1Installation in Windows {#tutorial_windows_install} 2======================= 3 4The description here was tested on Windows 7 SP1. Nevertheless, it should also work on any other 5relatively modern version of Windows OS. If you encounter errors after following the steps described 6below, feel free to contact us via our [OpenCV Q&A forum](http://answers.opencv.org). We'll do our 7best to help you out. 8 9@note To use the OpenCV library you have two options: @ref tutorial_windows_install_prebuilt or 10@ref tutorial_windows_install_build. While the first one is easier to complete, it only works if you are coding 11with the latest Microsoft Visual Studio IDE and doesn't take advantage of the most advanced 12technologies we integrate into our library. .. _Windows_Install_Prebuild: 13 14Installation by Using the Pre-built Libraries {#tutorial_windows_install_prebuilt} 15============================================= 16 17-# Launch a web browser of choice and go to our [page on 18 Sourceforge](http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-win/). 19-# Choose a build you want to use and download it. 20-# Make sure you have admin rights. Unpack the self-extracting archive. 21-# You can check the installation at the chosen path as you can see below. 22 23  24 25-# To finalize the installation go to the @ref tutorial_windows_install_path section. 26 27Installation by Making Your Own Libraries from the Source Files {#tutorial_windows_install_build} 28=============================================================== 29 30You may find the content of this tutorial also inside the following videos: 31[Part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnovZ1cTlMs) and [Part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGNWMcfWwPU), hosted on YouTube. 32 33\htmlonly 34<div align="center"> 35<iframe title="Install OpenCV by using its source files - Part 1" width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NnovZ1cTlMs?rel=0&loop=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen align="middle"></iframe> 36<iframe title="Install OpenCV by using its source files - Part 2" width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qGNWMcfWwPU?rel=0&loop=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen align="middle"></iframe> 37</div> 38\endhtmlonly 39 40**warning** 41 42These videos above are long-obsolete and contain inaccurate information. Be careful, since 43solutions described in those videos are no longer supported and may even break your install. 44 45If you are building your own libraries you can take the source files from our [Git 46repository](https://github.com/Itseez/opencv.git). 47 48Building the OpenCV library from scratch requires a couple of tools installed beforehand: 49 50- An IDE of choice (preferably), or just a CC++ compiler that will actually make the binary files. 51 Here we will use the [Microsoft Visual Studio](https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us). 52 However, you can use any other IDE that has a valid CC++ compiler. 53- [CMake](http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html), which is a neat tool to make the project files (for your chosen IDE) from the OpenCV 54 source files. It will also allow an easy configuration of the OpenCV build files, in order to 55 make binary files that fits exactly to your needs. 56- Git to acquire the OpenCV source files. A good tool for this is [TortoiseGit](http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/wiki/Download). Alternatively, 57 you can just download an archived version of the source files from our [page on 58 Sourceforge](http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-win/) 59 60OpenCV may come in multiple flavors. There is a "core" section that will work on its own. 61Nevertheless, there is a couple of tools, libraries made by 3rd parties that offer services of which 62the OpenCV may take advantage. These will improve its capabilities in many ways. In order to use any 63of them, you need to download and install them on your system. 64 65- The [Python libraries](http://www.python.org/downloads/) are required to build the *Python interface* of OpenCV. For now use the 66 version `2.7.{x}`. This is also a must if you want to build the *OpenCV documentation*. 67- [Numpy](http://numpy.scipy.org/) is a scientific computing package for Python. Required for the *Python interface*. 68- [Intel Threading Building Blocks (*TBB*)](http://threadingbuildingblocks.org/file.php?fid=77) is used inside OpenCV for parallel code 69 snippets. Using this will make sure that the OpenCV library will take advantage of all the cores 70 you have in your systems CPU. 71- [Intel Integrated Performance Primitives (*IPP*)](http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-ipp/) may be used to improve the performance 72 of color conversion, Haar training and DFT functions of the OpenCV library. Watch out, since 73 this isn't a free service. 74- [Intel IPP Asynchronous C/C++](http://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-ipp-preview) is currently focused delivering Intel Graphics 75 support for advanced image processing and computer vision functions. 76- OpenCV offers a somewhat fancier and more useful graphical user interface, than the default one 77 by using the [Qt framework](http://qt.nokia.com/downloads). For a quick overview of what this has to offer look into the 78 documentations *highgui* module, under the *Qt New Functions* section. Version 4.6 or later of 79 the framework is required. 80- [Eigen](http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page#Download) is a C++ template library for linear algebra. 81- The latest [CUDA Toolkit](http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads) will allow you to use the power lying inside your GPU. This will 82 drastically improve performance for some algorithms (e.g the HOG descriptor). Getting more and 83 more of our algorithms to work on the GPUs is a constant effort of the OpenCV team. 84- [OpenEXR](http://www.openexr.com/downloads.html) source files are required for the library to work with this high dynamic range (HDR) 85 image file format. 86- The [OpenNI Framework](http://www.openni.org/) contains a set of open source APIs that provide support for natural 87 interaction with devices via methods such as voice command recognition, hand gestures and body 88 motion tracking. 89- [Miktex]( http://miktex.org/2.9/setup) is the best [TEX](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/TeX) implementation on 90 the Windows OS. It is required to build the *OpenCV documentation*. 91- [Sphinx](http://sphinx.pocoo.org/) is a python documentation generator and is the tool that will actually create the 92 *OpenCV documentation*. This on its own requires a couple of tools installed, We will cover this 93 in depth at the @ref tutorial_windows_install_sphinx "How to Install Sphinx" section. 94 95Now we will describe the steps to follow for a full build (using all the above frameworks, tools and 96libraries). If you do not need the support for some of these you can just freely skip this section. 97 98### Building the library 99 100-# Make sure you have a working IDE with a valid compiler. In case of the Microsoft Visual Studio 101 just install it and make sure it starts up. 102-# Install [CMake](http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html). Simply follow the wizard, no need to add it to the path. The default install 103 options are OK. 104-# Download and install an up-to-date version of msysgit from its [official 105 site](http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list). There is also the portable version, 106 which you need only to unpack to get access to the console version of Git. Supposing that for 107 some of us it could be quite enough. 108-# Install [TortoiseGit](http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/wiki/Download). Choose the 32 or 64 bit version according to the type of OS you work in. 109 While installing, locate your msysgit (if it doesn't do that automatically). Follow the 110 wizard -- the default options are OK for the most part. 111-# Choose a directory in your file system, where you will download the OpenCV libraries to. I 112 recommend creating a new one that has short path and no special charachters in it, for example 113 `D:/OpenCV`. For this tutorial I'll suggest you do so. If you use your own path and know, what 114 you're doing -- it's OK. 115 -# Clone the repository to the selected directory. After clicking *Clone* button, a window will 116 appear where you can select from what repository you want to download source files 117 (<https://github.com/Itseez/opencv.git>) and to what directory (`D:/OpenCV`). 118 -# Push the OK button and be patient as the repository is quite a heavy download. It will take 119 some time depending on your Internet connection. 120 121-# In this section I will cover installing the 3rd party libraries. 122 -# Download the [Python libraries](http://www.python.org/downloads/) and install it with the default options. You will need a 123 couple other python extensions. Luckily installing all these may be automated by a nice tool 124 called [Setuptools](http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools#downloads). Download and install 125 again. 126 @anchor tutorial_windows_install_sphinx 127 -# Installing Sphinx is easy once you have installed *Setuptools*. This contains a little 128 application that will automatically connect to the python databases and download the latest 129 version of many python scripts. Start up a command window (enter *cmd* into the windows 130 start menu and press enter) and use the *CD* command to navigate to your Python folders 131 Script sub-folder. Here just pass to the *easy_install.exe* as argument the name of the 132 program you want to install. Add the *sphinx* argument. 133 134  135 136  137 138 @note 139 The *CD* navigation command works only inside a drive. For example if you are somewhere in the 140 *C:* drive you cannot use it this to go to another drive (like for example *D:*). To do so you 141 first need to change drives letters. For this simply enter the command *D:*. Then you can use 142 the *CD* to navigate to specific folder inside the drive. Bonus tip: you can clear the screen by 143 using the *CLS* command. 144 145 This will also install its prerequisites [Jinja2](http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/) and 146 [Pygments](http://pygments.org/). 147 148 -# The easiest way to install Numpy is to just download its binaries from the [sourceforge page](http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/files/NumPy/). 149 Make sure your download and install 150 exactly the binary for your python version (so for version `2.7`). 151 -# Download the [Miktex](http://miktex.org/2.9/setup) and install it. Again just follow the wizard. At the fourth step make 152 sure you select for the *"Install missing packages on-the-fly"* the *Yes* option, as you can 153 see on the image below. Again this will take quite some time so be patient. 154 155  156 157 -# For the [Intel Threading Building Blocks (*TBB*)](http://threadingbuildingblocks.org/file.php?fid=77) 158 download the source files and extract 159 it inside a directory on your system. For example let there be `D:/OpenCV/dep`. For installing 160 the [Intel Integrated Performance Primitives (*IPP*)](http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-ipp/) 161 the story is the same. For 162 exctracting the archives I recommend using the [7-Zip](http://www.7-zip.org/) application. 163 164  165 166 -# For the [Intel IPP Asynchronous C/C++](http://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-ipp-preview) download the source files and set environment 167 variable **IPP_ASYNC_ROOT**. It should point to 168 `<your Program Files(x86) directory>/Intel/IPP Preview */ipp directory`. Here \* denotes the 169 particular preview name. 170 -# In case of the [Eigen](http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page#Download) library it is again a case of download and extract to the 171 `D:/OpenCV/dep` directory. 172 -# Same as above with [OpenEXR](http://www.openexr.com/downloads.html). 173 -# For the [OpenNI Framework](http://www.openni.org/) you need to install both the [development 174 build](http://www.openni.org/downloadfiles/opennimodules/openni-binaries/21-stable) and the 175 [PrimeSensor 176 Module](http://www.openni.org/downloadfiles/opennimodules/openni-compliant-hardware-binaries/32-stable). 177 -# For the CUDA you need again two modules: the latest [CUDA Toolkit](http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads) and the *CUDA Tools SDK*. 178 Download and install both of them with a *complete* option by using the 32 or 64 bit setups 179 according to your OS. 180 -# In case of the Qt framework you need to build yourself the binary files (unless you use the 181 Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 with 32 bit compiler). To do this go to the [Qt 182 Downloads](http://qt.nokia.com/downloads) page. Download the source files (not the 183 installers!!!): 184 185  186 187 Extract it into a nice and short named directory like `D:/OpenCV/dep/qt/` . Then you need to 188 build it. Start up a *Visual* *Studio* *Command* *Prompt* (*2010*) by using the start menu 189 search (or navigate through the start menu 190 All Programs --\> Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 --\> Visual Studio Tools --\> Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010)). 191 192  193 194 Now navigate to the extracted folder and enter inside it by using this console window. You 195 should have a folder containing files like *Install*, *Make* and so on. Use the *dir* command 196 to list files inside your current directory. Once arrived at this directory enter the 197 following command: 198 @code{.bash} 199 configure.exe -release -no-webkit -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-script -no-scripttools 200 -no-qt3support -no-multimedia -no-ltcg 201 @endcode 202 Completing this will take around 10-20 minutes. Then enter the next command that will take a 203 lot longer (can easily take even more than a full hour): 204 @code{.bash} 205 nmake 206 @endcode 207 After this set the Qt enviroment variables using the following command on Windows 7: 208 @code{.bash} 209 setx -m QTDIR D:/OpenCV/dep/qt/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.7.3 210 @endcode 211 Also, add the built binary files path to the system path by using the [PathEditor](http://www.redfernplace.com/software-projects/patheditor/). In our 212 case this is `D:/OpenCV/dep/qt/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.7.3/bin`. 213 214 @note 215 If you plan on doing Qt application development you can also install at this point the *Qt 216 Visual Studio Add-in*. After this you can make and build Qt applications without using the *Qt 217 Creator*. Everything is nicely integrated into Visual Studio. 218 219-# Now start the *CMake (cmake-gui)*. You may again enter it in the start menu search or get it 220 from the All Programs --\> CMake 2.8 --\> CMake (cmake-gui). First, select the directory for the 221 source files of the OpenCV library (1). Then, specify a directory where you will build the 222 binary files for OpenCV (2). 223 224  225 226 Press the Configure button to specify the compiler (and *IDE*) you want to use. Note that in 227 case you can choose between different compilers for making either 64 bit or 32 bit libraries. 228 Select the one you use in your application development. 229 230  231 232 CMake will start out and based on your system variables will try to automatically locate as many 233 packages as possible. You can modify the packages to use for the build in the WITH --\> WITH_X 234 menu points (where *X* is the package abbreviation). Here are a list of current packages you can 235 turn on or off: 236 237  238 239 Select all the packages you want to use and press again the *Configure* button. For an easier 240 overview of the build options make sure the *Grouped* option under the binary directory 241 selection is turned on. For some of the packages CMake may not find all of the required files or 242 directories. In case of these CMake will throw an error in its output window (located at the 243 bottom of the GUI) and set its field values, to not found constants. For example: 244 245  246 247  248 249 For these you need to manually set the queried directories or files path. After this press again 250 the *Configure* button to see if the value entered by you was accepted or not. Do this until all 251 entries are good and you cannot see errors in the field/value or the output part of the GUI. Now 252 I want to emphasize an option that you will definitely love: 253 ENABLE --\> ENABLE_SOLUTION_FOLDERS. OpenCV will create many-many projects and turning this 254 option will make sure that they are categorized inside directories in the *Solution Explorer*. 255 It is a must have feature, if you ask me. 256 257  258 259 Furthermore, you need to select what part of OpenCV you want to build. 260 261 - *BUILD_DOCS* -\> It creates two projects for building the documentation of OpenCV (there 262 will be a separate project for building the HTML and the PDF files). Note that these aren't 263 built together with the solution. You need to make an explicit build project command on 264 these to do so. 265 - *BUILD_EXAMPLES* -\> OpenCV comes with many example applications from which you may learn 266 most of the libraries capabilities. This will also come handy to easily try out if OpenCV is 267 fully functional on your computer. 268 - *BUILD_PACKAGE* -\> Prior to version 2.3 with this you could build a project that will 269 build an OpenCV installer. With this you can easily install your OpenCV flavor on other 270 systems. For the latest source files of OpenCV it generates a new project that simply 271 creates zip archive with OpenCV sources. 272 - *BUILD_SHARED_LIBS* -\> With this you can control to build DLL files (when turned on) or 273 static library files (\*.lib) otherwise. 274 - *BUILD_TESTS* -\> Each module of OpenCV has a test project assigned to it. Building these 275 test projects is also a good way to try out, that the modules work just as expected on your 276 system too. 277 - *BUILD_PERF_TESTS* -\> There are also performance tests for many OpenCV functions. If 278 you're concerned about performance, build them and run. 279 - *BUILD_opencv_python* -\> Self-explanatory. Create the binaries to use OpenCV from the 280 Python language. 281 282 Press again the *Configure* button and ensure no errors are reported. If this is the case you 283 can tell CMake to create the project files by pushing the *Generate* button. Go to the build 284 directory and open the created **OpenCV** solution. Depending on just how much of the above 285 options you have selected the solution may contain quite a lot of projects so be tolerant on the 286 IDE at the startup. Now you need to build both the *Release* and the *Debug* binaries. Use the 287 drop-down menu on your IDE to change to another of these after building for one of them. 288 289  290 291 In the end you can observe the built binary files inside the bin directory: 292 293  294 295 For the documentation you need to explicitly issue the build commands on the *doc* project for 296 the PDF files and on the *doc_html* for the HTML ones. Each of these will call *Sphinx* to do 297 all the hard work. You can find the generated documentation inside the `Build/Doc/_html` for the 298 HTML pages and within the `Build/Doc` the PDF manuals. 299 300  301 302 To collect the header and the binary files, that you will use during your own projects, into a 303 separate directory (simillary to how the pre-built binaries ship) you need to explicitely build 304 the *Install* project. 305 306  307 308 This will create an *Install* directory inside the *Build* one collecting all the built binaries 309 into a single place. Use this only after you built both the *Release* and *Debug* versions. 310 311 To test your build just go into the `Build/bin/Debug` or `Build/bin/Release` directory and start 312 a couple of applications like the *contours.exe*. If they run, you are done. Otherwise, 313 something definitely went awfully wrong. In this case you should contact us at our [Q&A forum](http://answers.opencv.org/). 314 If everything is okay the *contours.exe* output should resemble the following image (if 315 built with Qt support): 316 317  318 319@note 320 If you use the GPU module (CUDA libraries) make sure you also upgrade to the latest drivers of 321 your GPU. Error messages containing invalid entries in (or cannot find) the nvcuda.dll are 322 caused mostly by old video card drivers. For testing the GPU (if built) run the 323 *performance_gpu.exe* sample application. 324 325Set the OpenCV enviroment variable and add it to the systems path {#tutorial_windows_install_path} 326================================================================= 327 328First we set an enviroment variable to make easier our work. This will hold the build directory of 329our OpenCV library that we use in our projects. Start up a command window and enter: 330@code 331 setx -m OPENCV_DIR D:\OpenCV\Build\x86\vc10 (suggested for Visual Studio 2010 - 32 bit Windows) 332 setx -m OPENCV_DIR D:\OpenCV\Build\x64\vc10 (suggested for Visual Studio 2010 - 64 bit Windows) 333 334 setx -m OPENCV_DIR D:\OpenCV\Build\x86\vc11 (suggested for Visual Studio 2012 - 32 bit Windows) 335 setx -m OPENCV_DIR D:\OpenCV\Build\x64\vc11 (suggested for Visual Studio 2012 - 64 bit Windows) 336@endcode 337Here the directory is where you have your OpenCV binaries (*extracted* or *built*). You can have 338different platform (e.g. x64 instead of x86) or compiler type, so substitute appropriate value. 339Inside this you should have two folders called *lib* and *bin*. The -m should be added if you wish 340to make the settings computer wise, instead of user wise. 341 342If you built static libraries then you are done. Otherwise, you need to add the *bin* folders path 343to the systems path. This is because you will use the OpenCV library in form of *"Dynamic-link 344libraries"* (also known as **DLL**). Inside these are stored all the algorithms and information the 345OpenCV library contains. The operating system will load them only on demand, during runtime. 346However, to do this the operating system needs to know where they are. The systems **PATH** contains 347a list of folders where DLLs can be found. Add the OpenCV library path to this and the OS will know 348where to look if he ever needs the OpenCV binaries. Otherwise, you will need to copy the used DLLs 349right beside the applications executable file (*exe*) for the OS to find it, which is highly 350unpleasent if you work on many projects. To do this start up again the [PathEditor](http://www.redfernplace.com/software-projects/patheditor/) and add the 351following new entry (right click in the application to bring up the menu): 352@code 353 %OPENCV_DIR%\bin 354@endcode 355 356 357 358 359 360Save it to the registry and you are done. If you ever change the location of your build directories 361or want to try out your applicaton with a different build all you will need to do is to update the 362OPENCV_DIR variable via the *setx* command inside a command window. 363 364Now you can continue reading the tutorials with the @ref tutorial_windows_visual_studio_Opencv section. 365There you will find out how to use the OpenCV library in your own projects with the help of the 366Microsoft Visual Studio IDE. 367
