How to start a new win32 cocos2d-x / box2d / LevelHelper2-API project

LevelHelper2-API_cocos2d-x_setup.md

Steps to setup a new win32 cocos2d-x project with LevelHelper2-API and Box2D support

Things you will need

• Visual Studio tested with both 2015 and 2017
• cocos2d-x version 3.11 LH2 has memory issues with newer versions of cocos2d
• LevelHelper2-API
  • Download just the folder using something like GitZip

Preliminary Setup

• Install Visual Studio
• Install cocos2d-x and run the setup.py script
• Use cocos command to create a new game project (ex: cocos new NewGame -l cpp)
• Copy LevelHelper2-API folder into new game project folder
• Open VS solution in proj.win32 folder (launches VS2015)

Inside Visual Studio

• In the main project in your solution (NewGame) right click and go to Properties
  • Under C/C++ -> General -> Additional Include Directories
  • Add ..\LevelHelper2-API;$(EngineRoot);$(EngineRoot)cocos\ui;
  • Under C/C++ -> Preprocessor -> Preprocessor Definitions
  • Add LH_USE_BOX2D=1
  • (Optionally) set CC_ENABLE_CHIPMUNK_INTEGRATION=0
  • Do the same for Release as for Debug
• Right click main project again and Add->New Filter named LevelHelper2-API
• From file manager, drag LevelHelper2-API folder into the LevelHelper2-API filter you just made
• Make the following changes to LevelHelper2-API files
  • LHUtils.cpp surround float fmin() and float fmax() with #if (CC_TARGET_PLATFORM == CC_PLATFORM_WINRT)
• If you are using Chipmunk instead of Box2D you might instead want to do the following
  • LHJointsProtocol.cpp comment out removeJoint()'s _joint->removeFormWorld(); causes bad mem access
  • LHRopeJointNode.cpp add if (cutJointA) above cutJointA->removeFormWorld(); and do same for cutJointB

That should get you to the point where you can #include "LevelHelper2API.h", compile, and run!