Visual Studio

Prerequisites

• Git - [Git for Windows] (https://git-scm.com/install/windows)

Visual Studio Installation

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Download and install Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio 2026.

We recommend the free Community edition.

• Visual Studio 2022 Community
• Visual Studio 2026 Community

During installation, select the Desktop development with C++ workload.

Install openFrameworks

• Download openFrameworks 0.12.1 or later from the download page or from github.
• If you got openFrameworks from git: https://github.com/openframeworks/openFrameworks
  • Run scripts/android/download_libs.sh to download libraries.
  • Use the Project Generator to generate Visual Studio project files for examples.

Libraries

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If missing any libraries or want to update them run the script at vs/scripts/

• download_libs.sh

Creating a new openFrameworks project

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1. Open the Project Generator (ofxImGui interface).
2. Enter your Project name.
3. Choose your Project path.
4. Under Platforms, select Windows (Visual Studio).
5. Under Template:
   • For Visual Studio 2022 → leave the Template field empty (default)
   • For Visual Studio 2026 → select vs2026 from the dropdown
6. Click Generate.

Open and Run your project

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You can run by clicking Open in IDE in Project Generator or Open Folder to access directory.

Your project solution file is located at:
openFrameworks/apps/[yourFolder]/[projectName]/[projectName].sln

Double-click the .sln file to open it in the matching version of Visual Studio (2022 or 2026).

Press F5 to build and run in Debug mode.

Debug vs Release

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• Debug — best while developing (full error info).
• Release — smaller and faster (use when finished).

Switch between them using the dropdown at the top of Visual Studio.

Architectures

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• Targets are x86_64 - x64 - Default Windows
• ARM64 - for arm64 processors (native arm)
• ARM64EC - a mixture of both x64/arm64 for Windows 11

Start coding

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Hit Esc to close the window, then edit your code in src/ofApp.cpp and src/ofApp.h.