Building on Windows

Complete guide to building Dolphin Emulator on Windows with Visual Studio

Building Dolphin on Windows uses Visual Studio solution files rather than CMake. This guide covers the complete process.

Prerequisites

Required Software

• Visual Studio 2022 (17.2.3 or later) or Build Tools for Visual Studio
• Git for Windows
• Windows SDK (latest version)

Dolphin targets the latest MSVC shipped with Visual Studio or Build Tools. Other compilers might work but are not tested or recommended.

Compiler Requirements

• MSVC: Version 19.32 or later (Visual Studio 2022 17.2.3+)
• C++ Standard: C++23 support required

Step-by-Step Build Instructions

1. Clone the Repository
2. Clone the Dolphin repository from GitHub:
3. git clone https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin.git
   cd dolphin
   

4. Initialize Submodules
5. Dolphin requires Git submodules to be initialized before building:
6. git submodule update --init --recursive
   

7. Skipping this step will cause build failures.

8. Open the Solution File
9. Open the Visual Studio solution file located at:
10. Source/dolphin-emu.sln
    

11. You can open it by:
13. Select Build Configuration
14. Visual Studio provides two main build configurations:
15. Release Configuration
17. Debug Configuration
19. Select the desired configuration from the dropdown menu in the Visual Studio toolbar.

20. Select Target Architecture
21. Choose the appropriate architecture for your system:
23. Build Dolphin
24. Build the solution using one of these methods:
25. Visual Studio

    Build > Build Solution (or press Ctrl+Shift+B)
    

    MSBuild Command Line

    msbuild Source/dolphin-emu.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64 /m
    
26. Locate Output Files
27. After a successful build, binaries are located in:
29. The main executable is Dolphin.exe.

Advanced Build Options

Command-Line Builds

You can build from the command line using MSBuild:

# Build Release configuration for x64
msbuild Source/dolphin-emu.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64 /m

# Build Debug configuration for x64
msbuild Source/dolphin-emu.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=x64 /m

# Build for ARM64
msbuild Source/dolphin-emu.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=ARM64 /m

The /m flag enables parallel compilation for faster builds.

Clean Builds

To perform a clean build (remove all previous build artifacts):

Visual Studio

Build > Clean Solution
Then: Build > Build Solution

Building Specific Projects

To build only specific components:

1. Right-click the project in Solution Explorer
2. Select Build

Common projects:

• Dolphin: Main Qt GUI application
• DolphinNoGUI: Command-line variant
• DolphinTool: CLI utility for disc image management

Architecture Support

x64 (x86-64)

• Most common architecture
• Full feature support
• Best performance and compatibility

ARM64

• For Windows on ARM devices
• Surface Pro X, ARM-based laptops
• OpenGL backend not available on Windows ARM64

Compiler Flags and Options

Dolphin’s Windows build uses the following MSVC options:

Optimization Flags

• /Gy - Enable function-level linking
• /Oi - Generate intrinsic functions
• /GS- - Disable buffer security checks (Release only)
• /Zc:inline - Remove unreferenced inline functions/data
• /OPT:REF /OPT:ICF - Eliminate dead code and data (linker)

Standards Compliance

• /std:c++23 - C++23 standard
• /Zc:__cplusplus,enumTypes,externConstexpr,preprocessor,templateScope,throwingNew - Strict conformance
• /volatile:iso - ISO C++ volatile semantics
• /fp:precise - Precise floating-point model

Code Quality

• /W4 - Warning level 4 (highest)
• /WX - Treat warnings as errors
• /GR- - Disable RTTI
• /EHsc - Exception handling model

Troubleshooting

Missing Windows SDK

Error: Cannot find Windows SDK

Solution: Install the latest Windows SDK through Visual Studio Installer:

1. Open Visual Studio Installer
2. Click Modify on your Visual Studio installation
3. Under Individual Components, select the latest Windows SDK
4. Click Modify to install

Submodules Not Initialized

Error: Missing header files or libraries from Externals

Solution: Initialize submodules:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Build Errors After Git Pull

Solution: Perform a clean build:

1. Close Visual Studio
2. Delete the Binary/ directory
3. Run git submodule update --init --recursive
4. Reopen the solution and build

Out of Memory During Build

Solution: Reduce parallel compilation:

• In Visual Studio: Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > Build and Run
• Set Maximum number of parallel project builds to a lower value (e.g., 2-4)

Linker Errors

Error: LNK errors about missing symbols

Solution:

1. Ensure submodules are initialized
2. Try a clean build
3. Verify you’re using a supported MSVC version (19.32+)

Next Steps

After building:

• The executable is in Binary/x64/ or Binary/ARM64/
• Copy the Data/Sys folder to Binary/x64/Sys if it’s not already present
• Run Dolphin.exe to start the emulator

For development builds, Visual Studio will automatically copy necessary files to the output directory.