C++ – How to use the OpenCV 2.4 static libraries with Visual Studio

Well, the official guide is for installing OpenCV 2.1 on VS2010, so I wrote some instructions below that shows how to properly install and configure the x86 version of OpenCV 2.3 on Visual Studio 2010 (Express), since a lot of folks seem to have problems setting it up correctly.

Download OpenCV-2.3.0-win-superpack.exe and execute it to extract all files to a folder named OpenCV2.3. Inside this folder there are 2 directories: build and opencv. All the setup on VS2010 will refer to the build directory. For practical purposes I moved the folder OpenCV2.3 to my C:\ drive, so pay attention to the paths I suggest on this guide as yours might be different.

On Visual Studio, create a new Win32 Console Application project and name it whatever you like. After that, a new window will show up. Click on the tab Application Settings and make sure the option Empty Project gets selected:

Add a new file main.cpp to the folder Source Files, then add this code to main.cpp:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <cv.h>
#include <highgui.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
if (argc < 2)
{
    printf("Usage: ./opencv_hello <file.png>\n");
    return -1;
}

    IplImage* img = cvLoadImage(argv[1], CV_LOAD_IMAGE_UNCHANGED);
if (!img)
{
    return -1;
}

cvNamedWindow("display", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE);
    cvShowImage("display", img );

    cvWaitKey(0);        

    return 0;
}

At this point, we need to configure the project so it can locate OpenCV headers and libraries. Go to the Project Properties (ALT+F7), and once the new window shows up do the following:

• On the Configuration box, select All Configurations

• Open Configuration Properties > C/C++ > General, and edit the field Additional Include Directories to add these 3 paths (for the headers):

  C:\OpenCV2.3\build\include\opencv

  C:\OpenCV2.3\build\include\opencv2

  C:\OpenCV2.3\build\include

Note that include\opencv is for the C interface of OpenCV and include\opencv2 if for the C++ interface. We are also adding the folder include to prevent our build from being broken by some headers of the C interface that refer to C++ headers as opencv2\core.

• Then, add the path of the libraries on Configuration Properties > Linker > General, and on the Additional Library Directories field, add this: C:\OpenCV2.3\build\x86\vc9\lib:

• Finally, for this simple test we are going to add the libraries opencv_core230.lib and opencv_highgui230.lib. So go to Configuration Properties > Linker > Input and add them:

When writing more complex applications you'll probably need to add other OpenCV libs that I did not mentioned on this little project of ours.

Press F7 to Build Solution and you should see:

========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

To be able to execute the application you'll need to modify the PATH environment variable of your system to add the location of OpenCV's DLLs. Add this to end of PATH:

; C:\OpenCV2.3\build\x86\vc9\bin

Error 1 error LNK2005: "public: __thiscall std::_Container_base12::~_Container_base12(void)" (??1_Container_base12@std@@QAE@XZ) already defined in foo.lib(foo.obj) C:\foo\msvcprtd.lib(MSVCP100D.dll) footest

From what I can see, this error message means that you are trying to include MSVC runtime library twice. This could be due to the result of compiling the foo.lib with the Runtime library option: "Multi-threaded (/MT)" and the test project with the option: "Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)" for example.

Check the Runtime options under "Project Properties" ==> "C/C++" ==> "Code Generation" for both projects and make sure they are the same for both projects.