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Exporting Applications

vvvv allows you to export a patch into an executable, standalone program. In order to do so, open the Application Exporter via Quad > Export... or shortcut F10.

The Application Exporter

Application to export

Choose which application to export (in case you have multiple projects open at the same time).

Output directory

Choose where the exported program and files will be created.

After a successful export, the output directory will contain a directory with the name of your application. Inside this directory you find the executable. To run the program on another PC you need to copy the whole content of this directory.

Icon file

Choose an .ico file to be associated with the generated executable.

Assets

Choose how assets will be referenced in the exported application:

  • Relative to document: This option is most useful during development, to quickly test exports without having to worry about moving assets around. Assets will be referenced from where they are.
  • Relative to output: Use this option for final exports: It requires you to manually place your assets relative to the generated executable as they were relative to your root document during development. Like this the whole output can then be moved around and deployed to other PCs.

Output type

Choose between Windows (GUI) or Console application. A Console app will open a Windows Console and run the Update operation for only one frame, then immediately Dispose itself.

Use a KeepAppAlive node to prevent this default behavior.

Target OS

Choose the OS for which to create output for. If you choose Any, export will create executables for all available targets, otherwise only for the one selected OS.

Platform target

Choose between CPU architectures x64 (64bit), x86 (32bit) or any.

Options

Console App

Choose between Windows or Console app. A Console app will open a windows Console and run the Update operation for only one frame, then immediately Dispose itself.

Use a KeepAppAlive node to prevent this default behavior.

Clean Output

If active, removes artefacts of previous exports (ie. deletes the \src folder) before exporting. This will cause exports to take longer but also makes sure previous artefacts don't interfere with the new export.

Export

  • Press the Export button and wait until the green progressbar is full and the Run button becomes available
  • Press Run to test/run your program
  • Explore Output: opens a file explorer at the specified output directory

Source Directory

Next to the application directory you'll also find a \src directory. This is an artefact that vvvv creates during export and can be safely deleted.

Note

.NET developers may find this interesting though, as it contains a completely valid c# solution of the exported project that can be opened, viewed and modified with Visual Studio.

Dependencies

If your application is referencing VL.Stride, make sure the target PC also has the following dependencies installed:

  • Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables: 64bit or 32bit
  • .NET8 SDK (For FileTexture and FileModel nodes to work)

For versions prior to 5.0

For applications exported with this older version of vvvv, you'll also have to install:

Advanced build configuration

The build process can be customized in many details. Next to your main .vl file, place a .props file with the same name. This is actually an .xml file which you can configure to your needs using MSBuild syntax.

Useful nodes

  • Args [System] to access commandline arguments the app was called with
  • Nodes from the advanced [System.Console] category

Useful libraries

  • Terminal.Gui for creating console applications with a text based UI

Configuring a renderers appearance

Referencing the nuget VL.CoreLib.Windows adds the following nodes:

  • SetWindowState and WindowState
  • SetWindowMode

These allow you to configure the renderers caption, controlbox, framing and more.

Code Signing

In order to have your executables to run without a warning on other PCs, you need to sign them with a certificate using SignTool.

Troubleshooting

Export fails

In case the export fails, the console will be opened to show there was an error.

The Application Exporter reporting a problem

Please send us the console output by pressing "Copy To Clipboard" and pasting it to us via forum or chat.

Export fails with "..could not copy file.."

This may happen when you have packages referenced as source repository. To still get a successful export in such cases you can try:

  • In the export log find the line starting with "dotnet publish -c Release" and copy the whole commandline
  • close vvvv
  • open a commandline (cmd.exe)
  • paste the command and run it

Export fails With 2021.4.x

There is a known incompatibility with newer versions of MSBuild tools than what vvvv expects. So in order to make sure the right version of MSBuild tools is installed do as follows:

  • Uninstall all versions of Visual Studio and Build Tools you can find on your machine
  • Then run the vvvv 2021.4.x installer again with having the “Build Tools” checkbox enabled

Exported app doesn't run on target PC

Chances are that you're missing a dependency on the target PC. See Dependencies above.

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