Build and deployment guide - fahrenheit-crew/fahrenheit GitHub Wiki

[!IMPORTANT] Ensure the folder you cloned to does not contain special characters. This can cause build errors.

Fahrenheit is generally subdivided into two parts:

  • The native (C++) components. These are the Stage 0 (src/stage0) and Stage 1 (src/stage1) loaders.
  • The managed (.NET) components. These are the core library, SDK, runtime and tools, and any mods.

All systems can build the managed components. Windows systems can perform full builds.

Managed component prerequisites

One of the following is required:

Managed component build

To build them all:

  • With a .NET IDE, build the solution.
  • With the .NET SDK, run dotnet build -c {Debug|Release} .\Fahrenheit.slnx in the folder you cloned Fahrenheit to.

Errors relating to the 'Stage 0' and 'Stage 1' loader projects may be ignored.

[!TIP] You can use a copy of the Stage 0 and Stage 1 loaders from the latest release on systems that cannot build them to compose a complete build.

Full build prerequisites

Requires Visual Studio 2026 on Windows (IDE or Build Tools only) with the following workloads:

  • C++ desktop development
  • .NET desktop development (if performing a full build)

Preparing Visual Studio

After installing Visual Studio, two further things must be ensured. Close Visual Studio if it is open.

First, your Windows SDK must possess the Debugging Tools for Windows. To do so:

  • In System > Apps > Installed apps, find the entry Windows Software Development Kit - Windows {VERSION}
  • Select Modify > Change
  • Ensure Debugging Tools for Windows is checked - do not change any other tick
  • Click Change

Second, enable the vcpkg package manager by issuing vcpkg integrate install at a Developer PowerShell.

You may then restart Visual Studio and begin working with Fahrenheit.

Full build

To build at a Developer PowerShell:

msbuild .\Fahrenheit.slnx /t:Restore /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild .\Fahrenheit.slnx /p:Configuration=Release

Alternatively, Build Solution in the IDE performs everything for you.

For a Debug build, change the Configuration parameter to Debug.

Deploying/installing and debugging a local build

To install/test your development build, in the folder in which you cloned Fahrenheit:

  • Navigate to artifacts\deploy, then dbg or rel depending on build type (Debug or Release).
  • Create a mods directory if it does not exist.
  • Create an empty, extensionless file called loadorder in the mods directory.
  • In that file, add the mod IDs of mods you wish to load, each on their own line.
  • Open a terminal in bin, then issue .\fhstage0.exe {ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_GAME_BINARY}.
  • Debugging can be performed from Visual Studio. Pass --extdbg and optionally --wait to Stage 0, attach to either fhstage0.exe or FFX.exe, and make sure to enable mixed-mode debugging.

[!IMPORTANT] Remember that deploy/** is not cleaned up automatically on rebuild. You may have to clean it yourself depending on the circumstances.