can someone please post list of requirements to succesfully compile panda3d engine (as of 1.04 ) on windows (from 98se above) with free(ly available) compilers, i.e.:
a) msvc 2003 toolkit compiler
b) devcpp
i.e.: what sdk’s or runtimes MUST be present on machine in order to get the panda source (1.04) to compile succesfully.
thanks!
The good news: my general philosophy with the “source packages” was to include everything that I can legally include. All the libraries you need are included, even python itself is included. The only thing missing is the compiler and the C runtime system.
The bad news: the windows source package is set up to compile with microsoft visual studio 7, not the msvc 2003 toolkit compiler. Stamson and Hugh Perkins successfully modified the makefile to use the toolkit compiler, but I have not yet had time to integrate their changes back into the distribution.
Here is the discussion thread in which they explain how to build panda with the help of the msvc 2003 toolkit compiler. I believe the patches are relative to panda 1.0.3:
discourse.panda3d.org/viewtopic.php?t=340
Here is a link to the open-source metaverse project’s panda wiki. They regularly build panda with the help of the toolkit compiler:
thanks for reply!
so - if I understood correctly - there is actually a plan to prepare future versions of panda3d to work with the free msvc2003 toolkit compiler - out-of-the-box with no external dependencies?
if so, that’s a very very good news!
Thanks!
p.s.: the only missing link would be then to officially support exporting models and animation from within gmax 
Yes, I do plan to support the toolkit out of the box.
I also agree about the importance of gmax. It’s one of the few inexpensive yet decent modeling programs.
Note that as far as “out-of-the-box” compilation on Windows, there are issues because Microsoft wont allow redistribution of the Microsoft SDK or the Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit AFAIK. There again, Disney is big. Maybe the combined weight of Disney/CMT could be enough to get Microsoft to be a little more lenient on this front?
It would also be very cool if they could pursuade Microsoft to make msvcrt.lib and msvcprt.lib a little more freely available; and preferably the debug versions msvcrtd.lib and msvcprtd.lib too.
Whats in it for Microsoft is: the more people who are using Windows for development for projects such as this, then the more Windows fans there are, and the more inertia there is for people to be using Windows.
Hugh