Visual Studio .NET C# Quickstart

Although written with VS Express in mind, this tutorial should hold true for any version of VS 2005. Tutorial assumes Reality Engine 13.0 or greater is being used. (Author: Matt Farber, Pandora Studios)

Getting Started

VS.NET and its watered-down (but still useful) Express counterparts are a powerful environment for developing in Reality. Those who may have already used SharpDevelop for C# instead should immediately notice a large increase in speed as well as proper Intellisense functionality. If you don't have an MSDN subscription, you can freely download VS Express, which has no requirement for use other than free registration through the MSDN page.

• Download Visual C# Express Edition

Configuring for Reality

First install and ensure that VS starts up correctly. If it generates an error upon launching, you most likely do not have the correct version of Microsoft's .NET Framework installed. Double back to the Reality download page and reinstall if you're unsure. As this tutorial is merely a quickstart, I'm going to use the pre-existing EvalKit solution as an example.

Opening The EvalKit Solution

1. Go to File -> Open -> Project/Solution...
2. Browse to RealityEngine\Bin\EvalKit
3. Select 'EvalKit.sln'
4. Click OK.
5. The program will ask if you wish to permanently remove the Source Control bindings. Click Yes.

Adding The ScriptingSystem References

Since VS saves the absolute and not the relative path of any references it needs, you have to manually readd the ScriptingSystem reference to both the EvalKit and Scripts projects.

1. Scroll to the EvalKit project under the Solution Browser
2. Expand 'References'
3. Delete the ScriptingSystem reference with right-click -> Remove
4. Right-click on 'References' and select 'Add Reference...'
5. Browse to RealityEngine\Bin\System
6. Select 'ScriptingSystem.dll'
7. Click OK.
8. Scroll to the Scripts project under the Solution Browser
9. Repeat Steps 2 through 7.

That's it! You can now run a build to test your setup.

Building The Solution

1. Go to Build -> Build Solution
2. Verify the 'Build Succeeded' message at the bottom left corner of the VS window.

Should you make any changes to the scripts in either project, you must choose 'Rebuild Solution' instead.

Miscellaneous

If you want, and I actually advise that you do, you can disable VS.NET's automatic 'Copy Local' reference functionality that essentially places a copy of the ScriptingSystem.dll in each project's bin\Debug folder. It may result in version conflicts (although it would be extremely rare) if left on, and takes up space it doesn't need to. To do this, follow these steps for both projects:

1. Expand 'References'
2. Select 'ScriptingSystem'
3. At the bottom 'Properties' window, find the setting named 'Copy Local'
4. Select 'False'

This step is entirely optional and does not need to be done in most cases to achieve a functional setup. Here's a shot of what VS should look like once you're done.

Large Version, 1280x1024, .jpg