Installing Boost on Windows

Installing boost on Windows is a bit more complicated than on the other platforms. First you need to either compile the libraries or use the prebuilt ones available here. The prebuilt ones are generally more convenient so those should be used if at all possible. Choose the right version from the list so that it matches your compiler and its version. Install it somewhere and remember the path.

Next, when configuring the FSO code with CMake it will generate an error on the first run. Set the variable BOOST_ROOT to the directory where you installed the libraries. You also need to set the path where CMake can find the libraries. This can be done with the BOOST_LIBRARYDIR variable. You have to set this to the actual library directory, if you are using the prebuilt libraries it will be a subfolder of where you installed boost (e.g. <boost root>/lib64-msvc-14.0 for Visual Studio 2015 in 64-bit build).

After that everything should work fine. There may be a warning about something with imported target but you can ignore that.