[Tutorial][Windows] VS Code with VitaSDK

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What is VS Code?:

SonicMastr told me to try VS Code again...

Visual Studio Code is the latest meme/botnet code editor from Microsoft that everyone is using to program now. It is similar to Visual Studios in allowing IntelliSense except more lightweight, cross-platform, and in an attempt attract neck beards to this botnet, offers more customization.

IntelliSense in action with VitaSDK (Code Auto-completion)



IntelliSense in action with VitaSDK (Code Parameter Information)




Of course, with this demographic comes the emulation of annoying configuration that doesn't work out of the box in order to give feed into a superiority complex that these neck beards so desire.

What Will This Tutorial Cover?:

This will be a brief overview on getting VS Code to work with VitaSDK installed through msys2 on Windows. This includes building and setting up the headers. This is just what worked for me and may not apply to your system (ex: if you are using a dated 32 bit machine). I don't really know how to use this thing, so I'll just tell you everything I had to do.

You will need:

• https://code.visualstudio.com/
• https://www.msys2.org/
• https://vitasdk.org/
• A project to build.

Installing msys2 and VitaSDK:

Since they have detailed steps on their respective websites, I will just give notes on installing. If you already have it installed, make sure you have the dependencies listed below.

Install msys2 first, downloading the 64bit version (ex: msys2-x86_64-*.exe). Install it then SCROLL DOWN and follow the remaining instructions on the website!

Then attempt to install VitaSDK through the Windows instructions on their website, except use the following dependencies instead:

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pacman -Su make git cmake tar mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-libwinpthread-git python mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
For doing exports, if you don't know where the .bashrc file is:

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nano ~/.bashrc

This will open a text editor, paste the export information into there and restart your terminal.

After this, continue with the install of vdpm and hopefully it will work for you...

Make sure the following is in your Windows User PATH environment variable. I cannot give instructions for this since it is different for every version of Windows, a quick google search will tell you how to do this:

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C:\msys64\mingw64\bin
C:\msys64\usr\local\vitasdk\bin


Setting up a Project (Part 1):

Install and open VS Code.

Drag and drop the source folder of the desired project onto VS Code.

By source folder, the directory that contains the CMakeLists.txt file.

VS Code should automatically detect and prompt you to install the CMake Tools and C/C++ extensions by Microsoft.

If not, click on the Extensions button on the left side bar, search for C/C++ and CMake Tools (not CMake) and install them respectively (I already have them installed).



After both extensions are installed, it is now time to configure CMake Tool. Because CMake defaults to Unix Makefiles and Windows obviously does not use a Unix file system, errors will occur. Thus, the following section is dedicated to fixing this issue by using minGW, which uses Windows Paths. I think...

Hit the key combo CTRL+SHIFT+P to open the "Command Palette" and type Settings json and look for "Open Setttings (JSON)"



Add the following to your settings.json:

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    "cmake.buildDirectory": "${workspaceRoot}/build/${buildType}",
    "cmake.configureOnOpen": true,
    "cmake.cmakePath": "C:\\msys64\\mingw64\\bin\\cmake",
    "cmake.generator": "MinGW Makefiles"

By doing this, we are changing the CMake generator type to MinGW to allow it to build within windows and we are using the MingW64 cmake. The rest is maybe optional. I don't know.

Be sure you have all your commas and keep the syntax proper.

Example settings.json:


Now open the Command Palette again, and type "cmake" and look for "Edit User-Local CMake Kits"



Add the following code to the now opened cmake-tools-kits.json:

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  {
    "name": "VitaSDK",

    "toolchainFile": "C:\\msys64\\usr\\local\\vitasdk\\share\\vita.toolchain.cmake",
    "preferredGenerator": {
      "name": "MinGW Makefiles"
    },
    "environmentVariables": {
      "VITASDK": "C:\\msys64\\usr\\local\\vitasdk",
      "CMT_MINGW_PATH": "C:\\msys64\\usr\\local\\vitasdk\\bin"
    }
  },
With this config, we are setting the VitaSDK enviromental variables along with setting the path to locate the compiler binaries. We are also hard-coding the location of the toolchain cmake file (normally set by the cmake file in the project).

Be sure to mind your brackets, commas, and curly braces.

Example cmake-tools-kits.json:



Make sure you saved all your files and now CMake should be configured.

Look at the bottom left corner of the Window, you should see "No Kits Selected", click on that and change it to "VitaSDK".



You should be able to build now by clicking the "Build:" button in the same bottom bar area.

If it doesn't work the first time:

• Navigate to the location of the source folder and look inside it.
• Make sure there is no build folder.
• Open the command palette and then type Developer Reload and reload the window

And with luck, it should configure CMake and allow you to build the project.

Setting up a Project (Part 2):
You will have to do the following with every new opened project.

Open the command palette, then type c++, looking for "C/C++: Edit Configurations (UI)"


Add a new configuration called VitaSDK and set the compiler path to the following:

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C:\msys64\usr\local\vitasdk\bin\arm-vita-eabi-gcc.exe



Scroll down and un-collapse Advanced Settings then look for and set the Browse Path to the following:

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C:\msys64\usr\local\vitasdk\arm-vita-eabi\include



This should set up IntelliSense.

The nightmare is over and now you can enjoy using VS Code. You can try setting up other things like Davee's gdb thing, but it is not as stable as I would like it to be.

If you need help: https://discord.cbps.xyz