Integrating Qt 5.4 with SFML 2.0

[WDR]

Hi... Can anyone please tell me why there are no proper tutorials on how to include SFML libraries in the Qt IDE, text-based, video-based or otherwise? I have searched a lot and done everything humanely possible to make it work, but I'm not able to do so. I came across one, and only one, proper tutorial, which is: https://github.com/SFML/SFML/wiki/Tutorial%3A-Compile-and-Link-SFML-with-Qt-Creator

The tutorial is step wise, and for some reason, I am not able to get past step 5 for Windows. The IDE does not allow me to do step 6. Because after doing step 5, the window that opens does not close until you do step 8. I am not able to do step 6 and 7 which results in the libraries compiling wrong. Can someone please help me on how I would do this? Thanks. I am using Qt 5.4 and SFML 2.0.

[Laurent]

This tutorial explains how to compile SFML. You probably don't need to do it. And to use SFML, you just need to do like for any other library: add its include path to the INCLUDEPATH QMake variable and add the libraries to the LIBS variable, in your .pro file. If you don't know how to do that, I suggest that you read some documentation about QMake first.

[WDR]

OK... Thanks for your prompt reply, Laurent. I have a doubt, though. I'm assuming the libraries that I have to include are not the same ones used for Visual Studio. Because I tried that, and I couldn't use the libraries. So, I assumed I would have to use ones separately compiled for Qt. Hence, my attempts at compiling the libraries again. Please clarify whether they are different for different IDEs. I'll also check out QMake. Thank you.

EDIT: Here's what I did,

#-------------------------------------------------
#
# Project created by QtCreator 2015-03-10T18:52:16
#
#-------------------------------------------------

QT       += core gui

greaterThan(QT_MAJOR_VERSION, 4): QT += widgets

TARGET = RTS_Resource_Manager
TEMPLATE = app


SOURCES += main.cpp\
        RTS_Resource_Manager.cpp

HEADERS  += RTS_Resource_Manager.h

FORMS    += RTS_Resource_Manager.ui

LIBS += -LC:/Users/WDR/Documents/Visual Studio 2010/SFML-2.0/lib

CONFIG(release, debug|release): LIBS += -lsfml-audio -lsfml-graphics -lsfml-main -lsfml-network -lsfml-window -lsfml-system
CONFIG(debug, debug|release): LIBS += -lsfml-audio-d -lsfml-graphics-d -lsfml-main-d -lsfml-network-d -lsfml-window-d -lsfml-system-d

INCLUDEPATH += C:/Users/WDR/Documents/Visual Studio 2010/SFML-2.0/include
DEPENDPATH += C:/Users/WDR/Documents/Visual Studio 2010/SFML-2.0/include
 

Anything wrong with the above .pro file? Please tell me. Thanks!

[Laurent]

QtCreator is just an IDE, not a compiler. It can use either MinGW (gcc) or the Visual C++ compiler. By default it comes with MinGW. So you must check which version of MinGW you're using and download the matching SFML package.

[WDR]

Laurent, I am using Qt Creator with Desktop Qt 5.4 MSVC2010 OpenGL 32bit as a building kit which uses Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler 10.0 (32bit) as the compiler. So, I am using the right SFML package (The one I downloaded for using in MS Visual Studio 10). I don't know why I am not able to get it to work.

[Laurent]

Yes, you have the right package. If you have problems then describe them so that we can help you.

[eXpl0it3r]

If you already have SFML as compiled binaries you don't need to fully follow that tutorial, because the tutorial explains how to build SFML.
So what you need is essentially just the linking part. However I'm not sure if that will also work with VS 2010, because the commands look more like GCC commands.

[WDR]

Yes, you have the right package. If you have problems then describe them so that we can help you.

That's the thing. I am not able to get it to work. My .pro file looks exactly like I posted above and the directories shown are correct. But, when I try to include any one of the SFML headers in my .cpp file, they don't show up on the IntelliSense and are also not read by the program. I can't use any of the functions from that header. I don't know why. I looked up the project properties and it does show that it is using the VC++ compiler.

[eXpl0it3r]

IntelliSense is a Mircosoft product built into Visual Studio.

So did you try to read the Qt Creator docs or at least google for how to link libraries with Qt Creator and the VS compiler?
Just because someone wrote a random tutorial on a wiki that everyone can use and edit, doesn't mean that it will actually work in all cases.

[Laurent]

Your .pro is almost ok: you should surround your paths with double-quotes (they contain spaces). Then, don't rely on the auto-completion of the IDE, it has bugs. Compile your code and check the compiler errors.

[WDR]

Well, that did the trick. All this time it was only because of the double quotes. It was the Programmer's Semicolon Syndrome all over again (No need to google that, I made it up. But you know what it means.  ).

@eXpl0it3r: You know what I meant by IntelliSense. Like Laurent pointed out, it was auto-completion. Didn't really know the exact terminology. And I did read about linking, I could link Box2D libraries perfectly fine.

@Laurent: Thanks for telling me that. I have written code and tried to compile it, but I am getting an error saying,

C:\Users\WDR\Documents\Qt\RTS_Resource_Manager\RTS_Resource_Manager.cpp:3: error: C1083: Cannot open include file: 'Graphics.hpp': No such file or directory

The include path in the .pro file is updated to show,

INCLUDEPATH += "C:/Users/WDR/Documents/Visual Studio 2010/SFML-2.0/include/SFML"
DEPENDPATH += "C:/Users/WDR/Documents/Visual Studio 2010/SFML-2.0/include/SFML"

That is the only problem I am getting. Please tell me why this is happening. Thank you so far for all the help.

[Laurent]

The include path should be "SFML-2.0/include" and you should include <SFML/Graphics.hpp>. But that shouldn't change anything to your problem. Check the full compiler output (window number 4) and see if your include path is there (behind a -I).

[WDR]

Well, I usually keep it as "SFML-2.0/include" but I thought the error might be due to forward slash or backward slash in the <SFML/Graphics.hpp> (Now I know it makes no difference in this case). So, to avoid confusion, I did that.

I checked the full compile output and as you said there is no -I for this include path. The path itself is also not there. How would I fix this?

[Laurent]

No idea. Right click on project, then "Run QMake" and "Rebuild"?

[WDR]

Well, I don't know whether you were joking or just being cheery in general, but that worked. I'm not getting any more errors. But the bad news is, I'm not getting an SFML window either. I tried to do a test program to see how it worked. The program compiles fine but I am not getting an output window like I should. Here's the program,

#include<SFML/Graphics.hpp>
#include<SFML/Window.hpp>

int main()
{
    sf::RenderWindow Window(sf::VideoMode(300, 300), "Window");

    while(Window.isOpen())
    {
        sf::Event Window_Event;
       
        Window.pollEvent(Window_Event);
       
        do
        {
            if(Window_Event.type == sf::Event::Closed)
            {
                Window.close();
            }
        }
        while(Window.pollEvent(Window_Event));

        Window.clear();
       
        Window.display();
    }

    return 0;
}

Any idea why that is happening? Please help!