The following steps will allow you to compile your own NorthstarLauncher executable from the code in this repository. If you still have questions, you may ask in the [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/northstar)
*This guide assumes you have already installed Northstar as shown in [this page](https://r2northstar.gitbook.io/r2northstar-wiki/installing-northstar/basic-setup)*
1.**Install Git** from [this link](https://git-scm.com)
2.**Clone** the [R2Northstar/NorthstarLauncher](https://github.com/R2Northstar/NorthstarLauncher) repo with submodules using this command `git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/R2Northstar/NorthstarLauncher.git`
3.**Install Visual Studio 2022** from [this link](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/). Northstar uses the vc2022 compiler, which is provided with Visual Studio. *You only need to download the Community edition.*
4. If you are prompted to download Workloads, check "Desktop Development with C++" If you are not prompted, don't worry, you'll be able to install this later on as well.
7. You may be prompted by visual studio to generate the cmake cache. To do this open the root `CMakeLists.txt` and click **Generate**. Once you do this you should be able to build the project.
10. Once your build is finished, **Open the directory in File Explorer.** Then, go to `build/game`. You should see NorthstarLauncher.exe and Northstar.dll, as well as a couple other files.
11.**_In your Titanfall2 directory_**, move the preexisting NorthstarLauncher.exe and Northstar.dll into a new folder. You'll want to keep the default launcher backed up before testing any changes.
12. Back in the build debug directory, **Move NorthstarLauncher.exe and Northstar.dll to your Titanfall2 folder.**
If everything is correct, you should now be able to launch the Northstar client with your changes applied.
Developers who can work a command line may be interested in using [Visual Studio Build Tools](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#build-tools-for-visual-studio-2022) to compile the project, as an alternative to installing the full Visual Studio IDE.
- Follow the same steps as above for Visual Studio Build Tools, but instead of opening in Visual Studio, run the Command Prompt for VS 2022 and navigate to the NorthstarLauncher.
- Run `cmake . -G "Ninja"` to generate build files.
When using [`podman`](https://podman.io/) instead of Docker on an SELinux enabled distro, make sure to add the `z` flag when mounting the directory to correctly label it to avoid SELinux denying access.
