SDL3 Install Whack V1.1

SDL3 Install Whack V1.1

Two files. Double-click RunMe.bat. Walk away. When you come back, MSYS2, UCRT64, GCC, CMake, Ninja, SDL3, SDL3_ttf, SDL3_image, SDL3_mixer, and SDL3_net are installed, both SDL3 Release and Beta are built from source, and a demo has already been compiled and launched to prove the toolchain works.

How it works

1. PowerShell installs MSYS2 via winget if it is not already present.
2. PowerShell finds the MSYS2 home directory and writes build_env.sh and splash.sh into it.
3. PowerShell writes a fresh .bashrc that shows a one-time splash on first login, then prints the current SDL3 mode on every login after.
4. PowerShell launches the UCRT64 shell and exits. Its job is done.
5. Inside UCRT64, build_env.sh runs pacman -Syu twice, installs the toolchain and all SDL3 packages, downloads the official SDL3 3.4.16 tarball, builds it into /ucrt64/local/sdl3/release, clones the SDL3 main branch and builds it into /ucrt64/local/sdl3/beta, compiles a demo that logs keyboard and mouse events and opens a clickable URL, and installs the toggle_build switcher.

Release / Beta toggle

Both SDL3 builds live side by side. A symlink named /ucrt64/local/sdl3/active points at whichever one you are using. Your compile command never changes — it always points at active.

toggle_build release   # switch to SDL3 3.4.16
toggle_build beta      # switch to git main
toggle_build ?         # show current mode and path

Files in the archive

Installed automatically

• MSYS2 (via winget install MSYS2.MSYS2)
• UCRT64 toolchain: gcc, cmake, ninja, pkgconf
• git, wget, tar
• mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-sdl3
• mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-sdl3-image
• mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-sdl3-mixer
• mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-sdl3-ttf
• mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-sdl3-net
• SDL3 Release 3.4.16 (built from the official tarball)
• SDL3 Beta (built from the main branch)

Compile against the active SDL3 prefix

gcc -o myapp.exe myapp.c \
    -I/ucrt64/local/sdl3/active/include \
    -L/ucrt64/local/sdl3/active/lib \
    -lSDL3 -lSDL3_ttf -lshell32

Demo

The installer builds and runs a small SDL3_ttf demo. It opens an 800×400 window in the center of the display, renders four lines of text, logs every keyboard and mouse event to the terminal, and turns the URL line into a clickable, underlined link that opens your default browser.

• Source: /ucrt64/local/sdl3/demo/main.c
• Binary: /ucrt64/local/sdl3/demo/demo.exe

Splash

The first time you open MSYS2 UCRT64 after installation, a one-time splash prints the banner, command list, and paths. It then removes itself. Every login after that shows a single line:

 SDL3 mode: release

Author

Grok Stunt Jockey Tony @tswain555

Packages

2 files: RunMe.bat, setup.ps1

First run

15–30 minutes

Re-run safe

Yes. build_env.sh is idempotent.

Resolution

840 × 600 (demo window 800 × 400)

Refresh

2 s (demo event loop 16 ms / 60 fps)