Setup a new robotcode project

Ali Ghavampour – drafted in 2022

📧 alighavam79@gmail.com

Overview

Example: Porting a project from old XP system to Windows 10

The old codes were written in 32-bit format on MS Visual C++ 6 on Windows XP PCs. We want to port the old codes to work on MS Visual C++ 2022 Community on a 64-bit Windows 10 PC in this example.

1

Creating an empty project

Create a new empty project in MS VC++ 2022.

Create a new project in Visual Studio 2022

The location of the project must be: C:\robotcode\projects\

2

Project configurations

⚠️ Important Step: Change solution from x64 to x86 (top tool bar) first!

Then open project properties and change the following configurations:

• Character Set Configuration
  Project → Properties → Configuration Properties → Advanced → Character set
  Set to "Use multi-byte character set"
• Include Directories
  Project → Properties → Configuration Properties → VC++ Directories → Include Directories
  Add the include (header files) to the include directories: C:\robotcode\include
• Source Directories
  Project → Properties → Configuration Properties → VC++ Directories → Source Directories
  Add the source to the source directories: C:\robotcode\source
• Subsystem Configuration
  Project → Properties → Configuration Properties → Linker → System → SubSystem
  Change to "Windows(/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS)" (this is a Windows application, not a console application)

Change solution platform from x64 to x86 in the toolbar

3

Adding the project source and header files

Create your project’s main source (.cpp) and header (.h) files. Choose a template project you want to make your code based on. Open the main source (.cpp) and header (.h) files of the template project and copy & paste the codes to your files.

4

Ignoring MS VC++ warnings

The original library and codes use sprintf() and sscanf() functions. However, these functions are forced to be replaced with sprintf_s() and sscanf_s() by the MS VC++ compiler. To ignore this error:

Project → Properties → Configuration Properties → C/C++ → Preprocessor → Preprocessor definitions

Add _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS and click OK.

5

Add the project dependencies

By right-clicking on your project name in the “solution explorer” and selecting “Add → Existing item”, add all the project dependencies from C:\robotcode\include and C:\robotcode\source to your project.

⚠️ Critical: If you don't add any of the project dependencies, you will face errors saying "unresolved external symbol". Here is an example:

Example of unresolved external symbol error

6

Create a data folder

Create a temp data folder for your experiment in C:\data\<your project name>\

📝 Note: The code does not create this folder automatically. Your experiment might not run without it.

7

Change the paths in your main file

There are some paths in the main source codes of projects that might need change, especially if you are using a new PC. Some of the paths to check in your main code are:

If you are using sounds for your task:

string TASKSOUNDS = {
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/ding.wav",           // 0
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/smb_coin.wav",       // 1
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/chimes.wav",         // 2
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/smb_kick.wav",       // 3
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/bump.wav",           // 4
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/chord.wav",          // 5
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/smb_pipe.wav",       // 6
  "C:/robotcode/util/wav/error.wav"           // 7
};

In the WinMain (your main program):

gExp = new MyExperiment("eir2", "eir2", "C:/data/ExtrinsicIntrinsicRepetition/eir2/");

// initialize s626cards
s626.init("c:/robotcode/calib/s626_single.txt");

8

Change the experiment setting if needed

In the WinMain (your main program):

gScreen.init(gThisInst, 1920, 0, 1920, 1080, &(::updateGraphics));

The first two numbers are the relative position of the second monitor in pixels and the second two are the resolution in pixels.

9

Don't forget the target files

Add the experiment target folder (including .tgt files) to the main folder of your project where your main .cpp and .h files are (e.g. C:\robotcode\projects\ExtFlxChord\ExtFlxChord).

Extra Notes

Your code should compile and build if you do all the steps carefully! If it still doesn’t work, you might be using some source and include files or a template project that were not ported by Ali Ghavampour because he didn’t need them for his projects. You might need to fix them.

Questions or issues? Reach out!

📧 alighavam79@gmail.com