Windows SDK

Build the Windows x64 CPU SDK with Visual Studio 2022. It provides the C and C++ APIs, including image loading, tracking, recognition, landmarks and optional analysis. Python users can install the published Windows package directly; see Windows integration.

Prepare the tools

Install Visual Studio 2022 or Build Tools 2022 with Desktop development with C++:

Open x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022, then run powershell. The script uses this environment's compiler and discovers Visual Studio's bundled CMake and Ninja when installed.

The current build entry point targets x64 CPU inference. Windows x86, ARM64, CUDA and TensorRT are outside this build configuration.

Get the source

The Windows build entry point is currently on the Develop repository’s feature/win branch. Get that branch and its dependencies:

git clone --branch feature/win --single-branch https://github.com/HyperInspire/InspireFace.git
cd InspireFace
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/tunmx/inspireface-3rdparty.git 3rdparty

Keep the dependencies from this checkout together. The build compiles the CPU inference and image-processing dependencies automatically; the default SDK does not require a separate OpenCV installation.

Build a shared SDK

For an SDK build without the test resources:

.\command\build_windows.ps1 -SkipTests

This builds and installs a Release DLL, its import library, headers and CMake package. It keeps intermediate files for incremental builds:

build/windows-x64-Release-shared/install/
  InspireFace/
    include/
      inspireface.h
      intypedef.h
      herror.h
      inspireface/
      inspirecv/
    lib/
      libInspireFace.dll
      InspireFace.lib
      cmake/InspireFace/
        InspireFaceConfig.cmake
        InspireFaceConfigVersion.cmake
  version.txt

-SkipTests disables test compilation and execution. Without it, the script requires the test resources and runs all registered CTest tests before installation; see Run the tests.

The DLL already contains the default CPU inference dependency. For an application, copy the complete installed SDK to a stable location and follow Link an application.

Build options

.\command\build_windows.ps1 -Static -SkipTests
.\command\build_windows.ps1 -Configuration Debug -SkipTests
.\command\build_windows.ps1 -Samples -SkipTests -Jobs 2

The defaults use separate windows-x64-Release-shared, windows-x64-Release-static and windows-x64-Debug-shared directories. Keep them separate if you supply -BuildDirectory too: switching configuration in an old cache can mix compiler settings, runtime libraries and dependencies.

With CMake 4, pass the compatibility setting required by older dependency policy declarations:

.\command\build_windows.ps1 -SkipTests `
  -CMakeOptions '-DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5'

Run the tests

The tests need test_res/pack/Pikachu and the complete image fixtures, including video frames. From the SDK source directory, download them with PowerShell:

$testArchive = Join-Path $env:TEMP 'inspireface-test-res-lite2.zip'
Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Uri 'https://github.com/tunmx/inspireface-store/raw/main/resource/test_res-lite2.zip' `
  -OutFile $testArchive
Expand-Archive -LiteralPath $testArchive -DestinationPath . -Force
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force .\test_res\pack | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Uri 'https://github.com/HyperInspire/InspireFace/releases/download/v1.x/Pikachu' `
  -OutFile .\test_res\pack\Pikachu
.\command\build_windows.ps1

The script creates test_res/save/video_frames, builds the tests, runs ctest --output-on-failure --no-tests=error, and installs only after they pass. Run samples from a writable directory: their temporary databases and archives can use the working directory. If you set TMPDIR for archive operations, use a UTF-8 path.

To check the installed headers, library and CMake target independently of the SDK build tree:

$sdkPackage = (Resolve-Path .\build\windows-x64-Release-shared\install\InspireFace\lib\cmake\InspireFace).Path
$modelPath = (Resolve-Path .\test_res\pack\Pikachu).Path
cmake -S ci/windows/consumer -B build/windows-consumer -G Ninja `
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release `
  "-DInspireFace_DIR=$sdkPackage" `
  "-DISF_CONSUMER_MODEL=$modelPath"
cmake --build build/windows-consumer --parallel 4
ctest --test-dir build/windows-consumer --output-on-failure --no-tests=error

This builds standalone C and C++ applications against the installed package. The model checks run detection on a blank image; use the file-detection example to inspect results on a real face image.

Deploy or package the result

Release builds use the dynamic MSVC runtime. Install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 x64 Redistributable on the target machine and place libInspireFace.dll beside the application executable. Debug builds need Visual Studio's matching debug runtime and are for development.

A static SDK still needs compatible compiler and runtime settings. Use the installed InspireFace::InspireFace CMake target to carry its inference dependency into the final link; -Static does not make the application independent of the MSVC runtime.

For Python, use Windows wheel packaging. That workflow packages a Release shared CPU SDK; models remain separate files.