rych

Please help me setup Visual Studio to use HDK. I have

-Vista 64 (can't move to ubuntu yet)
-Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 both can compile 64bit
-Houdini 9.5 64bit

First questions:
1. Which version of VS must I use? I've read that it used to be “the same as the Houdini was built with”. Is it still a requirement? Then which version was the Houdini 9.5 Win64 built with indeed?
2. I understand that I don't need to specially install the HDK nor use the hcustom.exe anymore?
3. Should I start by making a blank DLL project in VS? Which function should the DLL export? Shouldn't I export at least void newSopOperator(OP_OperatorTable *table)? What calling convention? Mangled C++ name, or export “C”?

4. If I simply add include and dsolib folders to the compiler and linker, and add specific libraries dependencies … will I be able to build the source of the SOP_Star, for example? Do I have to #define some keywords?

5. How do I install the .dll into Houdini?

6. Could someone be so very kind as to share a sample VS project that has all the settings already, or each setup is too unique for a general template?

Well, I'd really appreciate any help. Thank you
Igor

Thank you much guys! It's working fast now.

Great idea, and it works so much faster indeed. I guess I'll be using the help in Firefox, as the hbrowser doesn't respect it's own external help URL setting. I think this is because I don't have a way to tell hbrowser about my proxy settings.
Thanks.