Getting Started - Ryan-rsm-McKenzie/CommonLibSSE GitHub Wiki
Setting Up Your Environment
Download and install the latest copy of Visual Studio.
Download a copy of SKSE64 and extract the folderskse64_X_XX_XX. This folder will be our working directory, and all instructions will be made relative to this folder.
Open up src\skse64\skse64.sln. This is the the solution we will use to manage and build our own projects. Don't worry if the solution complains about source control; feel free to remove it. The solution may also ask you to upgrade the SDK/toolset. Again, feel free to upgrade them, as the SDK/toolset you use is not really important.
Disable SKSE's post-build events by selecting all projects, right click -> Properties -> Configuration Properties -> Build Events -> Post-Build Event -> Use In Build -> No. SKSE's build events are configured for their environment, however ours is different, so we won't be using them.
E0070: This error is commonly thrown by SKSE's STATIC_ASSERT macro, and typically indicates that a size, or offset assert failed. Intellisense can fail to evaluate certain templated types properly, and will throw this error as a false positive while browsing, however the error should not be thrown during compilation. Feel free to ignore this error.
LNK4221: This link warning indicates an unused object file, which implies certain code is completely unused by the project. In a reverse-engineered resource such as SKSE, where you won't be using everything, you can feel free to ignore this warning.
Copy src\skse64\x64\Debug\skse64_X_X_XX.dll to your root game directory (i.e. Skyrim Special Edition\skse64_X_X_XX.dll). You now have a debug build of SKSE ready for developing SKSE plugins.
Finally, grab a copy of Steamless and use it to strip Steam's anti-debug DRM from your copy of SkyrimSE.exe. Now you can attach a debugger to Skyrim and set breakpoints without the program crashing.
Make sure to save the original executable and rename the unpacked one from SkyrimSE.exe.unpacked.exe to Skyrim.exe
Add the project to the solution by selecting File -> Add -> Existing Project...
Change SKSE64 to build as a static lib by right clicking on skse64 in the Solution Explorer and selecting Properties -> Configuration Properties -> General -> Project Defaults -> Configuration Type -> Static library (.lib)
Finally, select MyFirstPlugin from the Solution Explorer and build it.
CommonLibSSE
Vcpkg is what I use to automatically manage and build all of my dependencies. If you want to manage your dependencies manually, go ahead and skip these steps.
Go to triplets\community and duplicate the file x64-windows-static-md.cmake. Rename it to x64-windows-custom.cmake.
Install Xbyak with vcpkg install xbyak:x64-windows-custom.
Install span-lite with vcpkg install span-lite:x64-windows-custom.
Add Skyrim: Special Edition's path as an environment variable entitled Skyrim64Path. This should point to the folder containing the main executable (SkyrimSE.exe).
Clone a copy of CommonLibSSE to your computer and add its path as an environment variable entitled CommonLibSSEPath. This should point to the folder containing the solution file (CommonLibSSE.sln).
Move your plugin from src\skse64\x64\Debug\MyFirstPlugin.dll to Skyrim Special Edition\Data\SKSE\Plugins\MyFirstPlugin.dll (the CommonLibSSE example project does this step automatically).
Run Skyrim Special Edition\skse64_loader.exe and attach to it by selecting Debug -> Attach to Process... and choosing SkyrimSE.exe from the list of available processes.
