how to build to single exe with all dll embedded inside using MS VS 2010 and without need to use *.rc files ?
Tom
.rc file just controls the Windows game icon, you can remove it if you don't want it.
You should be able to do with any VS. To embed the libraries into the game you just need to compile with static libraries instead (DLLs are called dynamic or shared libraries). However library developers only provide pre-built dynamic versions, so you will likely have to build them from source.
The only difference between a shared and a static library is one build setting:
Finally, you can also embed the VC runtime into OpenXcom with this setting:
That'll get you a completely standalone (and much bigger) EXE.
You need find proper version libraries that allow that, problem is that usually SDL1.2 is ship as separate dlls (mainly because of LGPL).
One solution I find to don't bother with all this stuff is get linux that have properly set libraries to create standalone exe. I use virtual machine to run that
Another way is hit to SupSuper and ask him form where he get libraries that he use to compile milestones.
Final and probably most complex is compile everything (libraries too, with dependences) form sources as one exe.
The milestones use VS and DLLs. The nightlies are all statically built, but they are built on an automated MinGW on Linux so it's much simpler to just get all the required source packages and build them appropriately.