Win: Add launcher to hide the console window flash

This patch fixes a long-standing complaint from users:
the console window shortly flashing when they start
blender.

This is done by adding a new executable called
blender-launcher.exe which starts blender.exe while
hiding the console.

Any command line parameters given to blender-launcher
will be passed on to blender.exe so it'll be a drop
in replacement.

Starting blender.exe on its own will still function as
a proper console app so no changes required here for
users that use blender for batch processing.

Notable changes:

Registering blender (-R switch) will now register
blender-launcher as the preferred executable.

This patch updates the installer and updates the
shortcuts to start blender-launcher.exe rather
than blender.exe

Differential Revision: https://developer.blender.org/D11094

Reviewed by: brecht, harley

5 files changed, 113 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/build_files/cmake/packaging.cmake b/build_files/cmake/packaging.cmake
index 4a0a4f2493d..265b3c0e2ab 100644
--- a/build_files/cmake/packaging.cmake
+++ b/build_files/cmake/packaging.cmake
@@ -104,8 +104,8 @@ if(WIN32)
   set(CPACK_WIX_LIGHT_EXTRA_FLAGS -dcl:medium)
 endif()
 
-set(CPACK_PACKAGE_EXECUTABLES "blender" "blender")
-set(CPACK_CREATE_DESKTOP_LINKS "blender" "blender")
+set(CPACK_PACKAGE_EXECUTABLES "blender-launcher" "blender")
+set(CPACK_CREATE_DESKTOP_LINKS "blender-launcher" "blender")
 
 include(CPack)
 
diff --git a/source/blender/blenlib/intern/winstuff.c b/source/blender/blenlib/intern/winstuff.c
index 333b6783087..3aa61d1fec5 100644
--- a/source/blender/blenlib/intern/winstuff.c
+++ b/source/blender/blenlib/intern/winstuff.c
@@ -94,9 +94,9 @@ void BLI_windows_register_blend_extension(const bool background)
   GetModuleFileName(0, BlPath, MAX_PATH);
 
   /* Replace the actual app name with the wrapper. */
-  blender_app = strstr(BlPath, "blender-app.exe");
+  blender_app = strstr(BlPath, "blender.exe");
   if (blender_app != NULL) {
-    strcpy(blender_app, "blender.exe");
+    strcpy(blender_app, "blender-launcher.exe");
   }
 
   /* root is HKLM by default */
diff --git a/source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_init_exit.c b/source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_init_exit.c
index 56fd51ac6fd..0dcb817ad15 100644
--- a/source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_init_exit.c
+++ b/source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_init_exit.c
@@ -343,8 +343,13 @@ void WM_init(bContext *C, int argc, const char **argv)
   (void)argv; /* unused */
 #endif
 
-  if (!G.background && !wm_start_with_console) {
-    GHOST_toggleConsole(3);
+  if (!G.background) {
+    if (wm_start_with_console) {
+      GHOST_toggleConsole(1);
+    }
+    else {
+      GHOST_toggleConsole(3);
+    }
   }
 
   BKE_material_copybuf_clear();
diff --git a/source/creator/CMakeLists.txt b/source/creator/CMakeLists.txt
index c2893317924..baea3ad1f9b 100644
--- a/source/creator/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/source/creator/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -285,6 +285,15 @@ if(WITH_PYTHON_MODULE)
 
 else()
   add_executable(blender ${EXETYPE} ${SRC})
+  if(WIN32)
+      add_executable(blender-launcher WIN32
+        blender-launcher.c
+        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/release/windows/icons/winblender.rc
+        ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/blender.exe.manifest
+      )
+      target_compile_definitions (blender-launcher PRIVATE -D_UNICODE -DUNICODE)
+      target_link_libraries(blender-launcher Pathcch.lib)
+  endif()
 endif()
 
 if(WITH_BUILDINFO)
@@ -1212,7 +1221,7 @@ endif()
 
 if(WIN32 AND NOT WITH_PYTHON_MODULE)
   install(
-    TARGETS blender
+    TARGETS blender blender-launcher
     COMPONENT Blender
     DESTINATION "."
   )
diff --git a/source/creator/blender-launcher.c b/source/creator/blender-launcher.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..86b0f4f3b97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/creator/blender-launcher.c
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+/*
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+ * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+ * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+ * Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
+ */
+
+#include <Windows.h>
+#include <strsafe.h>
+
+#include <PathCch.h>
+
+int WINAPI wWinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, PWSTR pCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
+{
+  STARTUPINFO siStartInfo = {0};
+  PROCESS_INFORMATION procInfo;
+  wchar_t path[MAX_PATH];
+
+  siStartInfo.wShowWindow = SW_HIDE;
+  siStartInfo.dwFlags = STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
+
+  /* Get the path to the currently running executable (blender-launcher.exe) */
+
+  DWORD nSize = GetModuleFileName(NULL, path, MAX_PATH);
+  if (!nSize) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  /* GetModuleFileName returns the number of characters written, but GetLastError needs to be
+   * called to see if it ran out of space or not. However where would we be without exceptions
+   * to the rule: "If the buffer is too small to hold the module name, the function returns nSize.
+   * The last error code remains ERROR_SUCCESS." - source: MSDN. */
+
+  if (GetLastError() == ERROR_SUCCESS && nSize == MAX_PATH) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  /* Remove the filename (blender-launcher.exe) from path. */
+  if (PathCchRemoveFileSpec(path, MAX_PATH) != S_OK) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  /* Add blender.exe to path, resulting in the full path to the blender executable. */
+  if (PathCchCombine(path, MAX_PATH, path, L"blender.exe") != S_OK) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  int required_size_chars = lstrlenW(path) +     /* Module name */
+                            3 +                  /* 2 quotes + Space */
+                            lstrlenW(pCmdLine) + /* Original command line */
+                            1;                   /* Zero terminator */
+  size_t required_size_bytes = required_size_chars * sizeof(wchar_t);
+  wchar_t *buffer = (wchar_t *)malloc(required_size_bytes);
+  if (!buffer) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  if (StringCbPrintfEx(buffer,
+                       required_size_bytes,
+                       NULL,
+                       NULL,
+                       STRSAFE_NULL_ON_FAILURE,
+                       L"\"%s\" %s",
+                       path,
+                       pCmdLine) != S_OK) {
+    free(buffer);
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  BOOL success = CreateProcess(
+      path, buffer, NULL, NULL, TRUE, CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE, NULL, NULL, &siStartInfo, &procInfo);
+
+  if (success) {
+    /* Handles in PROCESS_INFORMATION must be closed with CloseHandle when they are no longer
+     * needed - MSDN. Closing the handles will NOT terminate the thread/process that we just
+     * started. */
+    CloseHandle(procInfo.hThread);
+    CloseHandle(procInfo.hProcess);
+  }
+
+  free(buffer);
+  return success ? 0 : -1;
+}