Visual Servoing Platform  version 3.5.0 under development (2022-02-15)
Tutorial: Installation from source for Windows with Visual C++ 2019 (vc16)

In this tutorial you will learn how to install ViSP from source on Windows 10 with Visual C++. These steps have been tested on Windows 10 (64 bit), with CMake 3.19.4 and Visual Studio Community 2019.

Note
Concerning ViSP installation, we provide also other Tutorials for ViSP users.

Install prerequisites

Visual Studio

Visual Studio Community 2019 could be downloaded from https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/. During a fresh installation enable "Desktop development with C++" workload and check box "Windows 10 SDK" to enable usage of the Graphical Device Interface (GDI) useful to display images in a window thanks to vpDisplayGDI class. After a fresh installation, start Visual Studio and create an empty C++ project to install the common tools for Visual C++ 2019.

If you already have Visual Studio Community 2019, you can check if "Desktop Development with C++" workload is activated and if "Windows 10 SDK" is enabled following instructions given here that we resume:

  1. Find the Visual Studio Installer on your computer. Select Start, and then scroll to the letter V, where it's listed as Visual Studio Installer
  2. Click or tap to start the installer, and then choose "Modify"
  3. From the Workloads screen, check if "Desktop Development with C++" workload is activated and if "Windows 10 SDK" is enabled like in the following image
    img-msvc16-config.png
  4. Choose Modify again.
  5. After the new workloads and components are installed, choose Launch.

CMake

CMake could be download from http://www.cmake.org. Download the latest release for Windows win64-x64 platform (at the time this tutorial was written it was the file cmake-3.19.4-win64-x64.msi). To install just double click on the msi file.

Git

Install Git for Windows from https://git-for-windows.github.io/. This installation allows then to use git in a cmd Command Prompt.

Create a workspace

If not already done, create a workspace that will contain all ViSP source, build, data set and optional 3rd parties. This workspace is here set to C:\visp-ws folder, but it could be set to any other location.

To create the workspace, open a cmd Command Prompt (a fast way to launch this window is to press the Win + R keys on your keyboard. Then, type cmd or cmd.exe and press Enter or click/tap OK) and run the following to create a workspace environment var named VISP_WS:

C:\> setx VISP_WS "C:\visp-ws"
C:\> exit

Open a new cmd Command Prompt and create the corresponding folder

C:\> mkdir %VISP_WS%
C:\> exit

Quick ViSP installation

In this section, we give minimal instructions to build ViSP from source just to try ViSP without entering in Advanced ViSP installation.

  • Open a new cmd Command Prompt and get ViSP source code in the workspace
    C:\> cd %VISP_WS%
    C:\> git clone https://github.com/lagadic/visp.git
    
  • Create a build directory
    C:\> mkdir %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16
    C:\> cd %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16
    
  • Run CMake in build directory (here the generator is chosen for Visual Studio 16 2019):
    C:\> cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64" %VISP_WS%\visp
    
  • Build and install ViSP (installation doesn't need administrator privileges)
    C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target install
    
  • ViSP is now installed in %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16\install folder
  • Modify the Path var to add %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16\install\x64\vc16\bin corresponding to the path to ViSP libraries. To modify Path environment variable do the following:
    • Open the Start Search, type in "env", and choose "Edit environment variables for your account"
    • Click the "Environment Variables..." button
    • Under the "User Variables" section (the upper half), find the row with "Path" in the first column, and click edit
    • The "Edit environment variable" UI will appear.
    • Click "New" button to add a new line with %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16\install\x64\vc16\bin
  • Set VISP_DIR var to help CMake to find ViSP as a 3rd party
    C:\> setx VISP_DIR "%VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16\install"
    C:\> exit
    

To have a trial, just jump to Install ViSP data set before running some binaries that you just build or jump to Next tutorial. You can later come back to the Advanced ViSP installation.

Advanced ViSP installation

Install 3rd parties

ViSP is interfaced with several 3rd party libraries. The complete list is provided here. To use optimized matrix operations you may install Eigen3 3rd party. We recommend also to install OpenCV 3rd party in the workspace. If you have an Intel Realsense depth camera you may also install librealsense 3rd party. If you have an Occipital Structure Core sensor, you may also install libStructure 3rd party. If your camera is a PointGrey you may install FlyCapture 3rd party, while if your camera is a Basler, you may rather install Pylon 3rd party. Other 3rd parties are optional and should be considered only by expert developers.

Eigen3 3rd party

Even if Eigen3 is designed as a template we recommend to install the library with Visual Studio.

1. Get Eigen3

  • Download the latest Eigen3 release from http://eigen.tuxfamily.org. At the time this tutorial was written we downloaded eigen-3.3.9.zip archive corresponding to Eigen 3.3.9.
  • Extract the content of the archive in %VISP_WS%.
  • Once unzipped, you should have Eigen in %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9

2. Build and install Eigen3 from source

  • Create a build directory
    C:\> mkdir %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16
    C:\> cd %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16
    
  • Run CMake in build directory (here the generator is chosen for Visual Studio 16 2019 and installation folder is set to %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16\install folder):
    C:\> cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64" %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16\install
    
  • Build and install Eigen3 (installation doesn't need administrator privileges)
    C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target install
    
  • Eigen3 is now installed in %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16\install folder

3. Complete Eigen3 installation

Now you have to complete Eigen3 installation setting some environment vars:

  • In order that ViSP detects Eigen3 you have to set EIGEN_DIR environment variable. Start up a cmd Command Prompt and enter:
    C:\> setx Eigen3_DIR "%VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16\install\share\eigen3\cmake"
    C:\> exit
    
    where %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16\install is where you have installed Eigen3. Inside the folder %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16\install\share\eigen3\cmake you should have a file named Eigen3Config.cmake.
  • There is no need to set Path environment var since Eigen3 is a template that has no library.

OpenCV 3rd party

1. Get OpenCV

First you have to get OpenCV:

  • From http://opencv.org/releases.html download the latest OpenCV for Windows. In our case we got opencv-4.5.1-vc14_vc15.exe Win pack installer. The same procedure could be applied with all the previous OpenCV releases starting from 3.4.0 version.
  • Extract the content of the archive in your workspace %VISP_WS%.
    img-win10-extract-opencv.png
  • The installer extract all the material in %VISP_WS%\opencv.
  • We strongly recommend to rename this folder to a name that contain OpenCV version like %VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1.
Note
OpenCV 4.5.1 win pack installer doesn't contain prebuild OpenCV libraries build with Visual Studio 16 2019. It contains only prebuild libraries build with previous Visual Studio version (vc14 and vc15). That's why we need to build OpenCV from source.

2. Build OpenCV from source

  • Create a build directory
    C:\> mkdir %VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\build-vc16
    C:\> cd %VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\build-vc16
    
  • Run CMake in build directory (here the generator is chosen for Visual Studio 16 2019) and installation dir is set to the existing folder %VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\build:
    C:\> cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64" %VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\sources -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\build
    
  • Build and install OpenCV using release and debug configuration respectively (installation doesn't need administrator privileges)
    C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target install
    C:\> cmake --build . --config Debug --target install
    

2. Complete OpenCV installation

Now you have to complete OpenCV installation setting some environment vars:

  • In order that ViSP detects OpenCV you have to set OpenCV_DIR environment variable. Start up a cmd Command Prompt and enter:
    C:\> setx OpenCV_DIR "%VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\build"
    C:\> exit
    
    where %VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\build is where you have installed OpenCV. Inside this folder you should have a file named OpenCVConfig.cmake.
  • You have also to add the location of OpenCV libraries corresponding to Visual Studio 16 2019 usage in the Path environment variable. Open the "Edit environment variable" UI, and modify Path to add a new line with %VISP_WS%\opencv-4.5.1\build\x64\vc16\bin.

librealsense 3rd party

I you have an Intel RealSense Depth camera (SR300 or D400 series), you may install librealsense 2.x in order to use vpRealSense2 class. Otherwise you can skip this section.

1. Install Intel Realsense SDK 2.0

Intel Realsense SDK 2.0 contains librealsense. To install this SDK:

  • Go to https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/releases
  • Download Intel.RealSense.SDK-WIN10-<version>.exe corresponding to the last Intel Realsense SDK 2.0 release. At the time this tutorial was written, we downloaded Intel.RealSense.SDK-WIN10-2.42.0.2845.exe.
  • Execute Intel.RealSense.SDK-WIN10-<version>.exe and follow default installation steps.

2. Complete Intel Realsense SDK 2.0 installation

To finalize the installation, add the location of realsense2.dll library in the Path environment variable. Open the "Edit environment variable" UI, and modify Path to add a new line with C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel RealSense SDK 2.0\bin\x64.

libStructure 3rd party

If you have an Occipital Structure Core device (monochrome or color), you may install the SDK provided by Occipital in order to use vpOccipitalStructure class. Otherwise you can skip this section.

Occipital Structure SDK contains libStructure pre-built library.

1. To install this SDK

  • Go to https://developer.structure.io/sdk/
  • Join the Developper program to be able to download the SDK.
  • Retrieve your invitation from https://developer.structure.io/sdk/retrieve
  • You'll then receive an email containing the link to the download page,
  • Download Structure SDK (Cross-Platform).
  • Extract the folder StructureSDK-CrossPlatform-0.9 from the downloaded file to the already created directory in VISP_WS.

The SDK contains pre-built libraries for Linux, Windows and macOS. In order that ViSP detects Structure SDK header files and libraries, you have to set OCCIPITAL_STRUCTURE_DIR environment variable. Start up a cmd Command Prompt and enter:

C:\> setx OCCIPITAL_STRUCTURE_DIR "%VISP_WS%\StructureSDK-CrossPlatform-0.9"
C:\> exit

2. Optionally build Occipital Structure SDK samples

As explained in $VISP_WS/StructureSDK-CrossPlatform-0.9/Documentation/windows.html you can optionally follow these steps to build sample applications provided with the SDK:

  • Run DriverAndFirmware\Windows\OCDriverInstaller.exe to install the Structure Core USB driver.
  • Generate the Visual Studio solution and build sample applications:
    > cd %VISP_WS%\StructureSDK-CrossPlatform-0.9
    > mkdir build
    > cd build
    > cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019 Win64" ..
    > cmake --build . --target Samples --config Release
    

After completion, sample apps may be run from the Apps directory.

3. Complete Occipital Structure SDK installation

To finalize the installation, add the location of Structure.dll library in the Path environment variable. Open the "Edit environment variable" UI, and modify Path to add a new line with VISP_WS%\StructureSDK-CrossPlatform-0.9\Libraries\Structure\Windows\x86_64\.

PCL 3rd party

PCL library could be installed to extend vpRealSense2 capabilities to acquire a point cloud. It could be also used to consider a point cloud as depth feature in the generic model-based tracker when using vpMbGenericTracker class. If you don't have an Intel Realsense Depth camera (SR300 or D400 series) or if you are not interested in model-based tracking using depth as feature you can skip this section.

1. Install PCL from all-in-one installer

There exists in https://github.com/PointCloudLibrary/pcl/releases all-in-one installer that allows to install PCL and third-parties easily. Be careful to use the version that match your compiler. For Visual Studio 16 2019:

  • Go to https://github.com/PointCloudLibrary/pcl/releases
  • From the Assets section, download PCL-1.12.1-AllInOne-msvc2019-win64.exe
  • Execute PCL-1.12.1-AllInOne-msvc2019-win64.exe, add PCL to the system path for all users and follow default installation steps.
    img-pcl-1.11.1-path.png

2. Complete PCL installation

To complete PCL installation, you need to add the location of pcl_common_<debug|release>.dll and OpenNI2.dll libraries in the Path environment variable. Open the "Edit environment variable" UI, and modify by hand Path to add respectively:

  • a new line with C:\Program Files\PCL 1.12.1\bin
  • a new line with C:\Program Files\OpenNI2\Redist
  • a new line with C:\Program Files\PCL 1.12.1\3rdParty\VTK\bin

FlyCapture 3rd party

I you have a PointGrey or FLIR USB 2.0, USB 3.0, GigE or FireWire camera (DragonFly2, Flea3...), you may install FlyCapture. Otherwise you can skip this section.

1. Install FlyCapture SDK Complete installation instructions are given here. We recap hereafter the main instructions to install FlyCapture SDK under Windows:

  • Download the latest FlyCapture2 Full SDK for your camera from Flir download site. At the time this tutorial we written we selected "FlyCapture 2.13.3.61 SDK - Windows (64 bit)" to download FlyCapture_2.13.3.61_x64.exe file.
  • Double-click the downloaded software executable and follow the installation instructions.
  • Select the correct driver for the camera when prompted by the installation instructions.
  • Reboot the system.

2. Complete FlyCapture SDK

In order to find FlyCapture2_v100.dll you need to add the location of the library to the Path environment var. Open the "Edit environment variable" UI, and modify by hand Path to add a new line with C:\Program Files\Point Grey Research\FlyCapture2\bin64.

Pylon 3rd party

If you have a Basler FireWire, Camera Link, GigE or USB3.0 camera, you may install Pylon SDK. Otherwise you can skip this section.

To install Pylon:

  • Visit Basler Software Download page to download and install the SDK corresponding to your platform. At the time this tutorial was written, we downloaded "Pylon 6.1.1 Camera Software Suite Windows".
    Note
    If during the SDK installation you retrieve an installation error like the following:
    We're sorry, but the installation could not be completed.
    The following error has occurred:
    Error code: 0x800700005, Refused Access
    
    it means certainly that there is an application that needs access to Internet that is not closed. Typically, we encounter this issue with our Anti-Virus Kaspersky tool. Once Kaspersky was paused, installation succeeded.
  • Double-click on downloaded file and follow the installation instructions.
  • Be careful to select "Developer" profile during the installation in order to install Pylon SDK headers (.h) besides the dll.
    img-win10-pylon-developer.png
  • Click then on "Next" button.
  • Select how your Basler camera is connected to the computer (USB, GigE, FireWire, Camera Link), then click on "Next" button.
  • Keep the default destination folder as C:\Program Files\Basler\pylon <version>\ and click on "Next" button
  • In the "Ready to install" panel, click on the "Install" button
  • Reboot the system.

IDS uEye 3rd party

If you have an IDS camera you may install IDS Software Suite for uEye cameras. To this end:

  • Enter the download area
  • Select "uEye industrial cameras"
  • In the "Firmware" tab, select "uEye (IDS Software Suite)" and press "SHOW" button
  • In the "Operating system" tab select "Windows" and press the search button
  • In the "Software package" section you should see the last "IDS Software Suite - Full installer" version you may download. At the time this tutorial was written, we downloaded "ids-software-suite-full-64-49400.zip" file.

Once downloaded, you may extract the archive.

Open the README file readme-ids-software-suite-win-*.html and check compatibility list

IDS Software Suite has been tested with the following Windows 10 version:
- Edition: Windows 10 Pro
    Version: 1909
    Version: 2004

If the Software Suite is compatible with your OS, proceed to the installation:

  • Double-click on the extracted file (in our case uEye64_49400_WHQL.exe) to start the installation. The uEye driver installation is menu-driven.
  • Keep default configuration and proceed to the installation.

To test the Software Suite installation, plug a camera, enter "Start" menu and run "IDS > uEyeDirectShow Demo" binary.

IDS uEye Camera Software Suite installation enables vpUeyeGrabber class usage.

Kinova Jaco 3rd party

If you have a Kinova Jaco assistive robotic arm, it could be useful to install the corresponding SDK to be able to use vpRobotKinova class. This class is an interface over Kinova Jaco SDK and allows to control Gen2 4, 6 and 7 DoF arm.

1. Install Kinova Jaco SDK

  • Download the SDK. At the time this tutorial was written, we downloaded SDK 1.5.1 that comes in PS 0000 0009_1.5.1.zip (254M).
  • Extract the zip content in a temporary folder like C:\temp\kinova-jaco
  • At this step you should have the following
    C:\> dir C:\temp\kinova-jaco\windows
    17/12/2018  21:48         6 234 383 Kinova-Jaco-Usb-Driver-(usblib)-Installer.exe
    30/01/2019  00:02               207 ReadMe.txt
    29/01/2019  23:58        64 658 780 SDK_GEN2_1_5_1_x86.exe
    09/08/2017  21:38        13 767 776 vc_redist_x86.exe
    
  • Install the SDK executing SDK_GEN2_1_5_1_x86.exe. Keep default installation options.
  • After installation, the SDK is available in C:\Program Files (x86)\JACO-SDK

There is no need to complete installation process as for previous 3rd parties.

Get ViSP source code

There are different ways to get ViSP source code.

  • You can download the latest release as a zip or a tarball. Once visp-x.y.z.tar.gz or visp-x.y.z.zip is downloaded, uncompress the file in %VISP_WS%\visp\visp-x.y.z using for example WinRAR.
  • You can also download a daily snapshot. Once visp-snapshot-yyyy-mm-dd.tar.gz is downloaded, uncompress the file in %VISP_WS%\visp\visp-x.y.z using for example WinRAR.
  • Or you get the cutting-edge ViSP from GitHub repository using the git command line tool:
    C:\> cd %VISP_WS%
    C:\> git clone https://github.com/lagadic/visp.git
    

We suppose now that ViSP source is in %VISP_WS%\visp.

Configure ViSP from source

The goal of the configuration step is now to use CMake to produce a Visual Studio C++ solution file that will be located in %VISP_WS%/visp-build-vc16.

  • Launch CMake (cmake-gui) and complete the source code and binaries location as in the next image.
    img-cmake-win10-msvc16-visp-launch.png
  • Click then on "Configure" button.
    img-cmake-win10-msvc16-visp-create-folder.png
  • Click on "Yes" to create the %VISP_WS%/visp-build-vc16 folder.
  • Select then your compiler "Visual Studio 16 2019" and click on "Finish" button.
    img-cmake-win10-msvc16-msvc-version.png
  • This will start CMake configuration. As shown in the next image, Eigen3, Flycapture, GDI (Graphical Device Interface), OpenCV, OpenMP, Pylon and Realsense2 3rd parties are automatically detected.
    img-cmake-win10-msvc16-visp-config.png
    Note
    Installation folder is set to %VISP_WS%/visp-build-vc16/install. If you want to change the installation folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\ViSP, make sure that you have administrator privileges to write in that folder before modifying CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.
    Warning
    If you forgot to set Eigen3_DIR environment var, you will get the following warning in cmake_gui:
    CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:1156 (message):
      Eigen3 config file is detected in C:/visp-ws/eigen-3.3.9/build-vc16.  Using
      C:/visp-ws/eigen-3.3.9/build-vc16/Eigen3Config.cmake doesn't allow to use a
      valid Eigen3 include dir: C://include/eigen3.  Modify Eigen3_DIR to point
      to Eigen3Config.cmake file located in Eigen3 installation folder or turn
      USE_EIGEN3 OFF.
    
    We strongly recommend to fix this warning. To this end:
    • close cmake-gui
    • set Eigen3_DIR environment var running setx Eigen3_DIR "%VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.9\build-vc16\install\share\eigen3\cmake"
    • open again cmake-gui
    • delete the cache using menu File > Delete Cache
    • and configure again ViSP.
    At this point, you should no more see the warning.
  • Click then on "Configure" button. All the red lines should disappear.
    img-cmake-win10-msvc16-visp-config2.png
    Note
    The default configuration lead to the creation of a shared library (with .dll extension). This is the default configuration that is recommended. If you want to create rather a static library (with .lib extension) you have to uncheck the BUILD_SHARED_LIBS option to disable DLL creation.
  • To finish the configuration, click on "Generate" button.
    img-cmake-win10-msvc16-visp-generate.png
  • Once the generation is done, in %VISP_WS%/visp-build-vc16 folder you have the Visual Studio VISP.sln generated solution file.

Build and install ViSP libraries

  • To build ViSP just double click on %VISP_WS%/visp-build-vc16/VISP.sln solution file. This action will open ViSP project in Visual Studio C++. By default, Visual Studio opens the solution in Debug configuration. Modify the configuration to "Release".
    img-win10-msvc16-visp-open.png
  • Enter menu "Build > Build Solution" to build ViSP or hit "Ctrl+Shift+B".
  • At the end of the build process you should have the following indicating that all the build succeeded.
    img-win10-msvc16-visp-build-end.png
  • Now to install ViSP, build "INSTALL" project. To this end, apply a left click on "INSTALL" to select the project, then a right click to enter in the "Build" menu.
    img-win10-msvc16-visp-install.png
  • At the end of the installation, you should have the following.
    img-win10-msvc16-visp-install-end.png
  • As shown in the previous image, all the headers but also the generated libraries are copied in %VISP_WS\visp-build-vc16\install folder; headers and libraries in include and x64/vc16 subfolders respectively.
  • This ends ViSP installation in "Release" configuration. Now in %VISP_WS%/visp-build-vc16/install/x64/vc16/bin folder you have ViSP DLL libraries corresponding to ViSP modules.
    img-win10-msvc16-visp-explorer-install.png
  • Note that you can also build ViSP in Debug configuration. In that case, all the library names are suffixed by "d" character (libvisp_core330d.dll...).

Build ViSP documentation

To build ViSP documentation, you have first to install Doxygen:

  • Download binary distribution for Windows. At the time this tutorial was written, we downloaded doxygen-1.8.20-setup.exe
  • Run the installer following default options
  • Open a new cmd Command Prompt and enter build directory
    C:\> cd %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16
    
  • Run CMake in build directory:
    C:\> cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64" %VISP_WS%\visp
    
  • Build documentation using:
    C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target visp_doc
    

The generated documentation is then available in $VISP_WS/visp-build-vc16/doc/html/index.html

Note
  • To speed up generating online doc, particularly around formula rendering, you can use MatJax. To this end, install first npm LTS version following these instructions, then install MathJax and build doc using:
    C:\> npm install mathjax
    C:\> cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64" %VISP_WS%\visp -DUSE_MATHJAX=ON
    C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target visp_doc
    
  • It is also possible to generate a more complete documentation that includes also all the internal classes. This could be achieved setting CMake var ENABLE_FULL_DOC to ON like:
    C:\> cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64" %VISP_WS%\visp -DENABLE_FULL_DOC=ON
    C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target visp_doc
    

Set Path environment var

Modify the Path var to add the path to ViSP dll libraries. To this end open the "Edit environment variable" UI, and modify Path to add a new line with %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16\install\x64\vc16\bin.

Set VISP_DIR environment var

In order to ease ViSP detection by CMake when ViSP is used as a 3rd party in an external project, like the one described in the Tutorial: How to create and build a project that uses ViSP and CMake on Unix or Windows, you may set VISP_DIR environment variable with the path to the VISPConfig.cmake file:

C:\> setx VISP_DIR "%VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16\install"
C:\> exit

Install ViSP data set

Some ViSP examples and tests require a data set that contains images, video, models that is not part of ViSP source code. This data set is available in Github (https://github.com/lagadic/visp-images) or as a release in a separate archive named visp-images-x.y.z.zip. This archive could be downloaded from http://visp.inria.fr/download page. Note that ViSP tutorials are not using ViSP data set.

We give hereafter the two ways to get this data set:

1. Get data set release

  • Download visp-images-3.3.0.zip from https://visp.inria.fr/download and uncompress it in your workspace %VISP_WS%.
    img-win10-visp-images-3.3.0.png
  • Once downloaded, you need to set VISP_INPUT_IMAGE_PATH environment variable to help ViSP examples and tests to detect automatically the location of the requested data. In our case, this variable should be set to %VISP_WS%\visp-images-3.3.0. Open a cmd Command Prompt and run
    C:\> setx VISP_INPUT_IMAGE_PATH %VISP_WS%\visp-images-3.3.0
    C:\> exit
    

2. Get data set from github

  • Use git to get the data set latest version:
    C:\> cd %VISP_WS%
    C:\> git clone https://github.com/lagadic/visp-images.git
    
    img-win10-visp-images.png
  • Once cloned, you need to set VISP_INPUT_IMAGE_PATH environment variable to help ViSP examples and tests to detect automatically the location of the requested data. In our case, this variable should be set to %VISP_WS%\visp-images. Open a cmd Command Prompt and run
    C:\> setx VISP_INPUT_IMAGE_PATH %VISP_WS%\visp-images
    C:\> exit
    

Test data set usage

From now, you can try to run ViSP examples and tests. For example, if you want to run %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc15\example\device\display\Release\displayGDI.exe, open a cmd Command Prompt, enter in the right folder and run:

C:\> cd %VISP_WS%\visp-build-vc16\example\device\display\Release
C:\> displayGDI.exe

A click to close the windows...

A click to display a cross...
Cross position: 392, 306

A click to exit the program...
Bye

Tips and tricks

How to take into account a newly installed 3rd party

Since all 3rd parties are optional you may have started to install only some of them. Imagine that you just installed a new third-party, or that you upgraded the version of this 3rd party. The next step is to go back to the build folder, configure ViSP with CMake to detect the newly installed third-party library and build again ViSP. This could be achieved with:

C:\> cd $VISP_WS/visp-build-msvc16
C:\> cmake ../visp

Here you can check the content of the ViSP-third-party.txt file and see if the newly installed 3rd party is well detected.

Finally, you need to rebuild and install ViSP with:

C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target install

How to uninstall ViSP

After ViSP installation, you can remove installed material using:

C:\> cd $VISP_WS/visp-build-msvc16
C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target uninstall

How to build only ViSP libraries

If you want to build only ViSP modules libraries, nor the examples, tutorials and tests:

C:\> cd $VISP_WS/visp-build-msvc16
C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target visp_modules

How to build a ViSP specific module

If you want to build a given module and all the dependencies:

C:\> cd $VISP_WS/visp-build-msvc16
C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target visp_<module_name>

For example to build the model-based tracker module named mbt, run:

C:\> cd $VISP_WS/visp-build-msvc16
C:\> cmake --build . --config Release --target visp_mbt

Which are the 3rd party libraries that are used in ViSP ?

To see which are the optional 3rd parties that are found during the configuration stage and that will be used by ViSP during the build you can have a look to the text file named ViSP-third-party.txt and located in $VISP_WS/visp-build-vc16. We provide hereafter an example of a possible content of this file that contains also build info.

C:\> type $VISP_WS/visp-build-vc16/ViSP-third-party.txt
==========================================================
General configuration information for ViSP 3.3.1

  Version control:               3.2.0-1391-g43b97871e-dirty

  Platform:
    Timestamp:                   2021-02-11T15:58:43Z
    Host:                        Windows 10.0.17763 AMD64
    CMake:                       3.19.4
    CMake generator:             Visual Studio 16 2019
    CMake build tool:            C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/MSBuild/Current/Bin/MSBuild.exe
    MSVC:                        1923

  C/C++:
    Built as dynamic libs?:      yes
    C++ Compiler:                C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe  (ver 19.23.28106.4)
    C++ flags (Release):         /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /GR /EHsc  /MP4   /EHa -openmp /Gy /bigobj /MD /O2 /Ob2 /DNDEBUG
    C++ flags (Debug):           /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3 /GR /EHsc  /MP4   /EHa -openmp /Gy /bigobj /MDd /Zi /Ob0 /Od /RTC1
    C Compiler:                  C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe
    C flags (Release):           /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3    /MP4   /EHa -openmp /MD /O2 /Ob2 /DNDEBUG
    C flags (Debug):             /DWIN32 /D_WINDOWS /W3    /MP4   /EHa -openmp /MDd /Zi /Ob0 /Od /RTC1
    Linker flags (Release):      /machine:x64  /INCREMENTAL:NO
    Linker flags (Debug):        /machine:x64  /debug /INCREMENTAL /ignore:4099

  ViSP modules:
    To be built:                 core gui imgproc io java_bindings_generator klt me sensor ar blob robot visual_features vs vision detection mbt tt tt_mi
    Disabled:                    -
    Disabled by dependency:      -
    Unavailable:                 java

  Windows RT support:            no

  Python (for build):            NO

  Java:                          
    ant:                         NO
    JNI:                         NO

  Build options: 
    Build deprecated:            yes
    Build with moment combine:   no

  Mathematics: 
    Blas/Lapack:                 yes
    \- Use MKL:                  no
    \- Use OpenBLAS:             no
    \- Use Atlas:                no
    \- Use Netlib:               no
    \- Use GSL:                  no
    \- Use Lapack (built-in):    yes (ver 3.2.1)
    Use Eigen3:                  yes (ver 3.3.9)
    Use OpenCV:                  yes (ver 4.5.1)

  Simulator: 
    Ogre simulator: 
    \- Use Ogre3D:               no
    \- Use OIS:                  no
    Coin simulator: 
    \- Use Coin3D:               no
    \- Use SoWin:                no
    \- Use SoXt:                 no
    \- Use SoQt:                 no
    \- Use Qt5:                  no
    \- Use Qt4:                  no
    \- Use Qt3:                  no

  Media I/O: 
    Use JPEG:                    no
    Use PNG:                     no
    \- Use ZLIB:                 no
    Use OpenCV:                  yes (ver 4.5.1)
    Use stb_image (built-in):    no

  Real robots: 
    Use Afma4:                   no
    Use Afma6:                   no
    Use Franka:                  no
    Use Viper650:                no
    Use Viper850:                no
    Use Kinova Jaco:             no
    Use aria (Pioneer):          no
    Use PTU46:                   no
    Use Biclops PTU:             no
    Use Flir PTU SDK:            no
    Use Parrot ARSDK:            no
    \-Use ffmpeg:                no
    Use Virtuose:                yes
    Use qbdevice (built-in):     yes (ver 2.6.0)
    Use takktile2 (built-in):    no

  GUI: 
    Use X11:                     no
    Use GTK:                     no
    Use OpenCV:                  yes (ver 4.5.1)
    Use GDI:                     yes
    Use Direct3D:                no

  Cameras: 
    Use DC1394-2.x:              no
    Use CMU 1394:                no
    Use V4L2:                    no
    Use directshow:              no
    Use OpenCV:                  yes (ver 4.5.1)
    Use FLIR Flycapture:         yes
    Use Basler Pylon:            yes (ver 6.1.1)
    Use IDS uEye:                no

  RGB-D sensors: 
    Use Realsense:               no
    Use Realsense2:              yes (ver 2.42.0)
    Use Kinect:                  no
    \- Use libfreenect:          no
    \- Use libusb-1:             no
    \- Use pthread:              no
    Use PCL:                     yes (ver 1.11.1)
    \- Use VTK:                  yes (ver 8.2.0)

  F/T sensors: 
    Use atidaq (built-in):       no
    Use comedi:                  no
    Use IIT SDK:                 no

  Detection: 
    Use zbar:                    no
    Use dmtx:                    no
    Use AprilTag (built-in):     yes (ver 3.1.1)
    \- Use AprilTag big family:  no

  Misc: 
    Use Clipper (built-in):      yes (ver 6.4.2)
    Use pugixml (built-in):      yes (ver 1.9.0)
    Use libxml2:                 no

  Optimization: 
    Use OpenMP:                  yes
    Use pthread:                 no
    Use pthread (built-in):      yes (ver 3.0.1)
    Use cxx standard:            14

  Documentation: 
    Use doxygen:                 yes

  Tests and samples:
    Use catch2 (built-in):       yes (ver 2.9.2)
    Tests:                       yes
    Demos:                       yes
    Examples:                    yes
    Tutorials:                   yes

  Install path:                  C:/visp-ws/visp-build-vc16/install

==========================================================

Build fails with Eigen 3.3.8

With Eigen 3.3.8 installed following Eigen3 3rd party installation, during visp_core build you will get an issue:

eigen_assert_exception is not member of Eigen
img-win10-issue-eigen-3.3.8.png

This issue is known and reported here.

A quick fix is to comment the corresponding line 162 in %VISP_WS%\eigen-3.3.8\build-vc16\install\include\eigen3\Eigen\src\Core\Products\Parallelizer.h like

  //if (errorCount) EIGEN_THROW_X(Eigen::eigen_assert_exception());
#endif

librealsense installer returns an unrecoverable SEH exception

At the end of the Intel Realsense SDK installation process or when running Intel Realsense Viewer, if you get the following error message:

Program terminated due to an unrecoverable SEH exception:
Illegal CPU instruction!
Possibly newer CPU architecture is required

it means that your CPU is too old to support a recent version of the Intel Realsense SDK. A workaround is to install an older version. In our case installing Intel.RealSense.SDK-WIN10-2.32.1.1297.exe does the trick.

Next tutorial

You are now ready to see the next Tutorial: How to create and build a project that uses ViSP and CMake on Unix or Windows that will show you how to use ViSP as a 3rd party to build your own project.