Compiling ScummVM questions

[Spin]

Hi, I finally want to try compiling, I downloaded VC++ 2010, VC++ 2008, and MinGW. But before I start, I have some questions for the compile wizzs here on the board.

What would be the easiest compiler choice for a noob like me on a Windows XP SP3 system? I checked the ScummVM wiki and to me it seems VC++ 2010/2008 seems to have the least complicated instructions. But does that still hold up in real live?

Which compiler would give me the best results, eg. speed (I read that VC++ gives a (small) speed boost compared to MinGW, not that ScummVM runs slow, I am just curious which gives the best speed improvement on Windows XP SP3, I also read that if you compile on your own system you will get a (small) speed improvement).

I am very interested in the OpenGL GSOC task, is it already possible to compile that branch just for personal use?

[Red_Breast]

I don't know about Windows much. I tried using VC++ when I used to run Windows. But I didn't try MinGW to compare the 2.

What do you mean by speed increase? The speed of compiling?
I can't recall how long VC++ takes. I've never really timed make with Linux but it 'feels' about 10 minutes. Maybe a little under. That's a 3.0Ghz P4 (hyper-thread) and 2GB RAM.

I seem to recall I chose VC++ as it looked easier. These days as I'm a little more familiar with the terminology maybe MinGW would look just as easy.

[Spin]

Speed of the executable/program on the system it was compiled on, since you can specify if you want sse2 for example.

But another question, do I need the DirectX Software Development Kit and/or Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 as well if i want to use VC++ 2010/2008?

[KuroShiro]

Speed of the executable/program on the system it was compiled on, since you can specify if you want sse2 for example.

But another question, do I need the DirectX Software Development Kit and/or Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 as well if i want to use VC++ 2010/2008?

You do not need any Windows or DirectX related libraries. You can get full instructions for what libraries you need and on how to install them here.

To answer your previous question, I personally find MinGW easier, but that's mainly because I had previous experience in using UNIX. If you aren't familiar with using a command line, then VC++ would probably be better. MinGW does allow for a quicker way to update the code via an svn command line within the program though. There shouldn't be any appreciable difference in speed between the executables linked by the two compilers.

[Red_Breast]

If it's your first time it would also be better to use the pre-compiled libraries. There are 2 download locations listed on the wiki's Visual Studio instructions page.
If you go the MinGW route that page has it's own download for pre-compiled libraries.
Good luck.