Building on Windows

[DennisSmolek]

Does anyone have any insights on how to get a build working on Windows?

I know the parent library can be built on Windows but this version only has Linux build.sh scripts.

I went through the build manually and got Build/Distribution all setup but hit a weird error:

PS C:\Users\denni\Documents\GitHub\joltphysics.js> cmake --build Build/Distribution
MSBuild version 17.7.2+d6990bcfa for .NET Framework

  Checking Build System
  Generating JoltPhysics.js bindings
  Building Custom Rule C:/Users/denni/Documents/GitHub/JoltPhysics.js/CMakeLists.txt
  Building JoltPhysics.js bindings
  shared:INFO: (Emscripten: Running sanity checks)
  Building Custom Rule C:/Users/denni/Documents/GitHub/JoltPhysics.js/Build/Distribution/_deps/joltphysics-src/Build/CMake
  Lists.txt
cl : command line  error D8021: invalid numeric argument '/Werror' [C:\Users\denni\Documents\GitHub\JoltPhysics.js\Build\D
istribution\_deps\joltphysics-build\Jolt.vcxproj]

Also tried on my Mac but it threw a bunch of cmake/Unix errors...

I suppose I could spin up a distro/container but that's a lot of hoops when a windows build shouldn't be too hard.

[LeXXik]

I used WSL under Windows to build it, since I have Emscripten and build tools installed there. Haven't tried using normal power shell / bash, as I would need to set up the environment. Curious what would it take to set up a docker container, similar to Ammo - pretty convenient way to build it, as no need to install emsc, etc.

[jrouwe]

I use WSL as well, it's super simple to download e.g. Ubuntu from the windows store and run it there. When I started this project, I tried building under windows but emscripten wasn't working for some reason, so I just went for Linux.

[DennisSmolek]

This is what I ended up doing too. It's been a while since doing much Linux work on my Windows machine and didn't realize how easy it would be.
Took an hour or so to get wsl setup with everything but I was able to build the latest etc!

[daxur-studios]

(updated comment , see original for full version) Hello, it took me a couple of days to get this working and didn't find any example, so thought I'd share in case anyone else wants to build the lib on a Windows machine with double precision enabled.

Key Updates Made:

1. Fixed Windows Compatibility Issues - Resolved merge conflicts and PowerShell syntax issues
2. Added Double Precision Support - Properly configured -DDOUBLE_PRECISION=ON for all build variants
3. Fixed TypeScript Declaration Files - Resolved "Could not find a declaration file" errors
4. Added Comprehensive Documentation - Created WINDOWS_BUILD.md with troubleshooting guide
5. Verified Double Precision Works - Tested and confirmed precision at astronomical distances

Updated build.ps1

# Clean Build directory
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force ./Build -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

$buildType = if ($args.Count -gt 0) { $args[0] } else { "Distribution" }

$numProcs = (Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Processor).NumberOfLogicalProcessors

# Remove dist if exists
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force ./dist -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path ./dist | Out-Null

if ($buildType -ne "Debug") {
    # Build Debug ST with double precision
    emcmake cmake -B Build/Debug/ST -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DBUILD_WASM_COMPAT_ONLY=ON -DDOUBLE_PRECISION=ON
    cmake --build Build/Debug/ST -j $numProcs

    # Build Debug MT with double precision
    emcmake cmake -B Build/Debug/MT -DENABLE_MULTI_THREADING=ON -DENABLE_SIMD=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DBUILD_WASM_COMPAT_ONLY=ON -DDOUBLE_PRECISION=ON
    cmake --build Build/Debug/MT -j $numProcs

    # Rename for debug
    if (Test-Path ./dist/jolt-physics.wasm-compat.js) { Move-Item ./dist/jolt-physics.wasm-compat.js ./dist/jolt-physics.debug.wasm-compat.js }
    if (Test-Path ./dist/jolt-physics.multithread.wasm-compat.js) { Move-Item ./dist/jolt-physics.multithread.wasm-compat.js ./dist/jolt-physics.debug.multithread.wasm-compat.js }
}

# Build the specified type ST with double precision
$stPath = "Build/$buildType/ST"
$mtPath = "Build/$buildType/MT"
emcmake cmake -B $stPath "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=$buildType" -DDOUBLE_PRECISION=ON
cmake --build $stPath -j $numProcs

# Build the specified type MT with double precision
emcmake cmake -B $mtPath -DENABLE_MULTI_THREADING=ON -DENABLE_SIMD=ON "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=$buildType" -DDOUBLE_PRECISION=ON
cmake --build $mtPath -j $numProcs

if ($buildType -eq "Debug") {
    $debugWasmCompat = "./dist/jolt-physics.debug.wasm-compat.js"
    $debugMtWasmCompat = "./dist/jolt-physics.debug.multithread.wasm-compat.js"
    if (Test-Path ./dist/jolt-physics.wasm-compat.js) { Copy-Item ./dist/jolt-physics.wasm-compat.js $debugWasmCompat }
    if (Test-Path ./dist/jolt-physics.multithread.wasm-compat.js) { Copy-Item ./dist/jolt-physics.multithread.wasm-compat.js $debugMtWasmCompat }
}

# Update worker URL for debug multithread
if (Test-Path ./dist/jolt-physics.debug.multithread.wasm-compat.js) {
    $debugMtContent = Get-Content ./dist/jolt-physics.debug.multithread.wasm-compat.js -Raw
    $debugMtContent = $debugMtContent -replace 'jolt-physics.multithread.wasm-compat.js', 'jolt-physics.debug.multithread.wasm-compat.js'
    $debugMtContent | Set-Content ./dist/jolt-physics.debug.multithread.wasm-compat.js -NoNewline -Encoding utf8
}

# Create d.ts file
$dtsContent = @"
import Jolt from "./types";

export default Jolt;
export * from "./types";
"@
$dtsContent | Out-File ./dist/jolt-physics.d.ts -Encoding utf8

# Copy d.ts to various names (CRITICAL for TypeScript support)
$tsFiles = @(
    'jolt-physics.wasm.d.ts',
    'jolt-physics.wasm-compat.d.ts',
    'jolt-physics.debug.wasm-compat.d.ts',
    'jolt-physics.multithread.d.ts',
    'jolt-physics.multithread.wasm.d.ts',
    'jolt-physics.multithread.wasm-compat.d.ts',
    'jolt-physics.debug.multithread.wasm-compat.d.ts'
)
foreach ($file in $tsFiles) {
    Copy-Item ./dist/jolt-physics.d.ts ./dist/${file}
}

# Copy wasm-compat js to Examples/js
Get-ChildItem ./dist -Filter 'jolt-physics*.wasm-compat.js' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item $_.FullName ./Examples/js/ }

Key Changes Made:

1. Added -DDOUBLE_PRECISION=ON to all build configurations
2. Fixed Windows compatibility issues in CMakeLists.txt
3. Added TypeScript declaration file copying to prevent import errors
4. Updated JoltPhysics version to v5.4.0
5. Added comprehensive documentation in WINDOWS_BUILD.md

Verification:

After building, you can verify double precision is working:

import Jolt from './dist/jolt-physics.wasm-compat.js';

async function verifyDoublePrecision() {
    const JoltModule = await Jolt();
    
    // Test at 2.8 million km (your reported distance)
    const testDistance = 2800000000.0;
    const rvec = new JoltModule.RVec3(testDistance, 0.0, 0.0);
    const retrieved = rvec.GetX();
    const diff = Math.abs(retrieved - testDistance);
    const precision = diff / testDistance;
    
    console.log(`Precision: ${precision.toExponential()}`);
    // Should show 0e+0 (perfect precision) with double precision enabled
}

Installation:

After building, create and install the package:

# Create package
npm pack

# Install in another project
npm install D:\path\to\jolt-physics-0.38.0.tgz