Development Environment Installation ¶

This guide will walk you through the steps needed to install the development environment on your Windows machine.

Prerequisites ¶

• You must be on a Windows OS (eg. Window 7, 8, 10, 11 etc.)
• You must have added the [[RODIR Environment Variable]].
• You must have completed the [[SDK Installation]].
• Make sure to have at least 32GB of free disk space on the drive that Steam is installed on.

Install Python 3.11 ¶

We use Python to supplement our various build processes.

1. Download and run the Python 3.11 installer.
2. During the installation, ensure that Add Python to environment variables is checked.

Install Git ¶

1. Download and run the Git for Windows installer.
2. During the installation, check Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt when prompted.
3. Install Git Large File Storage. (Modern versions of the Git installer will have this as a built-in option!)

Clone Repository ¶

1. Open a Command Window in Administrator mode by pressing ⌘, typing cmd, then pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
2. Enter the following commands, hitting Enter after each line:

cd /d "%RODIR%"
git lfs install --skip-smudge
git clone https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour.git tmp
xcopy tmp . /e /h /y
rmdir /s /q tmp
git lfs pull
git lfs install --force

Install Fork ¶

1. Install the latest version of Fork.
2. Run Fork.
3. From the top menu, select File > Open Repository… or press Ctrl+O.
4. Enter the path to your Red Orchestra directory (RODIR) (eg. C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Red Orchestra) and click Select Folder.

Done! ¶

Nice work! You're now ready to work with DarkestHourDev! Now what?

• To launch the development version of the game, run Red Orchestra/System/DarkestHourDev.bat.
• To launch the development version of the SDK, run Red Orchestra/System/DHEd.bat.

Be sure to add shortcuts to these .bat files to your Desktop to make running the game and SDK easier.