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CMake SFML Project Template

This repository template should allow for a fast and hassle-free kick start of your next SFML project using CMake. Thanks to GitHub's nature of templates, you can fork this repository without inheriting its Git history.

The template starts out very basic, but might receive additional features over time:

  • Basic CMake script to build your project and link SFML on any operating system
  • Basic GitHub Actions script for all major platforms

How to Use

  1. Install Git and CMake. Use your system's package manager if available.

  2. Follow GitHub's instructions for how to use their project template feature to create your own project. If you don't want to use GitHub, see the section below.

  3. Clone your new GitHub repo and open the repo in your text editor of choice.

  4. Open CMakeLists.txt. Rename the project and the target name of the executable to whatever name you want. Make sure to change all occurrences.

  5. If you want to add or remove any .cpp files, change the source files listed in the add_executable call in CMakeLists.txt to match the source files your project requires. If you plan on keeping the default main.cpp file then no changes are required.

  6. If your code uses the Audio or Network modules then add sfml-audio or sfml-network to the target_link_libraries call alongside the existing sfml-graphics library that is being linked.

  7. If you use Linux, install SFML's dependencies using your system package manager. On Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions you can use the following commands:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install \
    libxrandr-dev \
    libxcursor-dev \
    libudev-dev \
    libfreetype-dev \
    libopenal-dev \
    libflac-dev \
    libvorbis-dev \
    libgl1-mesa-dev \
    libegl1-mesa-dev

  8. Configure and build your project. Most popular IDEs support CMake projects with very little effort on your part.

    Using CMake from the command line is straightforward as well. Be sure to run these commands in the root directory of the project you just created.

    cmake -B build
cmake --build build

  9. Enjoy!

Upgrading SFML

SFML is found via CMake's FetchContent module. FetchContent automatically downloads SFML from GitHub and builds it alongside your own code. Beyond the convenience of not having to install SFML yourself, this ensures ABI compatibility and simplifies things like specifying static versus shared libraries.

Modifying what version of SFML you want is as easy as changing the GIT_TAG argument. Currently it uses the latest in-development version of SFML 2 via the 2.6.x tag. If you're feeling adventurous and want to give SFML 3 a try, use the master tag. Beware, this requires changing your code to suit the modified API! The nice folks in the SFML community can help you with that transition and the bugs you may encounter along the way.

But I want to...

Modify CMake options by adding them as configuration parameters (with a -D flag) or by modifying the contents of CMakeCache.txt and rebuilding.

Not use GitHub

You can use this project without a GitHub account by downloading the contents of the repository as a ZIP archive and unpacking it locally. This approach also avoids using Git entirely if you would prefer to not do that.

Change Compilers

See the variety of CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER options. In particular you'll want to modify CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER to point to the C++ compiler you wish to use.

Change Compiler Optimizations

CMake abstracts away specific optimizer flags through the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE option. By default this project recommends Release builds which enable optimizations. Other build types include Debug builds which enable debug symbols but disable optimizations. If you're using a multi-configuration generator (as is often the case on Windows), you can modify the CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES option.

Change Generators

While CMake will attempt to pick a suitable default generator, some systems offer a number of generators to choose from. Ubuntu, for example, offers Makefiles and Ninja as two potential options. For a list of generators, click here. To modify the generator you're using you must reconfigure your project providing a -G flag with a value corresponding to the generator you want. You can't simply modify an entry in the CMakeCache.txt file unlike the above options. Then you may rebuild your project with this new generator.

More Reading

Here are some useful resources if you want to learn more about CMake:

License

The source code is dual licensed under Public Domain and MIT -- choose whichever you prefer.