Build Prerequisites for BestClient from Source

Building BestClient 1.9.1 beta from source gives you full control over the compiled output — enabling custom flags, headless builds, and local patches. The project is a C++20/Rust/Python codebase driven by CMake and assembled with Ninja, so you will need a matching toolchain before invoking any build commands. This page walks through every required and optional tool, with platform-specific install instructions, so you can reach a clean CMake configure step on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

Required Tools

Tool	Minimum Version	Notes
CMake	3.12	`cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12...3.27.4)` in CMakeLists.txt
Ninja	Any recent	Required by all documented build commands (`-G Ninja`)
C++ compiler	C++20 capable	GCC / Clang on Linux & macOS; MSVC on Windows
Rust & Cargo	Stable	Workspace members in `src/base`, `src/engine`, `src/engine/shared`, `src/rust-bridge/test`
Python 3	Any recent 3.x	Used by code-generation scripts; CMake will error if absent
Git	Any with submodule support	Needed to clone and initialize vendored submodules

CMake enforces all of the above at configure time. If Python 3, Rust/Cargo, or several system libraries (libcurl, libpng, SQLite3) are missing, the configure step will emit a fatal error and stop immediately.

Platform Installation

Linux
Windows
macOS

The CI pipeline targets Ubuntu 22.04 with the following packages. Adjust package names for your distro (Arch, Fedora, etc.) as needed.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y \
  git cmake ninja-build \
  clang rustc cargo \
  pkg-config \
  libfreetype6-dev libnotify-dev libsdl2-dev \
  libsqlite3-dev libvulkan-dev glslang-tools spirv-tools \
  libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev \
  libswresample-dev libswscale-dev libx264-dev \
  libpng-dev \
  libcurl4-openssl-dev libcurlpp-dev \
  libogg-dev libopus-dev libopusfile-dev \
  python3

Verify your toolchain after installing:

cmake --version      # should report 3.12 or newer
ninja --version
rustc --version
python3 --version

On Windows, CMake automatically prefers the bundled dependency libraries shipped in ddnet-libs/, so fewer system packages are required manually.1. Install Visual Studio 2022 (Community edition is free)

Select the “Desktop development with C++” workload
Ensure the MSVC v143 compiler and Windows SDK components are checked

2. Install CMake Download the installer from cmake.org/download and add CMake to your PATH during setup.3. Install Ninja

winget install Ninja-build.Ninja

Or download the binary from github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases and place it somewhere on your PATH.4. Install Rust

winget install Rustlang.Rustup
rustup default stable-msvc

5. Install Python 3

winget install Python.Python.3

6. Install Git

winget install Git.Git

Open a Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022 (or a terminal where cl.exe is on the path) for all subsequent build steps.

macOS builds target 10.15 Catalina or later (CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET 10.15). The Vulkan backend is disabled on macOS by default.1. Install Xcode Command Line Tools

xcode-select --install

2. Install Homebrew (if not already present)

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

3. Install build tools and dependencies

brew install cmake ninja rustup-init python3 \
  sdl2 freetype libpng opus opusfile \
  sqlite curl
rustup-init -y
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

4. Verify

cmake --version
ninja --version
rustc --version
python3 --version

Git Submodules

BestClient ships vendored third-party libraries as Git submodules under ddnet-libs/. These must be initialized before CMake can locate bundled headers and link libraries. Run the following command once after cloning, and again any time you pull commits that update submodule references:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Skipping submodule initialization will cause the CMake configure step to fail immediately — bundled library paths referenced in CMakeLists.txt will not exist on disk. Always run git submodule update --init --recursive before your first build and after any rebase or merge that touches .gitmodules.

Optional: Nix Flake Environment

A flake.nix is included in the repository root. If you have Nix with flakes enabled, you can drop into a fully-provisioned development shell without touching your system packages:

nix develop

This shell provides all runtime libraries needed to run BestClient (SDL2, freetype, libGL, curl, openssl, vulkan-loader, libnotify) via autoPatchelfHook and makeWrapper. It is primarily oriented toward running pre-built binaries, but can serve as a convenient dependency sandbox during development on NixOS or systems with Nix installed.

Overview

Building from Source

Build Prerequisites for BestClient from Source

Required Tools

Platform Installation

Git Submodules

Optional: Nix Flake Environment

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Overview

Building from Source

Documentation Index

​Required Tools

​Platform Installation

​Git Submodules

​Optional: Nix Flake Environment

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Required Tools

Platform Installation

Git Submodules

Optional: Nix Flake Environment