AGS Resources - an archive of modules, templates, fonts, plugins and more made for AGS. Insta-Game - ready-made backgrounds, characters and items for you to use in your game, run by eric and Sylpher. AGS Font Editor - by Radiant, this allows you to manually edit SCI and AGS font files. GET OTHER Huawei STOCK FIRMWARE and ROMs FROM HERE. Huawei Build No: Huawei MediaPad T3 10 AGS-L03 AGS-L03C331B280CUSTC331D001. Download: AGS-L03C331B280CUSTC331D001 Firmware 7.0.0 r1 EMUI5.1 05015WYL.zip. Download Huawei MediaPad T3 10 AGS-L03 official stock Firmware. How to flash firmware to Huawei Honor smartphone.
What exactly is amd_ags_x64.dll?
amd_ags_x64.dll is a type of DLL file, with extension of .dll. It is associated with AMD GPU Services Library and is used to run AMD GPU Services Library based applications. Certain sophisticated video games and software applications use amd_ags_x64.dll to get access to certain API functionality, as provided by Windows.
File Name: amd_ags_x64.dll
File Description: Windows Shell Alt Tab
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
File Format: .dll
Download Format: .zip
DLL files similar to executable files, except it is not possible to directly execute a DLL file such as amd_ags_x64.dll, as only an executable file can load it through an entry point.
What is a DLL file?Common Variations amd_ags_x64.dll Related Errors
- The program can't start because amd_ags_x64.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.
- amd_ags_x64.dll not found
- This application failed to start because amd_ags_x64.dll was not found. Re-installing the program may fix this problem.
- The code execution cannot proceed because amd_ags_x64.dll was not found. Re-installing the program may fix this problem.
- Cannot start {program}. A required component is missing: amd_ags_x64.dll. Please install {program} again.
Recommended Reading: 5 Reasons why are you facing .dll file missing errors
First of all, you have to download amd_ags_x64.dll file from top of this article, proceed with the installation of amd_ags_x64.dll file in your Windows PC. Make sure you download 32/64-bit file depending on your PC configuration to be able to fix any missing .dll file error.
Other Steps To Solve amd_ags_x64.dll Error
- Run Antivirus: Some amd_ags_x64.dll issues could be associated with a virus or malware infection in your computer which has damaged the amd_ags_x64.dll DLL file. It is possible the amd_ags_x64.dll error you are seeing is associated with a hostile program that is masquerading as a document. Many sorts of malware masquerade as apparently unrelated Windows and PC problems like Blue Tooth Death, problems with DLL files (in this case, amd_ags_x64.dll), strange hard disk activity, along with other serious Windows problems. That's why, run an antivirus scan.
- Reinstall the program: Reinstall the program that is generating the amd_ags_x64.dll error. In case the amd_ags_x64.dll error happens when you run a specific program, then reinstalling said program application could help. By reinstalling a software, whether it be a productivity utility, a game, or even an office program, you substitute all of the program documents, registry entries, and amd_ags_x64.dll files required for the application to run. To reinstall a program in the most proper means possible, you need to uninstall it entirely first.
- Update/Install drivers: Update drivers for almost any hardware that may be associated with this amd_ags_x64.dll DLL error. Suppose, if you are getting a 'Missing DLL' error when you play audio, consider updating your sound drivers. Updating drivers can be also an excellent troubleshooting measure if you are getting a amd_ags_x64.dll error.
- Reinstall/Reset Windows: As time passes, the buildup of documents, misconfigured configurations, along with other variables slows down your computer. If you find that you are encountering amd_ags_x64.dll error messages often, and programs do not run the way you expect, you may choose to turn back the clock by resetting Windows. A System Restore could also eradicate the problem if you suspect that an update caused amd_ags_x64.dll error to spring up.
- Repair Windows: Repairing Windows version is one step easier or less riskier than resetting or reinstalling Windows, that's why to solve amd_ags_x64.dll, you may first want to use Repair Windows wizard. Reset This PC option in Windows 10/8 is quite handy as it overwrites all important files, processes that tend to fix amd_ags_x64.dll problems caused by Windows built-in files.
- Install Windows updates: Windows 10 updates are always coming and going, there are updates being delivered multiple times in a month. It's quite a possibility that some change in the operating system is not compatible with old version of amd_ags_x64.dll file. In this case, installing latest Windows update does the trick by delivering updated amd_ags_x64.dll version of file.
- Clean the registry: Utilize a free registry cleaner to fix amd_ags_x64.dll associated problems in the registry by eliminating invalid amd_ags_x64.dll registry entries which may be causing the amd_ags_x64.dll DLL error. Registry cleaners are particularly helpful for eliminating registry entries to amd_ags_x64.dll file which no longer exists.
- Hardware issue: If you have tried all of the troubleshooting steps above, there is a chance that the problem is not on software-level, rather it's some hardware issue.
Download Section for amd_ags_x64.dll
| Size | Version | Bit | Associated Software | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 117448 | 5.1.1.0 | 64 | AMD GPU Services Library | Download |
| 132840 | 0.0.0.0 | 64 | AMD GPU Services Library | Download |
| 107520 | 5.0.5.0 | 64 | AMD GPU Services Library | Download |
Current Versions of Virtual AGC Downloads | |||
| Target Platform | Description | Download Version | Instructions |
|---|---|---|---|
| All platforms | Complete source code (Apps, AGC, and AEA) | Current at GitHub | Building from source |
| Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, or FreeBSD (32- or 64-bit 'x86) | VirtualBox virtual machine (Apps, AGC source code, and visual AGC debugging). Since the VM is a rather substantial download (~1GB), you normally wouldn't want to download it very often, and instead would just update it with new VirtualAGC software, as needed, after the initial download. But sometimes the improvements to the VM itself are substantial enough to justify re-downloading it in its entirety, so here is a brief change history to let you decide. Note that older versions of the VM are not retained on this site, so only the latest one listed in the change history is still available. Note also that a complete re-download of the VM requires erasing the old VM, putting the downloaded one in the same location as the old VM on your host machine.
| 2017-03-29, 1.2GB (10GB uncompressed) | Usingthe VM or Updating the VM to latest version of VirtualAGC (see next item) |
| Ubuntu 14.04 (32-bit 'x86) | App-installation tarball | 2017-08-31, 26MB (418MB uncompressed) | Using Ubuntu installer |
| Raspberry Pi (Raspbian-Jessie) | App-installation tarball | 2017-08-31, 26MB (418MB uncompressed) | Using Raspbian tarball |
| Windows | App-installation tarball | 2017-08-31, 27MB (418MB uncompressed) | Using Windows tarball |
| Target Platform | Description | Download Version | Instructions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 14.04 (32-bit 'x86) | App-installation tarball | 2017-04-17, 21MB | Using Ubuntu installer |
| Ubuntu 14.04 (32-bit 'x86) | App-installation tarball | 2017-03-29, 23MB | UsingUbuntu installer |
| Ubuntu 14.04 (32-bit 'x86) | App-installer program | 2017-03-27, 42MB | UsingUbuntu installer |
| Ubuntu 14.04 (32-bit 'x86) | App-installer program | 2016-11-16, 27MB | UsingUbuntu installer |
| Raspberry Pi (Raspbian-Jessie) | App-installation tarball | 2017-03-29, 21MB | Using Raspbian tarball |
| Raspberry Pi (Raspbian-Jessie) | App-installation tarball | 2016-08-13, 12MB | Using Raspbian tarball |
| Windows | App-installation tarball | 2017-03-29, 23MB | Using Windows tarball |
| Very old versions | |||
| Very, very old versions | |||
Contents
- Installer for Windows
- Newer Macs: Xcode with clang
- Some Resource Issues on Slower Computers, Such as Raspberry Pi
Introduction
This page covers various ways to download and/or install Virtual AGC project software. Three methods are currently recommended, and a fourth is possible if not really recommended:
- If you simply wish to run one of the provided AGC or AEA simulations, examine the AGC or AEA program code, and/or do visual debugging of (Block II) AGC code, then the easiest thing to do is to download and run the provided VirtualBox virtual machine. The VM is guaranteed to work properly on any 32-bit or 64-bit 'x86 platform for which VirtualBox is available, namely Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris, and (accordingto this page) FreeBSD as well even though the latter is not obvious from the VirtualBox website.
- If you just happen to have a computer system which is currently supported by an installation package, then you can simply download and install the proper installation package. At present, however, these platforms are only the following:
- Raspberry Pi
- Ubuntu 14.04 32-bit 'x86.
- Windows.
- If you wish to do not only the above, but also wish to delve more deeply into the Virtual AGC project code (as opposed to just the AGC/AEA code), then you should instead download the Virtual AGC source code, and perhaps build it yourself. This works on many more platforms, though is more-involved to set up, and visual AGC debugging may not be possible easily on platforms other than 'x86 Windows, Mac, or Linux.
- If you are satisfied with older versions of Virtual AGC, many additional computer platforms were once directly supported with installer programs, which you can still find here or here. Ideally, we would like to directly support all major platforms with Virtual AGC installer programs, but in practice it is far too hard to do so with the resources available at present, so this is no longer being done currently.
Note that a lot of detail about known quirks on different platforms, and about trouble-shooting, can be found at the older links listed in approach #4 above, but isn't found on the present page. That's because the information hasn't been updated in so long that its reliability is dubious, and because many of the platforms mentioned there are long-obsolete. It should also be noted that the build-instructions for some platforms presented here are similarly out-of-date and may need corrections.
Downloading, Running, or Updating Virtual AGC in VirtualBox
Characteristics of the Virtual AGC VM
My descriptions in this section relate to the 2017-04-20 version of both the VM and the VirtualAGC software, so other versions may be slightly different ... but this still gives the general idea.
The virtual-machine approach should work with any host system supported by VirtualBox: namely, any 32-bit or 64-bit 'x86 version of Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, or FreeBSD. The VM is nice because it lets you work with the most-commonly-desired elements of Virtual AGC, while skipping past the most-annoying and tricky setup steps, such as compiling Virtual AGC's source code. It provides you with a 'virtual machine', with Virtual AGC and other things you need in order to be able to work with Virtual AGC already pre-installed and pre-configured. Though like anything else done to make our lives 'simpler', it brings its own (hopefully smaller!) set of problems with it.
When the VM is run, the first thing you see is the VirtualAGC GUI, from which you can run an AGC simulation using various selectable options. There are actually two different versions, and which you'll see depends on how large your (virtual) display screen is: For screens smaller than 1200×1024 you'll get the interface below left, whereas for larger screens you'll get the one below right. Unfortunately, they don't resize if you resize your virtual display screen, in which case you may simply need to exit from the program and restart it. The two interfaces have exactly the same capabilities, except the smaller, left-hand one doesn't allow you to run 'custom' AGC-software versions:
You can do a number of things from this VirtualAGC GUI, such as run the simulation (below left) or browse nicely syntax-highlighted AGC source code (below right):
If you exit from the VirtualAGC GUI, you'll see the VM's bare desktop, on which a number of other useful options appear:
Some other very-useful icons you can see on this desktop are:
- 'AGC Simulator' lets you rerun the VirtualAGC GUI if you've exited from it.
- 'GitHub Repo' lets you browse our GitHub source-code repository.
- 'Internet Archive' lets you browse our Internet Archive document collection.
- 'Website' lets you browse our main website.
- (2017-04-20 or later.) 'Update VirtualAGC' lets you download and install the latest version of the VirtualAGC GUI program, and all of the associated simulation software, AGC code, AGS code, and so on. Just double-click it, and then answer the prompt with either YES or NO.
- 'AGC Visual Debugging' allows you to work with the AGC source code, and or run the AGC simulation, within a program called Code::Blocks. The desktop icon is actually a folder containing separate launcher icons for most of the AGC software versions available to us.
Okay, enough of the sales pitch already! What's do you actually have to do to install the thing?
Installation of the Virtual AGC VM
It's hard to pin down exactly what computer resources you'll need to run the VM. The minimum is probably around 2 GB of RAM and 30GB of free disk space, but the more of everything you have, the better. In particular, you will have a far more satisfactory experience if your CPU has VT-x (Intel) or AMD-V (AMD) extensions. The VM itself requires only about 10GB of disk space, but in the process of decompressing the downloaded VM, you'll temporarily need a lot more (hence the 30GB mentioned).
Before doing anything with Virtual AGC as such, you should take care of the following:
- If VirtualBox is not already installed, download and install VirtualBox, using whatever version is suitable for your computer system. The Virtual AGC virtual machine (VM) you will download was created with VirtualBox 4.3.40, but it should work with later versions as well. If you have a different version, you may find yourself wanting to reinstall VirtualBox's 'guest additions'; if you do, remember that the username and password are both 'virtualagc'.
- The VM is compressed in tar.xz form for downloading, so if your operating system doesn't already have software support for tar.xz archives, you need to install extra software that provides it. In Linux, you're probably okay without doing anything, or at worst just using your distribution's software repository. For other platforms, a little googling reveals that the program 7zip provides these formats for Windows, and there are 'unofficial' installers for 7zip for Mac, Solaris, and FreeBSD. However, various other programs work as well, I think, such as WinZip.
Then to actually install the VirtualAGC VM, you do the following.
- Download the current compressed VM, as listed at the top of this page.
- Uncompress it, resulting in a folder called 'VirtualAGC-runtime'. (This may or may not be a 2-step process, in which a tar file is first created, which in turn would need to be expanded to get the mentioned folder.) The tar.xz/tar file(s) are no longer used after that and may be deleted ... though obviously we'd prefer you retained it for a while to make sure you don't need to download it again if some mishap occurs. VirtualBox tends to store all of its virtual machines in the same folder (on Linux, for example, that folder is '~/VirtualBox VMs'), so although it's not necessary to do so, you might want to move the VirtualAGC-runtime folder into the corresponding 'VirtualBox VMs' folder on your computer.
- In whatever file-system browser your computer has, descend into the VirtualAGC-runtime folder, and double-click the mouse on the file VirtualAGC-runtime.vbox. This makes VirtualBox aware of your VM, and may or may not actually immediately run it. At any rate, the VM will be visible in VirtualBox's manager program, and you can run it from there.
In its as-downloaded form, the VM is typically configured to use 1GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores. You may be able dial these settings down in VirtualBox, but you may need to scale your expectations at the same time.
As I mentioned above, the username and password for the VM are both 'virtualagc'. Since you are automatically logged in whenever you run the VM, you don't normally need this information, but it's good to know just in case (for example) you ever need to install some new, non-Virtual-AGC software on it, or perform some other administrative action.
Finally, technically, for any Linux pros, the VM does not have any swap space. If that makes you uncomfortable, versions the VM from 2017-04-20 or later actually have an uncommitted 1GB partition on the virtual disk which you can assign as swap space if you want. I normally don't to this because I don't think it's necessary, but mainly because filling that partition with a lot of random garbage just causes more hassle in trying to create a 'small' downloadable image.
Updating the Virtual AGC VM
Because the VM is such a large download, you don't want to have to download it every time there's updated Virtual AGC software, and usually just want to update the VirtualAGC software within the VM.
For VM versions 2017-04-20 or later, this update process is really easy: There's simply a desktop icon called 'Update VirtualAGC' that you can double-click. It will tell you what the latest VirtualAGC version is, and you can tell it either YES or NO.
For earlier VM versions, you can downloada script that does the same thing. Just put it somewhere (say in the 'home' directory, /home/virtualagc/), and then from a command-line run the following command:
bash ./UpdateVirtualAGC
Platforms Directly Supported by Virtual AGC Installers
Virtual AGC Installer for Raspberry Pi (Raspbian)
Installation is trivial:- Download the current Raspberry Pi installation tarball, as listed at the top of this page.
- Unpack the installation tarball somewhere: either 'tar -xJvf VirtualAGC-Raspbian-VERSION.tar.xz' or 'tar -xjvf VirtualAGC-Raspbian-VERSION.tar.bz2', depending on which type of installer is downloaded. (Notice that these two commands are not the same, in that one has a 'j' where the other has a 'J'.)
sudo apt-get install libwxgtk2.8-0 libsdl libncurses5 liballegro4 tkTo run the program, simply do the following from the command line, or set up a desktop icon that does the equivalent:
cd VirtualAGC/Resources
../bin/VirtualAGC
Installer for Ubuntu 14.04 32-bit 'x86 Linux
- For a first-time installation only, you may have to install the following system libraries from the Ubuntu repository: tk, libsdl1.2, libncurses5, liballegro4.4, libgtk2.0, libwxgtk2.8.
- Another one-time step is downloading the update script, UpdateVirtualAGC.
- Run the command 'bash UpdateVirtualAGC'.
- If you try to use the ACA simulation (joystick) and it doesn't work, readabout configuring it.
Installer for Windows
Installation is as follows:
- Download the current Windows installation tarball, as listed at the top of this page.
- Unpack the installation tarball somewhere: I did this by using 7zip, but I believe there are a lot of other possibilities as well. With 7zip, the unpacking was a two-step process, first to turn VirtualAGC-Windows-VERSION.tar.xz into VirtualAGC-Windows-VERSION.tar, and then to turn the latter file into the uncompressed folder VirtualAGC. (At which point the tar.xz and tar files are no longer needed and can be deleted.)
To run the program, my suggestion would be to create a desktop shortcut for it. I'm no Windows aficionado, but I think the basic steps to do that are these:
- Right-click on the desktop, and choose New/Shortcut in the pop-up menu that appears.
- The popup window that appears will ask you for the location of the program you want to run. It is C:UsersYourNameHereVirtualAGCbinVirtualAGC.exe.
- After the shortcut has been created on the desktop, right-click it and select Properties. Change the 'Start in' or 'Working directory' to be C:UsersYourNameHereVirtualAGCResources.
- If you're really very keen on getting everything just so, that same Properties window from step 3 above also lets you change the icon displayed on the desktop. It's entirely optional, but I'd suggest using C:UsersYourNameHereVirtualAGCResourcesApolloPatch2-transparent.ico.
Another way to use the program is from a command line. In the command line, do this:
- C:
- cd C:UsersYourNameHereVirtualAGCResources
- ..binVirtualAGC
Downloading and Building Virtual AGC from Source
Limitation
Building Virtual AGC from source actually has a limitation compared to running the VM as described above, which is that while the VM is already set up for visual debugging of AGC code using Code::Blocks, this capability is not a part of Virtual AGC proper. That is, Code::Blocks based AGC debugging has its own set of installations, requirements, and setups, distinct from those of building Virtual AGC proper ... which is what's discussed below. If (once Virtual AGC is built and working satisfactorily) you want to do visual debugging, you need to install Code::Blocks and should consult the instructions for development using Code::Blocks on our GitHub wiki, as well as theinstructions for visual debugging.
Of course, it also has the limitation that we can't actually deal with every platform people might try to use. So I make a pretty strong effort to make sure it works on Ubuntu- and Debian-based 64-bit 'x86 Linux, which I use every day, and occasionally (rarely) try to check that the process still works on whatever versions of Raspberry Pi, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and Solaris it happens to be convenient for me to run personally.
Gettingthe Source Code
The complete up-to-the-moment source code is available from GitHub. There are several ways which one might choose to download it, such as in a zipfile or using the 'git' program, which in Linux (for example) would look like this:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/virtualagc/virtualagc
What you do with it after that depends on which platform you intend to run Virtual AGC on, and that's the topic of the next few sections. It's also possible that the instructions at the GitHub repository may (or may not) be more up-to-date than those here.
Linux
| This works! Last verified (Mint 64-bit): 2020-12-06 Last verified (Mint 32-bit): 2019-09-22 Last verified (Mint 64-bit, clang 3.9): 2020-12-06 Last verified (Fedora 26 64-bit): 2017-08-31 |
These instructions apply to building Virtual AGC on Ubuntu-like systems, but are probably directly applicable to most Ubuntu, Debian, or Mint desktop systems. They are known to work on 64-bit Linux Mint 17.3 and 32-bit Ubuntu 14.04. Please realize that while Linux is my own working environment of choice, I don't have time to support every possible Linux variant, and don't intend to even try to do so any longer.
One-time setup:
- Ubuntu/Debian/Mint: 'sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev libncurses5-dev liballegro4.4-dev g++ libgtk2.0-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev'. Sometimes the package names needed are a little different:
- Could be liballegro4-dev
- Could be libwxgtk3.0-dev
- Versions of Linux I don't support, but about which I have learned possibly-helpful info:
- Fedora 26 64-bit Intel/AMD: 'sudo yum install SDL-devel ncurses-devel allegro-devel gcc-c++ wxGTK3-devel redhat-rpm-config'. (Note that this uses wxGTK 3 rather than wxGTK 2.8 as I normally advise. To instead use wxGTK 2.8, the makefiles for all of the graphical programs, such as yaDSKY2, yaDEDA2, VirtualAGC, and so on, have to be modified manually to add -fPIC to the compiler command lines.)
Download Ags Driver License
- In the Virtual AGC source directory, run 'make install' or 'make clean install'. (This does not require a 'sudo', and you shouldn't use one.)
By the way, it's preferable to build Virtual AGC on a clean Linux installation. If (like me) you have a system that's used extensively for software development, you may have lots of stuff installed beyond what's mentioned above. That extra stuff may cause you problems. Hopefully that won't happen to most people, but I suspect that a higher percentage of folks interested in Virtual AGC would have this kind of problem than those picked at random from the general population. For example, I have this problem myself on one system of the several I use. This particular offending development system is a 64-bit Linux Mint 17.3 system, but with multiple versions of gcc, libstdc++, and wxGTK installed. The resulting (unclean) system can build the Virtual AGC software fine, but not run it once built, because of a mismatch between the default versions of the compiler and the share libraries installed. This isn't a problem with Virtual AGC as such, but is simply the result of not having a clean Linux installation in which everything is guaranteed to work with everything else. One potential fix is to have a virtual machine with a clean Linux installation on which you can build Virtual AGC; i.e., simply bypass your 'dirty' build setup completely. This is usually quite a hassle. A better solution, when feasible, would be to use extra command-line switches for 'make', to eliminate conflicts by overriding the default compiler choices. There are two such switches, FORCE_cc and FORCE_CC, which respectively override the C compiler and the C++ compiler. See the comments in the Makefile itself for more explanation. The switches can override not merely the filesystem paths for locating the compiler (when you have multiple versions of gcc or g++ installed), but can be used to specify completely different C/C++ compilers, such as clang ('sudo apt-get install clang-3.9 libclang-3.9-dev'). As an example, the command I use to build Virtual AGC using clang rather than gcc/g++ is:
make FORCE_clang=yes FORCE_cc=/usr/bin/clang-3.9 FORCE_CC=/usr/bin/clang++-3.9 install
On supported Linux variants, the build process creates a desktop icon from which you can run Virtual AGC. In some versions of Linux, you will need to right-click the icon and indicate that it is 'trusted' before it will work properly. You can 'uninstall' by removing the icon, the ~/VirtualAGC folder, and the source-code directory you downloaded from GitHub.
On unsupported Linux variants, there may be no desktop icon, and you may need to run the program from a command line, as follows:
cd ~/VirtualAGC/Resources
../bin/VirtualAGC
Raspberry Pi (Raspbian)
| This works! Last verified (Raspbian Jessie): 2017-11-20 Last verified (Raspbian Stretch): 2018-05-11 See notes below for Raspbian Buster |
These instructions relate to building Virtual AGC on a Raspberry Pi 3 running Raspbian-Jessie, though they're not really specific to any particular Pi model. For example, the instructions also work, unchanged, on a Pi B+ and a Pi Zero (though I would not recommend running VirtualAGC on them, unless you like to snooze). This really isn't any different from building it on any other Linux system, but I'll go through the steps separately anyway, using a completely clean Raspbian installation. Laszlo Morocz provided the original idea.
One-time setup:
sudo apt-get install wx2.8-headers libwxgtk2.8-0 libwxgtk2.8-dev libsdl-dev libncurses5-dev liballegro4-dev git
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/virtualagc/virtualagc
The 'sudo apt-get install ...' step given above is inadequate in some versions of Raspbian, and may need modifications:
- If libsdl1.2debian is pre-installed on your system, it may conflict with the installation of libsdl-dev described above. Simply omit libsdl-dev. If there is a libsdl1.2debian-dev package, you may need to install it.
- Raspbian Buster (as opposed to Jessie and Stretch). I've not yet tried Raspbian Buster myself, but I'm told the following mods are necessary:
- Compilation: There may be a problem with the wxWidgets 2.8 library that allows applications apparently to be built properly, but not to be runnable afterward, with a complaint about mismatched 'ABI' versions. The workaround is to install wxWidgets 3.0 instead of 2.8, in which case use the following command rather than the one given above: 'sudo apt-get install wx3.0-headers libwxgtk3.0-dev libsdl-dev libncurses5-dev liballegro4-dev git'.
- Running: It may be that Tcl/Tk isn't installed, and while that those aren't needed for the most common configuration of VirtualAGC (AGC+DSKY+Telemetry), it is needed for certain advanced features. Install with 'sudo apt-get install tcl tk'.
Building Virtual AGC:
cd virtualagc
make install
FreeBSD
| This works! Last verified: 2017-08-31 |
The instructions here relate to building Virtual AGC using PC-BSD 10.3, desktop version. That isn't the latest version of FreeBSD (version 11), but it's much easier to install than FreeBSD proper, and should be 100% equivalent for the same version numbers. At any rate, I know nothing about FreeBSD, so my instructions may not be the most-efficient ones. The executive summary is that the build process works, and VirtualAGC acts normally once built.
Setup:
- Install 'cmake' and GNU 'make' (gmake) using the 'package' system, with the command 'sudo pkg install cmake gmake'.
- Install the 'ports' system, if you haven't already.
- Install wxWidgets 2.8.12, or as close to that 2.8.x version as you can get, using the 'ports' system: 'cd /usr/ports/x11-toolkits/wxgtk28' and 'sudo make install'.
- For whatever reason, the 'wx-config' program is installed with a different name. Make a symbolic link with the proper name for it somewhere in your path: 'mkdir $HOME/bin' and 'ln -s /usr/local/bin/wxgtk2u-2.8-config $HOME/bin/wx-config'. If you test this with the command 'wx-config --list', you should see that the default wxWidgets configuration is 'gtk2-unicode-release-2.8'.
- Download Allegro 4.4.2, or as close to that 4.4.x version as you can get. Prior to building Allegro, I had to do this: 'sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libasound* /usr/lib'; I'm sure there's a much cleaner way to handle that problem (namely, that Allegro couldn't find libasound), but I don't know what it is. To build and install, do this:
- 'cd allegro-4.4.2'
- 'mkdir Build'
- 'cd Build'
- 'cmake ..'
- 'make'
- 'sudo make install'
Building Virtual AGC:
- In the Virtual AGC source directory, run 'gmake FREEBSD=yes install' or 'gmake FREEBSD=yes clean install'. (Note that 'sudo' is neither necessary nor desirable.) Note the use of 'gmake' rather than just 'make'
Solaris
| This works! Last verified: 2017-08-31 |
The instructions here relate to building Virtual AGC using Solaris 11.3. Note that my personal knowledge of Solaris is mid-way between 'completely ignorant' and 'dangerously misinformed', so you have to take what I say with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, the executive summary is that the instructions do work.
One-time setup:
- Install Oracle Developer Studio tools. I used version 12.5, and only installed the tools rather than the complete IDE. This is to give you the C and C++ compilers ('cc' and 'CC'), which have command-line options required by wxWidgets but not supported by 'gcc'.
- Install the Open CSW system, add /opt/csw/bin to your PATH, and /opt/csw/lib to LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
- Install wxWidgets via the Open CSW system.
- Install gtk2, tcl-8, tk-8, ncurses, freeglut, cmake, and gnu-grep using the Package Manager.
Build Virtual AGC:
- In the Virtual AGC source directory (which for me was ~/git/virtualagc), run 'gmake SOLARIS=yes install' or 'gmake SOLARIS=yes clean install'. (Note that 'sudo' is neither necessary nor desirable.) Note the use of 'gmake' (rather than just 'make').
You can 'uninstall' by the deleting the desktop launcher, the ~/VirtualAGC folder, and the source-code directory you downloaded from GitHub.
Mac OS X
| Yes ... maybe Last verified: 2017-08-31 |
There are aspects of Virtual AGC that I simply can't personally check on Mac OS X, because Apple no longer supports my particular Mac with newer versions of Mac OS X. I'm stuck at Mac OS X Lion (10.7), and with whatever version of Xcode is compatible with that. The Apple Way out of this situation is, of course, simply to buy a new Mac and then loudly tell everyone how overjoyed I am, because that's is a good thing that I should have done anyway. I decline to take that approach, since my 'old' Mac is 100% satisfactory in every other way for my purposes. I'd rather make snide comments behind Apple's back than to give them any more of my money.
One particular drawback of this situation is that Xcode is now apparently based on the clang compiler, rather than on the gcc compiler that Virtual AGC was designed for. Now that I've found this out, of course, Virtual AGC has been adapted for use with clang, and seems to work well with clang on the Linux platforms I use for development purposes. But I can't test it for you on the Mac, since the Xcode on my older Mac uses gcc.
Now that I've warned you, the subsections below cover what I know and what I theorize about building Virtual AGC on Macs.
Older Macs: Xcode with gcc
The executive summary is that this works (on my Mac, with Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 and Xcode 4.6.3) and the simulated AGC, DSKY, etc., can be run. The only problem is that the pretty, syntax-highlighted AGC source code may not be browsable from within VirtualAGC.Setup:
- Install most-currentversion of Xcode for your version of Mac OS X ... of course! I use Xcode 4.6.3.
- Install MacPorts.
- Use MacPorts to install wxWidgets 2.8.12: 'sudo port install wxgtk-2.8' or 'sudo port install wxWidgets-2.8', depending on your Xcode version.
- Use MacPorts to install cmake: 'sudo port install cmake'.
- Install Allegro 4.4.2:
- Use MacPorts: 'sudo port install allegro'. That doesn't work on some versions of Xcode, in which case instead use the next step. Be aware that Allegro version 5.x does not work for our purposes, so alternate installations like 'sudo port install allegro5' aren't helpful.
- Install from source:
- Download and unpack the source code for version 4.4.2.
- 'cd allegro-4.4.2'
- 'mkdir Build'
- 'cd Build'
- 'cmake ..'
- 'make'
- 'sudo make install'
- If both of the approaches to installing Allegro fail, as they did on my Mac, it's not a disaster, and you can still proceed.
Building Virtual AGC:
- 'cd' into Virtual AGC source directory, as obtained from GitHub.
- Determine where wxWidgets was installed by using the command 'port contents wxgtk-2.8 | grep /bin/' (or 'port contents wxWidgets-2.8 | grep /bin/'). What you're actually trying to find out is the directory in which the program 'wx-config' is installed. In my case, I found that the location was /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/wxWidgets.framework/Versions/wxGTK/2.8/bin. You have to add that to your PATH, so that the 'wx-config' program can be found during the build. The command is 'export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/.../bin'. You can test that it worked with a command like 'wx-config --list', from which we would like to see that the default configuration is 'gtk2-unicode-release-2.8'. By the way, unless you make this change to the PATH permanent (which is done in ~/.profile), the PATH will be reset back to the default one as soon as you close the command-line terminal you're using for this.
- Do 'make MACOSX=yes install' or 'make MACOSX=yes clean install'.
However, not all features of the VirtualAGC GUI program necessarily work. For example, while you can run simulated AGCs (which is the main thing!), you may not be able to browse the AGC source code from within VirtualAGC. What is supposed to happen when you use VirtualAGC's source-browsing feature is that it simply launches whatever default web-browser you have set up on your system, and shows you the AGC/AEA source code within that browser ... and indeed, this approach used to work in Mac OS X. But what happens for me is that there's simply an error message complaining that 'There is no default application configured for HTML files'. However, I can certainly configure the default browser, and have changed it back and forth between Safari and Chrome, so I'm not sure what this message is complaining about. Perhaps it's an X11 error. At any rate, I have not been able to solve it. You can still browse the source, of course: simply right-click on the VirtualAGC app icon on the desktop, and select 'show package contents'; navigate down to Contents/Resources/source/, select the mission you're interested in, and double-click on the MAIN.agc.html file you find in that directory. It will open up in your default browser, just as it should have done in the VirtualAGC program.
Another quirk that may be of interest on the Mac is how to run individual GUI applications like yaDSKY2 or yaTelemetry, without having to run the VirtualAGC application. Again, right-click on the VirtualAGC desktop icon and select 'show package contents'. Navigate down to Contents/MacOS/, and you'll find the various individual GUI applications there, where you can simply run them by double-clicking on them.
Newer Macs: Xcode with clang
As I hope my earlier rant made clear, I have no such newer Mac, and never will have such a Mac (unless you want to give me one for free), so I'm dependent upon others for feedback on this topic. Of which, so far, there isn't any.
But here are a couple of theories as to how you might proceed to build Virtual AGC on one of these Macs. Firstly, I should mention that I'm told that the app produced by the build process in the preceding section, for older Macs, does not run on newer Macs, so I can't just build it for you.
Try these build instructions:
- Install Xcode as usual.
- Presumably, most of the instructions in the preceding section (on older Macs) have to be performed on newer Macs as well. However, the 'make' command has to be run differently to enable using clang in place of gcc, namely:
If that doesn't work, it's theoretically possible to install gccseparately from Xcode, and to use gcc in spite of Xcode beingpresent. You may notice that there's a gcc command alreadypresent, but I'm told that Xcode somehow internally aliases that toclang. Thus don't assume that just because you can type thecommand 'gcc', and get a response, that gcc is actuallyinstalled. The build process looks something like this:
- Install Xcode as usual.
- Additionally, install gcc (C compiler) and g++ (C++compiler). I have no personal knowledge of this, but a fewwebsites (suchas this one) discuss how to do it.
- Presumably, most of the instructions in the preceding sectionhave to be performed. However, the 'make' command has tobe run differently, in such a way as to force it to use the gccand g++ you just installed, as opposed to the default clangcompiler. You need to know the actual paths to the truegcc and g++ programs, and do this:
make MACOSX=yes FORCE_cc=/path/to/gccFORCE_CC=/path/to/g++ clean installAs to whether either of these approaches does anything useful atall, your guess is as good as mine. If you try it, let me knowwhat happens.
Windows
| This works! Last verified: 2017-08-31 |
This section relates to building Virtual AGC on 64-bit Windows 7,though the procedure doesn't seem to have anything in it that'sspecific to that version of Windows. (It's merely that I'veonly tried it on Windows 7. On occasion, I've copiedthe results into Windows XP and run VirtualAGC there as well, but Idon't always do that.) The building process uses MinGW/Msys(as opposed to Visual Studio), and I don't know whether or not thereis a valid Visual Studio build process.
First-time setup of the Windows box is somewhat time-consuming (butbuilding Virtual AGC is pretty easy after that):
- Install the MinGWcompiler and the Msys Linux-like command-linedevelopment environment, using the downloadable 'MinGWInstallation Manager'. This installation program changesover time, so I cannot tell you precisely how to use it, and canonly give you a general idea. Use the default choices forinstallation directory (c:mingw) and other settings, if any areoffered. Note that by default, the batch filec:mingwmsys1.0msys.bat is what's used to start the Msyscommand shell as in the next step below, and you might want tomanually create a desktop icon or a Windows start-menu entry forrunning that batch file. If you are unlucky enough to havea Windows user name containing spaces, you will encounterdifficulties. The instructions at the www.mingw.orgwebsite explain what to do in that situation. Specificpackages which you need to install using the MinGW InstallationManager, at least at this writing, which may not be among thedefaults are:
- All of the packages in the 'Basic Setup', except Ada,FORTRAN, and Objective-C compilers.
- Among the packages in 'All Packages':
- 'msys-libregex' (dev+dll)
- 'msys-libncurses' (dev+dll)
- 'msys-wget'
- 'msys-unzip'
- Run Msys, to bring upa command shell. All of the following steps occurwithin this command shell and not at a 'DOS' command line. Some of the 'DOS' commands you probably are familiar with (suchas 'dir') don't work in this shell, while Linux-typereplacements ('ls -l') are used instead. Some commands,like 'cd', work almost the same way, though there are subtledifferences. Also, '/' is the separator for folders inpath-names, rather than '. Google for 'bash' if you'reinterested in these kinds of differences.
- Install the SDL library,version 1.2. You should find that there is adownload file specifically labeled as a Win32 developmentlibrary for MinGW. Within your Msys homedirectory, unpack the download file, 'cd' into the directory itcreates. Do 'mkdir /usr/local', and run the command 'makeinstall-sdl prefix=/usr/local'. (The /usr directory withinMsys will probablycorrespond to something like c:mingwmsys1.0 in your Windowsfilesystem.) Note:All software needed tobuild Virtual AGC will be installed under /usr/local, soeventually it will be populated with sub-directories such as/usr/local/bin, /usr/local/include, /usr/local/lib, and soon. The Virtual AGC makefiles are hard-coded to assumethese installation locations. Note, however, that theVirtual AGC binaries you are going to create are not installed under/usr/local, because while the Virtual AGC apps are being createdusing Msys, Msys is not needed to run them ...they are simply Windows programs like any other.
- Obtain a source zipfile of wxWidgets, version 2.8.12,or as close to this 2.8.x version as is available. Of theseveral varieties offered for download (wxAll, wxMSW, wxGTK,...) chose wxMSW, and make sure you get the source code ratherthan an installer program. Unzip the downloaded file inyour home directory, 'cd' into the directory this creates, andthen do './configure --enable-unicode', 'make', and 'makeinstall'.
- Though it has nothing to do with building Virtual AGC,if you want to have access to Stephen Hotto's contributed LunarModule accessories when you run Virtual AGC, you'll alsohave to installTcl/Tk.
- Get the Virtual AGC source code from GitHub (from the link atthe top of this page), either by using 'git', if installed onyour computer, or by downloading a zipfile and unzippingit. For the sake of discussion, I'm going to suppose thatthe folder you get from doing this is called 'virtualagc' and isin your home directory.
- Do 'cd virtualagc'.
- Build it: 'make WIN32=yes install' or 'make WIN32=yes cleaninstall'.
You can 'uninstall' simply by removing the desktop icon and%HOMEPATH%VirtualAGC, and whatever source-folder you downloadedfrom GitHub.
iPhone
| Still okay? |
For development snapshot 20090802 and later, it's possible to buildyaAGC—not the entire VirtualAGC suite, just yaAGC—from (I guess) a Mac, if you'vedownloaded an iPhone development kit. From the 'I guess' inthe preceding sentence, you'll probably be able to deduce that I'mjust parrotting someone else's words and don't really know what I'mtalking about ... and you'd be right. The instructions andmods necessary to do it came from Alberto Galdo (thanks,Alberto!). If you try it and it doesn't work, blame me for notimplementing Alberto's instructions properly.
To build, simply 'cd' into the yaAGC/yaAGC/ folder and do this:
As for how useful yaAGC byitself is, it's obviously only marginally useful until such time asthere's a DSKY. You should be able to do command-linedebugging, however, so you could in theory run and debug AGC code.
Running the ValidationSuite of the simulated AGC
Having installed the software as above, you can test the emulatedCPU and DSKY using the 'validation suite'. - Run the VirtualAGCprogram, select 'Validation suite' as the simulation type, andhit the 'Run' button.
- A code of '00' will appear in the PROG area of the DSKY, andthe OPR ERR lamp will flash. This means that thevalidation program is ready to start.
- Press the PRO key on the DSKY. The OPR ERR light will gooff and the validation program will begin.
- There is no indication that the test is running. Thetest takes about 77 seconds.
- If all tests are passed, then the PROG area on the DSKY willshow the code '77', and the OPR ERR lamp will flash. (Thereturn code is 77 because 77 is the largest 2-digit octalnumber. It is just a coincidence that the test duration isalso 77 seconds.)
- If some tests fail, an error code other than '00' or '77' willbe displayed in the PROG area on the DSKY, and the OPR ERR lampwill flash.
- In the latter case, you can proceed from one test to the nextby pressing the PRO key. The meanings of the error codesare determined by reading the file Validation/Validation.agc.
Some Resource Issues onSlower Computers, Such as Raspberry Pi
On new but slow computers like Raspberry Pi, or old computers suchas PowerPC-based Macs, the CPU utilization for Virtual AGC can berather high. Indeed if you ran every available option on anearly-model Pi, you could find yourself using close to 100% of theCPU. For the default configuration of VirtualAGC (Lunar ModuleAGC with DSKY and Telemetry but without abort system or IMU), I findthe following:- Pi B+: 80% CPU utilization.
- Pi 3: 40% CPU utilization.
If that's too much for you, there are some things you may be ableto do to make it more efficient. First, note that theVirtualAGC program — which isn't a component of the simulation,but merely a convenient graphical interface so that you don't haveto memorize command-line options for the actual components —actually takes 25-30% of the CPU (for either of the two Pi modelsmentioned above) all by itself. You don't really need to runit if you don't want to. But how do you run a simulationeasily without VirtualAGC? Well, if you run the simulationjust once from VirtualAGC, and exit the simulationimmediately after starting it, you'll find that it hasautomatically created a script called 'simulate' which can be usedto start that exact configuration of the simulation withoutrunning VirtualAGC itself. As a result, you get CPUutilizations closer to 50% or 10%, respectively, on the two Pimodels mentioned above. To just run that script, you dothis:
cd VirtualAGC/temp/lVirtualAGC/Resources
./simulate
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