C-evo-x

C-evo-x is a fork of C-evo 1.2.0, a freeware empire building game for Windows by Steffen Gerlach.

License

C-evo and C-evo-x are in the public domain.

Prerequisites

The following software is required to build C-evo-x.

• Borland Delphi 4.0.
• Visual C# and Visual C++ from Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express.
• WiX Toolset 3.11.1.

The following software is optional.

• ImageMagick 7.1.1, for rebuilding assets from source.
• [Windows SDK v7.0A][25] or later, for code signing.

YMMV on other versions.

These paths should have been added to your user or system PATH environment variable automatically by their respective installers:

• C:\PROGRA~2\BORLAND\DELPHI4\BIN -- added by Delphi 4.0
• C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-<version> -- added by ImageMagick

You will need to manually add the following paths:

• C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319 -- for MSBuild.exe
• C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.11\bin -- for candle.exe and light.exe
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin -- for signtool.exe

The build is tested on Windows 11 Pro (64-bit) build 22621.

Components

The C-evo-x code is assembled from a number of different sources.

• AI_Kit_C\: contains Charles Nadolski's Version 14 C++ Blank AI Template.
• AI_Template\: contains the C# AI template and source for the CevoDotNet.exe game loader; installed with C-evo 1.2.0.
• assets\: source for additional graphics.
• Configurator\: source for the C# Configurator.exe program; part of the C-evo 1.2.0 source.
• Delphi_AI_Kit\: source for the Delphi AI Development Kit.
• docs\: source for the C-evo-x Docs site.
• Installer\: source for the MSI installer, a replacement for the C-evo's Inno Setup installer.
• Project\: Delphi code for the game; part of the C-evo 1.2.0 source.
• Resources\: external graphic, sound and text configuration files used by the game; installed with C-evo 1.2.0.
• scripts\: scripts used by the Makefile build.
• StdAI\: source for the standard AI, StdAI.dll, that ships with C-evo 1.2.0; obtained directly from Steffen.

See the LICENSE file for the list of contributors.

Build System

The Makefile located in the project root directory will build all the components and place build output into a tmp\ directory in the root of the project. The version of make that is installed with Delphi should be used to execute the Makefile.

Targets

The Makefile contains a number of targets. Type

make help

to see the full list. Two notable targets: all and clean. The all target is the default and will build the game, all the AIs and the installer. The clean target will remove all build output.

Command Prompt Set Up

Follow these steps to make sure your system is set up and ready to build:

1. Ensure you have all the prerequisites installed.
2. Check that the Delphi compiler dcc32.exe, the Borland resource compiler brcc32.exe and Borland make.exe are available on the PATH of your command prompt. These files are installed in a directory like C:\Program Files (x86)\Borland\Delphi4\Bin.
3. Check that MSBuild.exe is available on the PATH of your command prompt. This file is part of .NET and is installed in a directory like C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\.
4. Check that the WiX commands candle.exe and light.exe are available on the PATH of your command prompt. These files are part of the WiX Tookset and are installed in a directory like C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.11\bin

Building From the Command Prompt

To build, open a Windows command prompt, navigate to the project root and run the Makefile:

make

To remove all build output, run:

make clean

If the build fails with a message like:

Error: Could not create output file '..\tmp\CevoComponents.bpl'

close the Delphi IDE and run the make command again.

Asset Build Steps

Some of the game assets are generated from the original artwork. Since these build steps require additional tools and the outputs don't change often, the generated assets are checked in to the repository, making these build steps optional. The assets and clean-assets make targets control the asset build. Before building these targets, install ImageMagick and check that magick.exe is available on the PATH of your command prompt. This file is installed in a directory like C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.10-Q16\.

Installer Build Steps

The all and installer make targets will build an unsigned MSI installer located at tmp\C-evo-x.msi. You can double-click the C-evo-x.msi file to install it on your system. To debug problems with the installer, run the following command to create an install log:

msiexec /i tmp\C-evo-x.msi /L*V tmp\install.log

To uninstall C-evo-x, go to Settings | Apps (or Control Panel | Programs on older Windows versions) and click on "C-evo-x" in the list. Alternately, you can run the following command:

msiexec /x tmp\C-evo-x.msi

Signed Installer

Optionally, if you have a Microsoft Authenticode code signing certificate, you can create a signed MSI installer. The signed-installer make target will build and sign the MSI installer, which is located at tmp\C-evo-x-1.2.1.msi; the -1.2.1 suffix is the version of C-evo-x being installed.

Signing requires that signtool.exe is available on the PATH of your command prompt. This file is part of the Windows SDK and is installed in a directory like C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\. The make file uses a wrapper script around signtool.exe located at scripts\sign_file.cmd. The script requires that the following environment variables be set in your command prompt:

• CEVOX_CERT_PATH - the location of your code signing certificate file
• CEVOX_CERT_PWD - the password to your code signing certificate
• CEVOX_TIMESTAMP_URL - the URL for your certificate provider's time stamp server.

Installing and Running the Game

To install C-evo-x, run the C-evo-x.msi installer and follow the instructions. This will install C-evo-x on your system, including shortcuts for the Start menu. Alternately, you can play the game directly from the build output directory tmp\ by running CevoDotNet.exe (which supports AIs built in .NET languages), CevoWin32.exe (which does not support .NET AIs) or Integrated.exe (the "all-in-one" build of the game, which combines cevo.dll with CevoWin32.exe.

Building From the Delphi IDE

You must run the Makefile build at least once before opening any of the Delphi projects in the Delphi IDE. If you do not, you may encounter errors or warnings like the following:

• Compiler error: "Could not create output file '..\tmp\units\cevo\StringTables.dcu'"

  the tmp\ output directory structure needs to be created

• Compiler warning: "File not found: 'Res1.res'"

  the .rc files need to be compiled into .res files

• Run error: "Could not find program, '..\tmp\CevoWin32.exe'.

  the CevoWin32 game loader needs to be built

• Run error: "[FILENOTFOUND]"

  the external resource files need to be copied into place

• Alert "Error Reading Form": "Class TButtonA not found. Ignore the error and continue?"

  the CevoComponents package needs to be built and installed in Delphi

Delphi Debug vs Release Builds

Delphi 4 projects don't have a built-in way to distinguish between debug and release build settings and it's not possible to override all the necessary settings via the command line due to the command line length limit of the dcc32.exe compiler.

Fortunately Delphi stores a list of compiler settings for each project in a matching .cfg file, so it's possible to swap between debug and release builds by modifying the .cfg. The Makefile build does this in order to compile release versions of EXEs and DLLs for the installer. Release output is placed in tmp\release (while debug and shared output goes in tmp\). Compiler settings are stored in .debug.cfg and .release.cfg files for their respective projects. The Makefile build will copy over the active configuration to .cfg, and will always leave the debug version behind for building from the IDE. The Delphi Programming Wiki describes the details behind this technique.

Project Structure

The Delphi Projects

There are six Delphi projects: three projects for building the game, one for building the standard AI, one for building the Delphi sample AI and one for building a Delphi components package.

The core game can be built in two ways: as a single integrated executable or as a DLL and loader.

The Project\Integrated.dpr project builds the game as a single integrated executable named Integrated.exe. The Integrated.exe executable can only load non-.NET AIs, including Delphi and C++ AIs.

The Project\cevo.dpr project compiles the game code into a DLL named cevo.dll.

The Project\CevoWin32.dpr project creates a simple CevoWin32.exe executable that loads the game DLL and non-.NET AIs, including Delphi and C++ AIs.

The StdAI\StdAI.dpr project builds StdAI.dll, the standard AI opponent.

The Delphi_AI_Kit\AIProject.dpr project builds the Delphi sample AI into a DLL named AIProject.dll.

The Project\CevoComponents.dpk project builds the Delphi components package CevoComponents.bpl. The Makefile build uses scripts\install_component.cmd to install the package into Delphi; you can also do this manually in Delphi by clicking Component | Install Packages... | Add....

The C# Projects

There are three C# projects: one for the Configurator and two for sample AIs in C#.

The Configurator\Configurator.sln solution and Configurator\Configurator.csproj C# project build the Configurator.exe application, a stand-alone program for setting game parameters, installing localizations and downloading maps and AIs.

The AI_Template\Project\AI.sln solution and AI_Template\Project\AI.csproj C# project build the C# sample AI into a DLL named AI.dll.

The AI_Template\CevoDotNet\CevoDotNet.csproj C# project builds the CevoDotNet.exe loader program which loads the cevo.DLL game DLL and all AI DLLs, including AIs written in .NET languages like C#. The CevoDotNet.csproj is also referenced by the AI_Template\Project\AI.sln solution.

The C++ Projects

The AI_Kit_C\MyAI.sln solution and AI_Kit_C\MyAI.vcxproj C++ project build the C++ sample AI into a DLL named MyAI.dll.

The AI_Kit_C\HAL_source\HAL.sln solution and AI_Kit_C\HAL_source\HAL.vcxproj C++ project build the HAL AI into a DLL named HAL.dll.

More Documentation

The C-evo site Info page and FAQ contain a lot of detail about the game and its design. Check the C-evo-x Docs and Dev Journal for information specific to C-evo-x.

Related

• A Lazarus port of C-evo by Jiří Hajda (chronos).
• A Lazarus port of C-evo by Vasilii Novikov (vasaya), last active in 2016.
• Updated C-evo AI Template, a fork of Steffen's C# AI Template by dougmill (Douglas).
• FreeCiv, another open source version of Civilization.