandr-dev \
  libwayland-dev

2. Alpine Linux

Run:

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apk add \
  scons \
  pkgconf \
  gcc \
  g++ \
  libx11-dev \
  libxcursor-dev \
  libxinerama-dev \
  libxi-dev \
  libxrandr-dev \
  mesa-dev \
  eudev-dev \
  alsa-lib-dev \
  pulseaudio-dev

3. Arch Linux(btw)

Run:

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pacman -Sy --noconfirm --needed \
  scons \
  pkgconf \
  gcc \
  libxcursor \
  libxinerama \
  libxi \
  libxrandr \
  wayland-utils \
  mesa \
  glu \
  libglvnd \
  alsa-lib \
  pulseaudio

4. Fedora

Run:

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sudo dnf install -y \
  scons \
  pkgconfig \
  gcc-c++ \
  libstdc++-static \
  wayland-devel

5. FreeBSD

Run:

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pkg install \
  py37-scons \
  pkgconf \
  xorg-libraries \
  libXcursor \
  libXrandr \
  libXi \
  xorgproto \
  libGLU \
  alsa-lib \
  pulseaudio

6. Gentoo

Run:

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emerge --sync
emerge -an \
  dev-build/scons \
  x11-libs/libX11 \
  x11-libs/libXcursor \
  x11-libs/libXinerama \
  x11-libs/libXi \
  dev-util/wayland-scanner \
  media-libs/mesa \
  media-libs/glu \
  media-libs/alsa-lib \
  media-sound/pulseaudio

7. Mageia

Run:

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sudo urpmi --auto \
  scons \
  task-c++-devel \
  wayland-devel \
  "pkgconfig(alsa)" \
  "pkgconfig(glu)" \
  "pkgconfig(libpulse)" \
  "pkgconfig(udev)" \
  "pkgconfig(x11)" \
  "pkgconfig(xcursor)" \
  "pkgconfig(xinerama)" \
  "pkgconfig(xi)" \
  "pkgconfig(xrandr)"

8. NetBSD

Run:

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pkg_add \
  pkg-config \
  py37-scons

If you want audio support, also get pulseaudio.

9. OpenBSD

Run:

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pkg_add \
  python \
  scons \
  llvm

10. openKylin

Run:

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sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
  python3-pip \
  build-essential \
  pkg-config \
  libx11-dev \
  libxcursor-dev \
  libxinerama-dev \
  libgl1-mesa-dev \
  libglu1-mesa-dev \
  libasound2-dev \
  libpulse-dev \
  libudev-dev \
  libxi-dev \
  libxrandr-dev \
  libwayland-dev
sudo pip install scons

11. openSUSE

Run:

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sudo zypper install -y \
  scons \
  pkgconfig \
  libX11-devel \
  libXcursor-devel \
  libXrandr-devel \
  libXinerama-devel \
  libXi-devel \
  wayland-devel \
  Mesa-libGL-devel \
  alsa-devel \
  libpulse-devel \
  libudev-devel \
  gcc-c++ \
  libGLU1

12. Solus

Run:

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eopkg install -y \
  -c system.devel \
  scons \
  libxcursor-devel \
  libxinerama-devel \
  libxi-devel \
  libxrandr-devel \
  wayland-devel \
  mesalib-devel \
  libglu \
  alsa-lib-devel \
  pulseaudio-devel

Before we proceed

Make sure you have git installed. If not install it from your package manager. e.g, on Ubuntu/Debian run sudo apt install git.

Building the Engine

  • We are going to be using git to get the source code from github.
  • Run: 
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    git clone https://github.com/Redot-Engine/redot-engine.git
  • This clones the repository on your local drive, now run: 
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    cd redot-engine
  • We are now in the Redot Engine Folder, now run: 
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    scons platform=linuxbsd
  • The compiled binary files would be located in the bin folder.

CONGRATS! You have succesfully compiled Redot Engine for your Linux, for updating the source code and binaries, see below.

Building the export templates

  • To build the export templates, run: 
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    scons platform=linuxbsd target=template_release arch=x86_64
scons platform=linuxbsd target=template_debug arch=x86_64

    To build for 32 bit systems:

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    scons platform=linuxbsd target=template_release arch=x86_32
scons platform=linuxbsd target=template_debug arch=x86_32

Updating the source code

  • In the directory in which the github repository is clone run: 
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    git fetch
  • Then run: 
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    git pull
  • This will download the latest version of the source code onto your device.
  • To rebuild the binaries, simply run: 
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    scons platform=linuxbsd

Conclusion

That is it, you should now have setup a working repository clone on your computer that can be updates, and the binaries can be built. Remember, using the cutting edge comes with a cost, and that is stability, and bugs. If you face any bugs make sure to make a report on the Github Repository for for Redot. If you want to learn more about the engine I highly suggest you to check out The Official Documentation. It will help you a lot.

That’s all, Keep Coding!

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