Build 64 bit GDAL for Windows

In building libLAS from source, there is the option of linking it with GDAL. Since I was interested in making 64 bit Windows version of libLAS, I had to find or make my own 64 bit versions of GDAL. Eventually, I decided to build my own. The following are the steps I did to compile 64 bit GDAL on Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Note that the 64 bit executables may not run successfully depending on the source code even if the compilation is successful.

1. Download the latest GDAL source code from http://download.osgeo.org/gdal/. Extract the files into a folder e.g. C:\Work\src\gdal-1.9.2\.
2. On the Windows Desktop, select Start | All Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 | Visual Studio Tools | Visual Studio x64 Win64 Command Prompt.
   
   The Visual Studio x64 Win64 Command Prompt appears.
3. In the Command Prompt, change directory to the extracted GDAL source code root folder.
   
   C:\> cd \Work\src\gdal-1.9.2
4. Build the GDAL 64 bit Windows binaries with the nmake command.
   
   C:\> nmake /f makefile.vc MSVC_VER=1600 WIN64=YES
   
   The binaries are generated.