Install on Windows

The editor is built for Windows x86_64 (Windows 10 or 11). Everything it needs is inside the download, SDL included. Your graphics driver must support Vulkan, which current AMD, Intel and NVIDIA drivers do.

Install

There are two downloads. Both are on the Download page (and the GitHub releases, marked pre-release).

Installer

1. Download crossfire-editor-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe and run it.

2. If SmartScreen says “Windows protected your PC”, click More info, then Run anyway (see below).

3. Choose where to install it and whether you want a desktop icon. The installer adds Crossfire Editor to the Start menu, and an uninstaller.

Installed in Program Files, the editor keeps its settings and build folders in %APPDATA%\crossfire-editor, and copies the demo project to Documents\Crossfire Editor the first time it starts.

zip

1. Download crossfire-editor-<version>-windows-x64.zip.

2. Unpack it anywhere (right-click > Extract All…).

3. Run crossfire-editor.exe in the unpacked folder.

From the zip, the editor keeps its settings (editor.ini) beside itself and opens the demo project from examples\demo_project in the same folder.

First run

The editor opens the demo project. Press F5 to play it: a space game, and from its menu a platformer level. Close the game window (or press Shift+F5) to come back.

To open another project, use File > Open Project (Ctrl+O). The editor manual explains the window.

Scripts: Odin and a linker

Projects without scripts play and export with nothing else installed: the editor ships a prebuilt game player.

Projects with scripts are compiled, which needs two things:

1. Odin. Open Edit > Settings… (Ctrl+,) > Toolchain and press Install Odin dev-2026-10. It downloads the version the engine uses (about 70 MB) into %APPDATA%\crossfire-editor. If you already have Odin dev-2026-10 in your PATH, the editor uses that.

2. Visual Studio Build Tools, whose linker Odin uses. The editor can’t install it. Download Build Tools for Visual Studio and, in the installer, tick the Desktop development with C++ workload (it includes the Windows SDK). The full Visual Studio with that workload works too.

3. Check Settings > Toolchain again: Odin compiler and Linker (Visual Studio) should have a green check. Odin finds the linker and the Windows SDK by itself; you don’t need a developer command prompt.

The demo project has scripts, so it needs these too. See Settings and the toolchain for every row of that tab.

Common problems

SmartScreen blocks the installer or the editor. The downloads aren’t signed with a paid certificate yet, so Windows warns about them. Click More info, then Run anyway. Games you export get the same warning on other people’s computers.

The editor doesn’t start, or says it can’t create a Vulkan device. Update your graphics driver from AMD, Intel or NVIDIA. Old or generic drivers (like “Microsoft Basic Display Adapter”, or some remote desktop sessions) have no Vulkan.

Play says “No Odin compiler” or the build fails at linking. The project has scripts: install Odin and the Build Tools as above. The Output tab (Ctrl+J opens the bottom panel) shows what the build said.

A game with scripts won’t export for Linux or macOS from Windows. Games with scripts are compiled on the system they’re for. Projects without scripts export for all three desktop systems from any of them. See Exporting.

Note

Next: Your first game.