Consider this your fair warning – the current versions of the Triton Ocean SDK (3.91) and the SilverLining Sky, 3D Cloud, and Weather SDK (5.008) will be the last to offer project files, libraries, and support for Visual C++ 6.0, Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008. We will continue to offer support for Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2017 however!

While I could preach about the dangers of using un-maintained compilers that are over ten years old, that’s not really why we’re doing this. It’s also not about the extra work involved in keeping our code compatible with these old compilers and keeping their project files up to date, although that’s definitely a thing. The real reason is that our old build machine that compiles our SDK releases is starting to show signs of hardware failure, so we’ve been busy building a new build machine. In the process of setting it up, we’ve discovered that Microsoft no longer even offers anything older than Visual Studio 2010 for download. Since our original installation media for these ancient compilers is long gone, that left us with no way to even install them if we wanted to. Well, at least not legally – but at Sundog Software we play by the rules.

I doubt anyone actively using our software is still using any of the affected compilers. But if this change does impact you, be sure to keep your current SDK installer someplace safe. And remember, Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition is totally free! Maybe now is the time to update.