Step by Step

Windows

1. Download the zipped OpenRA developer build from https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/archive/bleed.zip. Extract the contained folder OpenRA-bleed into a folder of your choice (for example, on the Desktop).

2. Double-click on the make.cmd file in the OpenRA-bleed folder on the Desktop. This will open a black command line prompt.

3. Type dependencies.

4. Relaunch make.cmd and type all.

5. Download the zipped RA2 mod from https://github.com/OpenRA/ra2/archive/master.zip. Extract the contained folder into a folder of your choice (for example, on the Desktop).

6. Rename the extracted folder from ra2-master to ra2.

7. Cut this ra2 folder and paste it into %USERPROFILE%\Documents\OpenRA\mods\.

8. Download Cake, extract it to a folder and the add the path to the folder to the PATH system variable ("My Computer" > "Properties" > "Advanced" > "Environment Variables" > "Path"). (See http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm for more detailed instructions.) Windows 10 users must additionally unblock each binary file in the Cake folder (see troubleshooting section below.)

9. In the Explorer, go to your %USERPROFILE%\Documents\OpenRA\mods\ra2\ folder and double-click on the make.cmd file. This will open a black command line prompt. If you don't know the value of the variable %USERPROFILE%, press the Windows key + R, type cmd, in the opened Command Prompt write echo %USERPROFILE%.

10. You will be asked for the path to your OpenRA installation. Write the path where you extracted OpenRA in step 1 of this guide, where make.cmd from step 2 of this guide is located. Example: If you extracted OpenRA's OpenRA-bleed folder in step 1 of this guide on the Desktop, you should write: C:\Users\your_username\Desktop\OpenRA-bleed, where C:\Users\your_username is the value of variable %USERPROFILE%.

11. Now you'll be asked several times if you want to copy a file. Always press "y".

12. Now you can go to the OpenRA OpenRA-bleed folder and launch the game with OpenRA.exe.

13. If the game crashes when trying to load the RA2 mod, copy the file OpenRA.Mods.RA2.dll from %USERPROFILE%\Documents\OpenRA\mods\ra2\OpenRA.Mods.RA2\bin\Debug to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\OpenRA\mods\ra2. This should fix the problem.

Unix

A. Build OpenRA

mkdir ~/build
cd ~/build
git clone https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA.git
cd OpenRA
make dependencies
make

B. Build RA2

cd ~/build/OpenRA/mods/
git clone https://github.com/OpenRA/ra2.git
ln -s ~/build/OpenRA/mods/ra2/OpenRA.Mods.RA2 ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2
cd ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2/dependencies
ln -s ../../Eluant.dll ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2/dependencies/Eluant.dll
ln -s ../../OpenRA.Game.exe ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2/dependencies/OpenRA.Game.exe
ln -s ../../mods/common/OpenRA.Mods.Common.dll ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2/dependencies/OpenRA.Mods.Common.dll
ln -s ../../mods/ra/OpenRA.Mods.RA.dll ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2/dependencies/OpenRA.Mods.RA.dll
ln -s ../../mods/ts/OpenRA.Mods.TS.dll ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2/dependencies/OpenRA.Mods.TS.dll
cd ~/build/OpenRA/OpenRA.Mods.RA2
xbuild

C. Fetch some game content without original CD and install automatically.

bash ~/build/OpenRA/mods/ra2/fetch-content.sh

D. Run the game

bash ~/build/OpenRA/launch-game.sh

Troubleshooting

When I run make.cmd in the RA2 mod folder, I get a message saying "Error: Could not load file or assembly 'file:///(cake path)\Cake.Common.dll' or one of its dependencies. Operation is not supported."

On Windows 10, users must explicitly unblock any binaries downloaded from the web before they can be used. For each DLL in the Cake folder, and Cake.exe, you must right-click the file, go to Properties, and check "Unblock".