Could you give us the log files from your Panda3D log directory in application data?
There are many reasons for us to choose CMake over autotools, including autotools’ lack of proper support for the MSVC compiler, the Windows environment in general, the complexity of its configuration, etc. CMake does all the things our current build system does and more, including testing and packaging. Many open-source projects seem to be switching from autotools to CMake for these and other reasons, and my early tests have shown that migrating to CMake is a lot less painful than migrating to autotools. Is there any reason why CMake would be unsuited?
Cross-compilation for Windows is simply out of the question for a project of Panda’s complexity, especially when we try to compile against proprietary MSVC-only libraries such as the DirectX SDK and the Max/Maya SDKs.