How to compile ArcEmu

**~~Found~~** · 03-30-2009

ALL LINKS THAT SAY ASCENTEMU.COM SUBSTITUTE THEM WITH ARCEMU.ORG UNTIL I FIX THE GUIDE!

It seems there are very few complete tuts on getting Ascent and NCDB working from the latest revisions..Here is my stab at it.

I personally use Visual Studio 2003 as it seems to get updated and compiles alot cleaner than the 2008

Here goes:

Part 1 ---- COMPILING ASCENT------

Step 1 --Obtain the right software---

1. Obtain somehow Visual Studio 2003(I use the Enterprise Architect version)..get it from a dev friend, or whatever *legal* means you can.
2. Microsoft Platform SDK Files (Required MUST HAVE 2003 Not Normal SDK!!) : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...8-e4c0c0716adb
3. Download SVN Client at : tortoisesvn.tigris.org
4. Download and install .NET framework 1.1(with latest updates) Microsoft .NET Framework
5. Download and install .NET framework 2.0(with latest updates) Microsoft .NET Framework

Step 2 --Install and Configure the Software---

1. Install the SDK, and Visual Studio using install location defaults(Make sure the C++ portion of Visual Studio gets installed!!!). You do NOT have to install the MSDN files after you install VS 2003. Doing so is a waste of time unless you are a developer and need these resources.
2. Install the SVN client.
3. Update VS 2003 to latest service pack(Just good common practice IMHO).
4. Create 4 Folders on the root of your C: drive..I usually call them - NCDBSVN, AscentSVN, Compile, and GameOn
4. Open your SVN client and point it to: http://projects.emupedia.com/svn/ascent
5. Checkout the source(I usually checkout the files at the highest folder level) and save it to AscentSVN. This should download all the Ascent source files to the AscentSVN folder.
6. Then point your SVN client to: http://projects.emupedia.com/svn/ncdb
7. Checkout the source(again at the root level) and save it to NCDBSVN. This should download all the NCDB source files.
8. If you get prompted for any login info on any of the SVN sites, use anonymous for both the username and password.
9. Copy both the NCDBSVN and AscentSVN folders to the Compile Folder(This will allow you to continually update the Ascent Source but compile the code in a seperate folder)

Step 3 --Configure Compile Environment--

1. Open Visual Studio.
2. Go to Tools -> Options
4. Expand the Projects Folder and select VC++ Directories.
5. Here You will see a center Dialog with stuff like $(VCIsntallDir)lib You will need to do 3 things on this page.
6. Click The Icon in the top of the center box wich looks like a foulder icon this will add a new entry Here you will need to put :
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2\Bin
7. Now Goto the top Right hand side of the Dialog "Show Directories for:" And Select "Library files" and repeat the Add Folder icon and add this :
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2\Lib
8. Now On the top right hand under "Show directories for:" Click on Includes and repeat the Add Folder icon and add this :
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2\Include

Step 4 --Compile The Project--

1. Within VS 2003, Select File -> Open -> Project and then browse to C:\Compile\AscentSVN\trunk\win\ascentVC71.sln. This will open the VS 2003 project. (The ascentVC80.sln file you would open if you were doing this with VS 2005 or VS 2005 Express)
2. Go to "Build/Configuration Manager"
3. Select "Release" and then Close.
4. Close "Build/Configuration Manager"
5. Press F7 or Select Build -> Build Solution.
6. Build should complete like this :

8 Succesfully - 0 Build Errors

NOTE * : Please remind yourself that even if there is a XX ammount of WARNINGS the project is still good as long as you have 0 Build Errors

Step 5 --Build Scripts--

1. Within VS 2003, Select File -> Open -> Project and then browse to C:\Compile\AscentSVN\trunk\src\scripts\scripts2003 .sln
2. Go to "Tools/Options"
3. Go to "Projects and Solutions" Tab located on the left hand side
4. Go to VC++ Directories
5. As in Step 3, you will see a center Dialog with stuff like $(VCIsntallDir)lib You will need to do 1 thing on this page.
6. Goto the top right hand side of the dialog "Show Directories for:" And Select "Library files" and repeat the Add Folder icon and add this :
C:\Compile\AscentSVN\trunk\bin\release\bin\release
7. Then go to Build -> Configuration Manager and make sure you select Release on the drop down and then Close.(I would UN-CHECK the AscentStats option on this..It does not work and will throw a compile error as of Ascent Version 1926)
8. Then choose Build -> Build Solution. This should have 0 Build errors too.
9. Once this is complete, go to your c:\GameOn directory and create a folder called Ascent. Copy the contents of: C:\Compile\AscentSVN\trunk\bin\release to the c:\GameOn\Ascent folder.(This includes the scripts_bin folder as well).

Part 2: ----MYSQL---

Step 1 ---Download and install MYSQL---OR use the MySQL from a Repack...

If you decide to NOT use a repack MYSQL install and download and install MYSQL yourself, then follow this:

1. Go to http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/M...r=pick#mirrors and download the file from the closest mirror.(NOTE! this is for Windows installations!)
3. Download and install HeidiSQL(Or you can use SQLyog, or any other MySQL Gui Tool..I just am partial to HiediSQL) http://www.heidisql.com/
2. Create a folder called MySQL under the c:\GameOn directory.
3. Install the .msi MySql installer and point the install to the c:\GameOn\MySQL\ directory.
4. Once the install is done, then run the config utility and select the options that best fit your environment. IMPORTANT! Make sure you remember what you set your root password to!(I usually set my root password to ascent)
5. Make sure the service starts, etc and everything looks ok..
6. To test this, Open HeidiSQL or any other MySql gui tool and attempt to connect to your localhost using the root login and password. It should connect and show you 3 databases that it installed by default - Information_schema, Mysql, and test.
7. Using HeidiSQL or some other gui tool, right click on your root server in the GUI and create 2 new blank databases..I usually call them world and character.

Part 3 ---NCDB--- NOTE! You need to have MySQL STARTED AND RUNNING for this section!!!

1. Go to C:\Compile\NCDBSVN\ and edit the Tool.bat file
2. Look at the top section of this file the Basic Configuration section and change the following:
a. Change your set user =root
b. Change your ser pass=ascent(or whatever you installed your root password as)
c. Change your set wdb=world(or whatever you called it)
d. Chanve your set cdb=character(or whatever you called it)
3. Once this is complete, save the tool.bat file and then double click on it.
4. When the install screen comes up, you have a few options. Since this is based on a NEW installation, we are going to first choose the "w" option and watch it install the database.
5. Whan that completes, select the "c" option to create your logon DB and watch it install successfully.
6. When this is done, Open HeidiSql(Or whatever MySQL GUI tool you use) and click on the character database.
7. Click the Query tab and insert this into the Query Window:
alter table characters add column custom_faction int(30) default 0 not null after gender;
8. Click the blue run button at the top right hand side of the query window(or hit F9)
9. Then do the same with this:
alter table playeritems add column randomsuffix int(30) default 0 after randomprop;
10. Running these 2 statements will keep you from running into character creation problems..:-)
11. Create an admin account. Open HeidiSQL and click on your character database. Click the Query tab and put this into the query window and run it:
INSERT INTO `character` VALUES (1,"admin","admin","az",0,0,0,0,

;

Part 4 ----Configuring the .conf files!-----NOTE!!! This next section is tailored to those who have everything(Ascent, MySQL and WoW)running on the same machine with no exposure to the internet. If you are seperating your installation to different computers or putting your realm on the internet, you will need to do some additional things outside the scope of this tutorial!

NOTE 2: ALL of these .conf files if you followed this tutorial should be located in C:\GameOn\Ascent\

Step 1 --ascent.conf---

1. Open the ascent.conf file with notepad.
2. Change your the WorldDatabase Hostname and CharacterDatabase Hostname lines to reflect your config. Mine usually look like the following and can be used by you if you named everything in your installation to this tutorial:
<WorldDatabase Hostname = "localhost" Username = "root" Password = "ascent" Name = "world" Port = "3306" Type = "1">
<CharacterDatabase Hostname = "localhost" Username = "root" Password = "ascent" Name = "character" Port = "3306" Type = "1">
2. Find this line and delete or put a # in front of it:
<die msg="I am a newb who didn't even read half my config file!">
3. Find this line and make it look like this:
RemotePassword = "ascent"
4. Find this line and delete or put a # in front of it:
<die2 msg="I read nearly all my config file, but not the whole thing!">
5. There are MANY things in this file that you can change to make your playing experience different(Exp rate, Honor rate, etc..) I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you take the time to look over this file VERY well!
6. Save and close the file.

Step 2 --logonserver.conf---

1. Find these lines and change them to look like this if you followed this tutorial to the letter..Otherwise the important line is the first 4 lines.
<LogonDatabase Hostname = "localhost"
Username = "root"
Password = "ascent"
Name = "character"
Port = "3306"
Type = "1">
2. Find these lines and change them to:
<Client MinBuild = "6739"
MaxBuild = "7999">
3. Find this line and make it look like this:
<LogonServer RemotePassword = "ascent">
4. Save and close the file.

Step 3 --Realms.conf---

1. This is what the bottom of my realms file looks like.
<Realm1 Name = "Fux Yo Couch"
Address = "127.0.0.1:8129"
Icon = "RPPVP"
Colour = "2"
Population = "1.0"
TimeZone = "1">
2. The important line is Realm1 Name as its what you want your realm to be called.

Part 5 --Firing up the Private WoW Installation

1. Before you fire up Ascent, you will need to extract your maps..Get a map extractor from a repack or google/search for it..
2. Also you need to run ad.exe on your WoW installation..Again get it from a repack or google/search for it..
3. Once both the map extractor and dbc extractor has been run, you will need to copy the dbc and maps folder over into your c:\GameOn\Ascent folder.
4. Make sure MySQL is still running.
5. Double-Click logonserver.exe in the C:\GameOn\Ascent directory..If you get to the Hooking signals... prompt, you are good to go.
6. Double-Click the ascent.exe file and it should parse a bunch of stuff..The end result should be the following:

Server is ready for connections. Startup time: 6328ms
>> loading realms and logon server definitions... 1 servers, 1 realms.
>> attempting to connect to all logon servers...
>> connecting to `Default Logon` on `127.0.0.1:8093`... ok!
>> authenticating...
>> Key: 8B 35 98 E6 12 6C 72 C8 80 D2 F4 4D A1 0C FE 07 73 80 45 91
>> result: ok!
>> registering realms...
>> realm `Fux Yo Couch` registered under id 1Took 0 msec to build charac
ter mapping list for realm 1

>> ping test: 0ms
7. Go to your WoW Main installation Directory and edit your Realmlist.wtf file and make it look like this:
set realmlist 127.0.0.1
set patchlist us.version.worldofwarcraft.com
8. Save and close the file.
9. Open WoW.exe and type in the username and password box: admin/admin and you should see the Fux Yo Couch realm come up. Create character and play the game!

Final Notes:

* To continue to update your NCDB and Ascent source files, right click on C:\AscentSVN and choose SVN Update..This will update the AscentSVN folder with the latest source files.
Do the same for the C:\NCDBSVN Folder.
* I usually re-compile the core after about a week of playing or if there are major changes that I want to see come across in the changelog. To do this, just delete the C:\Compile\AscentSVN folder and re-copy your C:\AscentSVN folder over to the C:\Compile folder and follow the compiling instructions again.
*I also usually update the world database about every week as well. I do the same thing with NCDB as I do with AscentSVN. Delete the NCDBSVN folder under the C:\Compile directory and just re-copy C:\NCDBSVN to C:\Compile and re-edit the tool.bat file and re-run it to install the new world DB.
*Alot of this may be tedious and may seem unneccesary, but I am just one of those peeps who like to keep my continually updated SVN directories seperate from my compiling directory. Its just a preference. Feel free to do it however you want to or however your computer limitations require.
*When you configure your Visual Studio 2003 directories, you do NOT have to re-do this everytime you re-compile the core. This initial configuration is a one time thing barring you format your computer or something along those lines..lol
*PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE READING YOUR SVN COMMIT LOGS WHEN RUNNING UPDATES! This gives you the best chance to NOT miss any changes you need to make to your databases that will cause you to ask a stupid question on the Ascent or NCDB forums that will get you blasted..Trust me on this. I learn from experience! :-P

*MY SVN IS teamexile - Revision 0: / go to it for updates if not posted here, also go there for other releases*

PICTURES COMING SOON