Hide the console on Windows unless --debug is set.

README.md

@@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ Building
 
 EmulationStation uses some C++11 code, which means you'll need to use at least g++-4.7 on Linux, or VS2010 on Windows, to compile.
 
-EmulationStation has a few dependencies. For building, you'll need SDL2, Boost (System, Filesystem, DateTime), FreeImage, FreeType, Eigen3, and cURL.
+EmulationStation has a few dependencies. For building, you'll need CMake, SDL2, Boost (System, Filesystem, DateTime, Locale), FreeImage, FreeType, Eigen3, and cURL.  You also should probably install the `fonts-droid` package which contains fallback fonts for Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters, but ES will still work fine without it (this package is only used at run-time).
 
 **On Debian/Ubuntu:**
 All of this be easily installed with apt-get:
 ```bash
-sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-locale-dev libfreeimage-dev libfreetype6-dev libeigen3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libasound2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev
+sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-locale-dev libfreeimage-dev libfreetype6-dev libeigen3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libasound2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev build-essential cmake fonts-droid
 ```
 
 Then, generate and build the Makefile with CMake:
@@ -59,21 +59,21 @@ Complete Raspberry Pi build instructions at [emulationstation.org](http://emulat
 
 [Boost](http://www.boost.org/users/download/) (you'll need to compile yourself or get the pre-compiled binaries)
 
-[Eigen3](http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page)
+[Eigen3](http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Main_Page) (header-only library)
 
 [FreeImage](http://downloads.sourceforge.net/freeimage/FreeImage3154Win32.zip)
 
 [FreeType2](http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.4.9.tar.bz2) (you'll need to compile)
 
-[SDL2](http://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-devel-2.0.0-VC.zip)
+[SDL2](http://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-devel-2.0.3-VC.zip)
 
-[CURL](http://curl.haxx.se/download.html) (you'll need to compile or get the pre-compiled (DLL version))
+[cURL](http://curl.haxx.se/download.html) (you'll need to compile or get the pre-compiled DLL version)
 
-(remember to copy necessary .DLLs into the same folder as the executable: FreeImage.dll, freetype6.dll, SDL2.dll, libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll)
+(Remember to copy necessary .DLLs into the same folder as the executable: probably FreeImage.dll, freetype6.dll, SDL2.dll, libcurl.dll, and zlib1.dll. Exact list depends on if you built your libraries in "static" mode or not.)
 
 [CMake](http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html) (this is used for generating the Visual Studio project)
 
-(If you don't know how to use CMake, here are some hints: run cmake-gui and point it at your EmulationStation folder.  Point the "build" directory somewhere - I use EmulationStation/build.  Click configure, choose "Visual Studio [year] Project", fill in red fields as they appear and keep clicking Configure, then click Generate.)
+(If you don't know how to use CMake, here are some hints: run cmake-gui and point it at your EmulationStation folder.  Point the "build" directory somewhere - I use EmulationStation/build.  Click configure, choose "Visual Studio [year] Project", fill in red fields as they appear and keep clicking Configure (you may need to check "Advanced"), then click Generate.)
 
 
 Configuring
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ You can use `--help` or `-h` to view a list of command-line options. Briefly out
 --ignore-gamelist	- do not parse any gamelist.xml files.
 --draw-framerate	- draw the framerate.
 --no-exit		- do not display 'exit' in the ES menu.
---debug			- print additional output to the console, primarily about input.
+--debug			- show the console window on Windows, do slightly more logging
 --windowed	- run ES in a window, works best in conjunction with --resolution [w] [h].
 --vsync [1/on or 0/off]	- turn vsync on or off (default is on).
 --scrape	- run the interactive command-line metadata scraper.

es-app/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -104,12 +104,12 @@ target_link_libraries(emulationstation ${COMMON_LIBRARIES} es-core)
 
 # special properties for Windows builds
 if(MSVC)
-    #show console in debug builds, but not in proper release builds
+    # Always compile with the "WINDOWS" subsystem to avoid console window flashing at startup 
-    #Note that up to CMake 2.8.10 this feature is broken: http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=12566
+    # when --debug is not set (see es-core/src/main.cpp for explanation).
-    set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS_DEBUG "/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE")
+    # The console will still be shown if launched with --debug.
-    set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_DEBUG "_CONSOLE")
+    # Note that up to CMake 2.8.10 this feature is broken: http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=12566
-    set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO "/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE")
+    set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS_DEBUG "/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS")
-    set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_RELWITHDEBINFO "_CONSOLE")
+    set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO "/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS")
     set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS_RELEASE "/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS")
     set_target_properties(emulationstation PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS_MINSIZEREL "/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS")
 endif()

es-app/src/main.cpp

@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@
 #include <sstream>
 #include <boost/locale.hpp>
 
+#ifdef WIN32
+#include <Windows.h>
+#endif
+
 namespace fs = boost::filesystem;
 
 bool scrape_cmdline = false;
@@ -54,6 +58,7 @@ bool parseArgs(int argc, char* argv[], unsigned int* width, unsigned int* height
 		}else if(strcmp(argv[i], "--debug") == 0)
 		{
 			Settings::getInstance()->setBool("Debug", true);
+			Settings::getInstance()->setBool("HideConsole", false);
 			Log::setReportingLevel(LogDebug);
 		}else if(strcmp(argv[i], "--windowed") == 0)
 		{
@@ -78,10 +83,10 @@ bool parseArgs(int argc, char* argv[], unsigned int* width, unsigned int* height
 				"--ignore-gamelist		ignore the gamelist (useful for troubleshooting)\n"
 				"--draw-framerate		display the framerate\n"
 				"--no-exit			don't show the exit option in the menu\n"
-				"--debug				even more logging\n"
+				"--debug				more logging, show console on Windows\n"
 				"--scrape			scrape using command line interface\n"
 				"--windowed			not fullscreen, should be used with --resolution\n"
-				"--vsync [1/on or 0/off]	turn vsync on or off (default is on)\n"
+				"--vsync [1/on or 0/off]		turn vsync on or off (default is on)\n"
 				"--help, -h			summon a sentient, angry tuba\n\n"
 				"More information available in README.md.\n";
 			return false; //exit after printing help
@@ -153,6 +158,39 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[])
 	if(!parseArgs(argc, argv, &width, &height))
 		return 0;
 
+	// only show the console on Windows if HideConsole is false
+#ifdef WIN32
+	// MSVC has a "SubSystem" option, with two primary options: "WINDOWS" and "CONSOLE".
+	// In "WINDOWS" mode, no console is automatically created for us.  This is good, 
+	// because we can choose to only create the console window if the user explicitly 
+	// asks for it, preventing it from flashing open and then closing.
+	// In "CONSOLE" mode, a console is always automatically created for us before we
+	// enter main. In this case, we can only hide the console after the fact, which
+	// will leave a brief flash.
+	// TL;DR: You should compile ES under the "WINDOWS" subsystem.
+	// I have no idea how this works with non-MSVC compilers.
+	if(!Settings::getInstance()->getBool("HideConsole"))
+	{
+		// we want to show the console
+		// if we're compiled in "CONSOLE" mode, this is already done.
+		// if we're compiled in "WINDOWS" mode, no console is created for us automatically;
+		// the user asked for one, so make one and then hook stdin/stdout/sterr up to it
+		if(AllocConsole()) // should only pass in "WINDOWS" mode
+		{
+			freopen("CONIN$", "r", stdin);
+			freopen("CONOUT$", "wb", stdout);
+			freopen("CONOUT$", "wb", stderr);
+		}
+	}else{
+		// we want to hide the console
+		// if we're compiled with the "WINDOWS" subsystem, this is already done.
+		// if we're compiled with the "CONSOLE" subsystem, a console is already created; 
+		// it'll flash open, but we hide it nearly immediately
+		if(GetConsoleWindow()) // should only pass in "CONSOLE" mode
+			ShowWindow(GetConsoleWindow(), SW_HIDE);
+	}
+#endif
+
 	//if ~/.emulationstation doesn't exist and cannot be created, bail
 	if(!verifyHomeFolderExists())
 		return 1;

es-core/src/Settings.cpp

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ std::vector<const char*> settings_dont_save = boost::assign::list_of
 	("ShowExit")
 	("Windowed")
 	("VSync")
+	("HideConsole")
 	("IgnoreGamelist");
 
 Settings::Settings()
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@ void Settings::setDefaults()
 	mBoolMap["ShowHelpPrompts"] = true;
 	mBoolMap["ScrapeRatings"] = true;
 	mBoolMap["IgnoreGamelist"] = false;
+	mBoolMap["HideConsole"] = true;
 	mBoolMap["QuickSystemSelect"] = true;
 
 	mBoolMap["Debug"] = false;