Reading MrSID (.sid) files with a GDAL built by vcpkg

Question

I have built GDAL 3.7.0 with vcpkg, creating ..\Documents\vcpkg\installed\x86-windows\lib\gdal.lib (I make a .lib to statically link into my C++ application). It is my understanding that when vcpkg builds gdal.lib it links in static versions of the various driver code to read the various formats supported by GDAL. This corresponds to what I see in my application: It can open TIFF and JP2 files, even though there are no DLLs in the "plugins" directory that I provide to GDAL in the call CPLSetConfigOption( "GDAL_DRIVER_PATH", "my/path/to/plugins" ).

My understanding is that certain proprietary formats cannot be read by GDAL without some code provided by the format owner. I have downloaded the appropriate Windows DSDK from https://www.extensis.com/support/developers. Inside the SDK is the folder lib, which contains lti_dsdk.lib, lti_dsdk_9.5.dll, lti_dsdk_cdll.lib, lti_dsdk_cdll_9.5.dll, and tbb.dll. I have put all of these files in my plugins directory, run my program, and it still can't read .sid files.

I don't know if I need to provide the DSDK directory to vcpkg earlier in the process, during the GDAL build. I have looked at vcpkg\ports\gdal\vcpkg.json and it's not clear to me which feature/configuration I would use to specify the location of the DSDK.

Can you help me understand the specifics to enable .sid reading, either (a) the way I need to provide DLLs to my program at runtime, or (b) the way I need to build GDAL differently with vcpkg?

Answer 1

In case it helps others, here are the steps I took to use MrSID and ECW through GDAL:

(1a) Download the 32 bit Visual Studio 2022 DSDK from https://www.extensis.com/support/developers. Unzip it to C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg\sdk\MrSID_DSDK-9.5.5.5244-win32-vc17.

(1b) Go to https://supportsi.hexagon.com/help/s/article/ERDAS-ECW-JP2-SDK-Read-Only-Redistributable-download and download the appropriate SDK in the top-right corner. Unzip the download to C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg\sdk\ecw\Hexagon\ERDAS_ECW_JPEG_2000_SDK_5.5.0\Desktop_Read-Only.

(2) Edit C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg\triplets\x86-windows.cmake. (You can see the meaning of the flags at https://gdal.org/development/building_from_source.html.)

set(VCPKG_TARGET_ARCHITECTURE x86)
set(VCPKG_CRT_LINKAGE static)
set(VCPKG_LIBRARY_LINKAGE static)
set(VCPKG_BUILD_TYPE release)
set(ENV{CMAKE_WINDOWS_KITS_10_DIR} "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10")
set(VCPKG_CMAKE_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS "-DCMAKE_WINDOWS_KITS_10_DIR=C:/Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits/10\"")
set(VCPKG_ENV_PASSTHROUGH CMAKE_WINDOWS_KITS_10_DIR)

# CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR is the triplets directory
# such as C:/Users/michael.katz/Documents/vcpkg/triplets
message( STATUS "\n\n-----------------------CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR = ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}\n\n" )

if (PORT MATCHES "gdal")
    string(
        CONCAT x
        " \"-DMRSID_INCLUDE_DIR=${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../sdk/MrSID_DSDK-9.5.5.5244-win32-vc17/Raster_DSDK/include\""
        " \"-DMRSID_LIBRARY=${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../sdk/MrSID_DSDK-9.5.5.5244-win32-vc17/Raster_DSDK/lib/lti_dsdk.lib\""
        " \"-DGDAL_USE_MRSID=ON\""
        " \"-DECW_INCLUDE_DIR=${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../sdk/ecw/Hexagon/ERDAS_ECW_JPEG_2000_SDK_5.5.0/Desktop_Read-Only/include\""
        " \"-DECW_LIBRARY=${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../sdk/ecw/Hexagon/ERDAS_ECW_JPEG_2000_SDK_5.5.0/Desktop_Read-Only/lib/vc141/Win32/NCSEcw.lib\""
        " \"-DGDAL_USE_ECW=ON"
    )
    set(VCPKG_CMAKE_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS "${VCPKG_CMAKE_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS} ${x}" )
endif()

message( STATUS "\n\n-----------------------VCPKG_CMAKE_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS = ${VCPKG_CMAKE_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS}\n\n" )

message( STATUS "\n\n-----------------------FEATURES = ${FEATURES}\n\n" )

# message( STATUS "\n\n-----------------------VCPKG_CXX_FLAGS = ${VCPKG_CXX_FLAGS}\n\n" )

(3) Build gdal, but first remove the old gdal:

PS C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg> rmdir C:\Users\michael.katz.la\AppData\Local\vcpkg\archives

PS C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg> .\vcpkg.exe remove gdal

PS C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg> rm C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg\buildtrees\gdal\x86-windows-rel\CMakeCache.txt

PS C:\Users\michael.katz\Documents\vcpkg> .\vcpkg.exe install gdal

(4a) Add ...MrSID_DSDK-9.5.5.5244-win32-vc17\Raster_DSDK\lib\lti_dsdk.lib as a linker input for your project.

(4b) Add ...Desktop_Read-Only\lib\vc141\Win32\NCSEcw.lib as a linker input for your project.

(5a) Copy ...MrSID_DSDK-9.5.5.5244-win32-vc17\Raster_DSDK\lib\lti_dsdk_9.5.dll to the Release directory of your project, so it's a sibling to your app.exe.

(5b) Copy ...Desktop_Read-Only\redistributable\vc141\Win32\NCSEcw.dll to the Release directory of your project, so it's a sibling to your app.exe.

(6) Rebuild your project.

Answer 2

I had the exact same problem within a few days of you (but posted on stackoverflow instead of here), your fix with modifying the triplet didn't work for me, but I was able to modify the port and get it working.

Here's my answer in case anyone else runs into this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/76766286/8177594