Undefined references when installing Dear ImGui + SDL3 backends via vcpkg

[KasimAhmic]

Hello, I am trying to get Dear ImGui running inside my SDL3 game but am encountering issues at the linking phase. Despite the headers being discoverable in CLion just fine, it seems the linker is unable to find them and I am unsure as to why. I've found a few other discussions where people had similar problems and while some of them were able to work around the issues by manually including Dear ImGui in their project, no one seems to have been able to resolve the original vcpkg issue.

I'm very new to C++ and newer still to C++ build systems so any help would be much appreciated!

vcpkg.json

{
  "name": "sweepminer",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "dependencies": [
    {
      "name": "imgui",
      "features": [
        "sdl3-binding",
        "sdl3-renderer-binding"
      ]
    },
    "sdl3",
    {
      "name": "sdl3-image",
      "features": [
        "png"
      ]
    },
    "sdl3-ttf"
  ]
}

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)

project(SweepMiner)

set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin)

add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} src/main.cpp
        src/game.cpp
        src/cell.cpp
        src/timer.cpp
        src/mouse.cpp
        src/scaler.cpp
        src/debug_menu.cpp)

find_package(SDL3 CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE SDL3::SDL3)

find_package(SDL3_ttf CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE SDL3_ttf::SDL3_ttf)

find_package(SDL3_image CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE SDL3_image::SDL3_image)

find_package(imgui CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE imgui::imgui)

file(COPY assets DESTINATION "${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}")

target_compile_features(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE cxx_std_23)
target_compile_options(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE $<$<CONFIG:Release>:-O3>)

Build output

====================[ Build | SweepMiner | windows-debug ]======================
"C:\Program Files\JetBrains\CLion 2025.1.2\bin\cmake\win\x64\bin\cmake.exe" --build D:\Documents\GitHub\sweepminer\build\windows-debug --target SweepMiner -j 30
[1/1] Linking CXX executable bin\SweepMiner.exe
FAILED: [code=1] bin/SweepMiner.exe 
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /C "cd . && C:\PROGRA~1\JETBRA~1\CLION2~1.2\bin\mingw\bin\G__~1.EXE -g  CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/main.cpp.obj CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/game.cpp.obj CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/cell.cpp.obj CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/timer.cpp.obj CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/mouse.cpp.obj CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/scaler.cpp.obj CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/debug_menu.cpp.obj -o bin\SweepMiner.exe -Wl,--out-implib,libSweepMiner.dll.a -Wl,--major-image-version,0,--minor-image-version,0  vcpkg_installed/x64-windows/debug/lib/SDL3_ttf.lib  vcpkg_installed/x64-windows/debug/lib/SDL3_image.lib  vcpkg_installed/x64-windows/debug/lib/imguid.lib  vcpkg_installed/x64-windows/debug/lib/SDL3.lib  -lkernel32 -luser32 -lgdi32 -lwinspool -lshell32 -lole32 -loleaut32 -luuid -lcomdlg32 -ladvapi32 && C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /C "cd /D D:\Documents\GitHub\sweepminer\build\windows-debug && C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noprofile -executionpolicy Bypass -file C:/Users/kahmic/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/msbuild/applocal.ps1 -targetBinary D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/build/windows-debug/bin/SweepMiner.exe -installedDir D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/build/windows-debug/vcpkg_installed/x64-windows/debug/bin -OutVariable out""
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\CLion 2025.1.2\bin\mingw\bin/ld.exe: CMakeFiles/SweepMiner.dir/src/main.cpp.obj: in function `SDL_AppInit':
D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/src/main.cpp:81: undefined reference to `ImGui::DebugCheckVersionAndDataLayout(char const*, unsigned long long, unsigned long long, unsigned long long, unsigned long long, unsigned long long, unsigned long long)'
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\CLion 2025.1.2\bin\mingw\bin/ld.exe: D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/src/main.cpp:82: undefined reference to `ImGui::CreateContext(ImFontAtlas*)'
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\CLion 2025.1.2\bin\mingw\bin/ld.exe: D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/src/main.cpp:83: undefined reference to `ImGui::GetIO()'
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\CLion 2025.1.2\bin\mingw\bin/ld.exe: D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/src/main.cpp:87: undefined reference to `ImGui::StyleColorsDark(ImGuiStyle*)'
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\CLion 2025.1.2\bin\mingw\bin/ld.exe: D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/src/main.cpp:89: undefined reference to `ImGui_ImplSDL3_InitForSDLRenderer(SDL_Window*, SDL_Renderer*)'
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\CLion 2025.1.2\bin\mingw\bin/ld.exe: D:/Documents/GitHub/sweepminer/src/main.cpp:90: undefined reference to `ImGui_ImplSDLRenderer3_Init(SDL_Renderer*)'
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

#define SDL_MAIN_USE_CALLBACKS 1

#include <filesystem>

#include <imgui.h>
#include <imgui_impl_sdl3.h>
#include <imgui_impl_sdlrenderer3.h>
#include <SDL3/SDL.h>
#include <SDL3/SDL_main.h>
#include <SDL3/SDL_init.h>
#include <SDL3_ttf/SDL_ttf.h>

SDL_AppResult SDL_AppInit(void** appstate, const int argc, char* argv[]) {
    // ...

    SDL_Window* window = SDL_CreateWindow("SweepMiner", 0, 0, SDL_WINDOW_HIGH_PIXEL_DENSITY);

    if (!window) {
        SDL_Log("Couldn't create window: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
        return SDL_Fail();
    }

    SDL_Renderer* renderer = SDL_CreateRenderer(window, nullptr);
    if (!renderer) {
        SDL_Log("Couldn't create renderer: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
        return SDL_Fail();
    }

    IMGUI_CHECKVERSION();
    ImGui::CreateContext();
    ImGuiIO& io = ImGui::GetIO(); (void)io;
    io.ConfigFlags |= ImGuiConfigFlags_NavEnableKeyboard;
    io.ConfigFlags |= ImGuiConfigFlags_NavEnableSetMousePos;

    ImGui::StyleColorsDark();

    ImGui_ImplSDL3_InitForSDLRenderer(window, renderer);
    ImGui_ImplSDLRenderer3_Init(renderer);

    // ...
}

[KasimAhmic]

Like others, I too have gone the route of adding Dear ImGui as a Git submodule with some modifications to my CMakeLists and everything works now. That said, I would prefer to figure out what I'm doing wrong with vcpkg so I can just use that for package management.