Environment Setup

To develop plugins for Spectrum or integrate the SDK into your application, you need to set up a C++ development environment.

Prerequisites

1. Install Dependencies

Linux (Ubuntu)

# Update package list
sudo apt update

# Install build tools and compiler
sudo apt install -y build-essential git cmake ninja-build python3 curl unzip

# Install Bazel (optional, if building SDK from source)
sudo apt install -y bazel

# Install Vulkan SDK
wget -qO - https://packages.lunarg.com/lunarg-signing-key-pub.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo wget -qO /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lunarg-vulkan-1.3.268-jammy.list https://packages.lunarg.com/vulkan/1.3.268/lunarg-vulkan-1.3.268-jammy.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y vulkan-sdk

macOS

You will need Xcode Command Line Tools and Homebrew.

# Install Xcode Command Line Tools
xcode-select --install

# Install Homebrew (if not already installed)
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# Install build tools
brew install cmake ninja git python3 curl

# Install Bazel (optional)
brew install bazel

# Install Vulkan SDK (via MoltenVK)
brew install molten-vk

Windows

1. Install Visual Studio

Download and install Visual Studio 2022 Community. Ensure you select the "Desktop development with C++" workload.

2. Install Tools

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

# Install Chocolatey (optional package manager)
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

# Install dependencies
choco install git python3 cmake ninja

3. Install Vulkan SDK

Download and install the Vulkan SDK.

Automated Setup (Coming Soon)

We are working on a unified setup script to automate these steps.

# Placeholder for future setup script
python3 scripts/setup.py --all

Verify Installation

cmake --version
vulkaninfo