Hello?

SDL Development
1

Greetings. I’m new to the mainig list and hoping I’m not the only one
alive here. This is the first mailing list I’ve been on that hasn’t
generated messages within a day of my subscribing.

So I just wanted to say ‘hi’. I’ve monitored the website for a little
while, but only within the last four days I’ve downloaded v0.7,
compiled and installed it and started messing around with the software.
What I’ve seen has impressed me greatly. But (as you would expect) I
see room for improvement. I was wondering what’s in the works for 0.8.
I noticed from the to-do blurb that had some stuff about CD-ROM access
and network connectivity. Has anything been accomplished toward those
ends?–

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2

Greetings. I’m new to the mainig list and hoping I’m not the only one
alive here. This is the first mailing list I’ve been on that hasn’t
generated messages within a day of my subscribing.

You should be thankful! :slight_smile:

see room for improvement. I was wondering what’s in the works for 0.8.
I noticed from the to-do blurb that had some stuff about CD-ROM access
and network connectivity. Has anything been accomplished toward those
ends?

There have been discussions, but I think Sam is aiming to get all ports
stable before too much new happens. Also, doco is in the works.

BTW, did I bring up the fact that I think some kind of input abstraction
and configuration stuff should be considered? A simple text based
configuration (.rc) file would be best, with a nifty Gtk(or whatever) edit
tool for users written later.

njhOn Fri, 24 Jul 1998 kwalker at aros.net wrote:

3

Greetings. I’m new to the mainig list and hoping I’m not the only one
alive here. This is the first mailing list I’ve been on that hasn’t
generated messages within a day of my subscribing.

Welcome to the list, Knight. :slight_smile:
This list goes in spurts. Sometimes it’s pretty busy, sometimes not,
and I think it depends on how much time people have. :slight_smile:

I noticed from the to-do blurb that had some stuff about CD-ROM access
and network connectivity. Has anything been accomplished toward those
ends?

I am thinking about adding a general purpose network datagram library to
the examples, but I don’t anticipate adding true networking to the SDL
library any time soon since the Berkeley socket API is generally portable
and a good network API has to deal with many issues for many different
types of games. I think it would be more useful to have that as a separate
project.

CD-ROM access might be nice, but nobody has said “Please add CD-ROM support,
I need it for my game”, so I’ve left it on the back burner.

The biggest thing I personally am working on is making the library as
stable as possible, and adding lots of demos and games which use it.

Currently, the following projects are using SDL:

Executor -- A Macintosh Emulator for the PC
DOOM -- of course. :)
Quake -- Full graphics support, sound in progress (unofficial)
HElliZER -- a portable demo from Down-Under
Maelstrom -- Finished, not yet released
... other projects being worked on by members of this list. :)

See ya!
-Sam Lantinga (slouken at devolution.com)–
Author of Simple DirectMedia Layer -
http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/SDL/

4

DOOM – of course. :slight_smile:

Umm… I thought you might like to know that SDL doom hasn’t compiled since SDL
0.3…On Sat, Jul 25, 1998 at 06:42:46PM -0700, Sam Lantinga wrote:

5

Welcome to the list, Knight. :slight_smile:

Thanks. I’m glad to be here. I’m fairly new to SDL and game
programming in genral, but I’ve got a bit of software development
behind me and I hope to positively affect this project and help out.

This list goes in spurts. Sometimes it’s pretty busy, sometimes not,
and I think it depends on how much time people have. :slight_smile:

Don’t most mailing lists? I think the only one that didn’t was the
RedHat Newbie (flood) list.

I am thinking about adding a general purpose network datagram library to
the examples, but I don’t anticipate adding true networking to the SDL
library any time soon since the Berkeley socket API is generally portable
and a good network API has to deal with many issues for many different
types of games. I think it would be more useful to have that as a separate
project.

I was thinking along the same lines. I mean the the game I’m working
on (when I get far enough to begin working on it) would have totally
different requirements than, say a Real Time Strategy or a First Person
Shooter. The only problem I’d have with doing it myself is porting the
network layer between OSes. If there were just the basic network
functions (bind(), connect(), socket(), listen(), accept(), read(),
write(), select(), etc.) so we’d have maximum control while maintaining
cross-platform.

CD-ROM access might be nice, but nobody has said “Please add CD-ROM support,
I need it for my game”, so I’ve left it on the back burner.

Well, if it comes down to it, I know of a site that has all the CD
audio under Linux information I can think of.

The biggest thing I personally am working on is making the library as
stable as possible, and adding lots of demos and games which use it.

I agree. Unfortunately the Windows port can’t be all THAT stable, I
mean it’s based on DirectX for God’s sake!

Executor – A Macintosh Emulator for the PC

I played with the DOS version of that once, a long time ago.

DOOM – of course. :slight_smile:

Only problem I have with that is that it sets to 320x240 which is still
TINY on my monitor.

Quake – Full graphics support, sound in progress (unofficial)

Really? Sounds spiffy.

HElliZER – a portable demo from Down-Under

Is this available? If so, where can I get it?

Maelstrom – Finished, not yet released

I haven’t played that in FOREVER.

… other projects being worked on by members of this list. :slight_smile:

Speaking of that, what other projects are everybody on the list working
on with SDL? I’m curious.On 25 Jul, Sam Lantinga wrote:

–

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6

How’s that? I got the source for it and compiled it against 0.7 with
no ill effects.On 26 Jul, Michael Samuel wrote:

Umm… I thought you might like to know that SDL doom hasn’t compiled since SDL
0.3…

–

| |/ | | | _ | | | mailto:@Knight_Walker |
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|| || || || _____________________________________/

7

Hmm… must have been updated since then. I couldn’t compile it with 0.5/0.6
due to linking problems.
(Would somebody confirm that it has been updated in the past month or so)On Sat, Jul 25, 1998 at 10:08:09PM -0600, kwalker at aros.net wrote:

On 26 Jul, Michael Samuel wrote:

Umm… I thought you might like to know that SDL doom hasn’t compiled since SDL
0.3…

How’s that? I got the source for it and compiled it against 0.7 with
no ill effects.

8

HElliZER – a portable demo from Down-Under
Got a URL for that?

Best Regards,
David Sowsy

9

RE: Re: Hello?

Hmm… must have been updated since then. I couldn’t compile it with 0.5/0.6
due to linking problems.

Well, like I said, it compiled and ran fine with 0.7 (It complained about my
wad file being a different version, but it still ran).

(Would somebody confirm that it has been updated in the past month or so)

The archive I have has files in it that were modified 7/03 and 6/08 this year.

                      Knight Walker

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Multi-net messages, Usenet Newsgroups, networked games, Cool SysOps!
BBSing isn’t dead, it just smells a little funny.

10

Again, my question is what prefs would all SDL apps have in common? At this
point, I don’t see any.

Sound prefs - Which sound device do we use? (Applies for Linux and Win95/98, if
Sam has the hooks in there to support multiple sound devices)

Midi prefs - Which sequencer do we use (Applies for nearly all platforms, but I
don’t see any midi stuff in there at all – Why? Waiting for somebody to
contribute it?

CDROM prefs - Which CDROM drive do we use for audio, and which one for data?
(Not yet implemented :slight_smile:

Well, I’ve come up with 3 examples of how it COULD be used, but they would
require some changes to SDL to support them.

Oh, and back to the midi thing. I think midi support of some kind would be
most useful, as it is the only sane way to put background music in a game,
without using CD Audio (which isn’t always an option).On Sun, Jul 26, 1998 at 07:10:53PM -0600, Knight Walker wrote:

11

Sound prefs - Which sound device do we use? (Applies for Linux and Win95/98, if
Sam has the hooks in there to support multiple sound devices)

Midi prefs - Which sequencer do we use (Applies for nearly all platforms, but I
don’t see any midi stuff in there at all – Why? Waiting for somebody to
contribute it?

Okay. I’ll give you that much (It completely slipped my mind, but
that’s why open, distributed software development is best, right? As
for what sound device we have, how many people with sound on UNIX don’t
have a /dev/dsp?

As for MIDI, I believe that it’s either something Sam doesn’t have
access to, he hasn’t put it very high on the list of things to do, or
it’s been too difficult thus far. I know that MIDI was the last thing
I was able to get working on my boxes.

CDROM prefs - Which CDROM drive do we use for audio, and which one for data?
(Not yet implemented :slight_smile:

This I can see. I guess I sort of assumed people would be smart enough
that if they wanted to play games, that they’d have a /dev/cdrom link
or file.

Well, I’ve come up with 3 examples of how it COULD be used, but they would
require some changes to SDL to support them.

Possibly, but that’s probably why we’re not at v1.0 yet. :slight_smile:

Oh, and back to the midi thing. I think midi support of some kind would be
most useful, as it is the only sane way to put background music in a game,
without using CD Audio (which isn’t always an option).

Probably, but I for one don’t use MIDI much because I don’t have any
kind of wavetable on my card. Right now, I’m planning on using MOD
music in the game I’m working on. MOD on all my my machines takes less
than 10% processor time (And I’ve got a bit of a range of hardware
here) and it sounds just as good on my SB16 as it would on a SB AWE 64.On 27 Jul, Michael Samuel wrote:

On Sun, Jul 26, 1998 at 07:10:53PM -0600, Knight Walker wrote:

–

| |/ | | | _ | | | mailto:@Knight_Walker |
| / | / / | | http://www.aros.net/~kwalker |
| \ | ___ | | |
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|| || || || _____________________________________/

12

RE: Re: Hello

MODs are not the kind of things you want to “support” per se in SDL.

Why not? Not everyone has a wavetable soundcard and for those of us who don’t,
FM synth is still crap.

However, a sound mixing engine for which a MOD player could be implemented
would be acceptable. I know most of you probably don’t mean integrating a
MOD engine into SDL, but I just want to make sure we’re all on the same
wavelength, here. :slight_smile: Don’t want SDL getting insanely wacky.

I don’t know. A MOD/S3M/MTM/XM/IT engine like MikMod would be nice to have in
SDL. I don’t know if you’ve seen the MikMod engine, but to play a mod is as
simple as “playfile(“mymod.mod”)”. It kicks into its own thread and handles
everything while your program can do whatever it needs to. It wouldn’t be
insanely wacky either.

As for MIDI support, I think it’s a great idea. Commercial development
has pretty much abandoned MIDI just when it was getting cool. (I say this
as a commercial developer myself…) But MIDI’s starting to sound pretty
nice even on reasonably priced systems, and is ideal for things like free
software, and demos, where distributing CD audio tracks is just not
convenient…

Like I said, FM synth is crap. Software wavetable for some odd reason chews up
ludicrous ammounts of processor time. If I had a GUS, SB AWE, or other
supported wavetable card, I wouldn’t bitch, but I have to stand up for those of
us with less than cutting-edge sound cards here.

Personally, with the program I’m writing there will be three music options:
None, MOD (Written by a composer friend of mine), and CD Audio (You supply the
CD).

                      Knight Walker

------[The Kobran Imperium]-----[801-265-1299]-----[SLC, UT, USA]-----
Multi-net messages, Usenet Newsgroups, networked games, Cool SysOps!
BBSing isn’t dead, it just smells a little funny.

13

Is there ANY working version of SDL_Console that works “of the shelf” for
MSVC and C++? Or are there prehaps another console that you could
recommend?

Need on bad…

Best regards

Daniel