I'm following a book written for the older version of OpenCV (OpenCV 2 Computer Vision, by PACT) and it tells me to include the lib folder in my Visual Studio 2013 Property Manager when creating a new property sheet.
I don't see a directory called lib in the current GitHub version (opencv-master, which is OpenCV 3.1.x). Has this folder been replaced by something else?
I built OpenCV with cmake. I found a 4 year old unanswered question wherein someone was also looking for this folder. They tried building the library from another directory that no longer exists, but that didn't work for them anyway...
Another OpenCV user just told me that GitHub doesn't include the libraries, so you have to cmake them locally. I'm still not clear on where / how I can cmake them.
I realize the pre-built binaries have this, but I'm avoiding them because I need the SURF functions in opencv_contrib, so I needed to build it from source.
The pre-built binaries will have a library folder in the corresponding path
Local System Path(Opencv Folder)-> build->x64/x86->vc10/vc11/vc12->lib.
As you mentioned that you don't wish to use it then the only option left for you is to build it locally which is a much better option if you plan to use Opencv libraries for varied functions and projects as it resolves many build errors that you might face later.
I used the Cmake Graphical user interface to build opencv, following are the steps I followed to successfully build the libraries on my system .