Notice: We recommend using GIT Bash of https://git-scm.com/ to obtain the HLAE source code and also for applying the .patch files to libraries where neccessary. [X] Download and install Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022, which you can obtain for free from https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/ . - Select Workloads - Desktop & Mobile - .NET Desktop Development - Select Workloads - Desktop & Mobile - Desktop development with C++ - Select Individual Components - .NET Framework 4.6.2 targeting pack - You'll need to install Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2022 Extension from within Visual Studio afterwards. [X] Obtain Python 3 from https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/ . We used python-3.12.1-amd64, but any 3.8 or newer 3 should do. You will need to do the custom installation with pip and py launcher. [X] Obtain GNU gettext Windows binaries from https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/ . We used gettext0.20.1-iconv1.16-shared-64.exe . [X] Install WiX Toolset from https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix3/releases We used WiX Toolset v3.14.1 (wix314.exe). [X] Obtain the HLAE source code from https://github.com/advancedfx/advancedfx into a folder you like, we'll call it from now on (by that I mean extract it so that you end up with the files like advancedfx.sln and directories in C:\\advancedfx folder). We recommend using the GIT Bash to obtain the source code, so you can easily fetch and merge updates from the advancedfx repository: cd /c/ git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/advancedfx/advancedfx.git [X] Open Visual Studio 2022 Developer Command Prompt: cd C:\\advancedfx\ mkdir build cd build mkdir Release cd Release cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -T "v143" -A "Win32" ../.. cmake --build . --config Release -v -- -r cmake --install . --config Release -v (For Debug builds replace Release with Debug in the instructions above.) [X] After that the installer and the zip can be found in "C:\\advancedfx\build\Release". [X] Things you should do before releasing a new version: - Update version in hlae/CMakeLists.txt - Update GUIDs in hlae/UpdateCheck.cs - Update Product Version in installer/HlaeCore/Product.wxs - Update version in installer/setup/Bundle.wxs