That’s a simple question that i have: Is SDL still active ??
I mean I have looked at the CVS and most of the files are a few years old !!
The mailing list is still active but is the sdl project ?
I would like to know this because i use SDL in a game that i’m writing and I
decided to use the SDL because the game has to work on windows AND linux.
Everything worked fine as long as i didn’t use alpha transparence.
When i started using it, SDL was VERY slow on windows, so I looked in the
code what it does and i saw it still uses DX 5 !!
I meant that’s really old ! Now I began to write the drawing code of my app
with dx 9 on windows and sdl on linux using
#ifdef _WIN32
/* … /
#else
/ … */
#endif
but that’s not a very nice code and i’d really like to only use the SDL !!
So, is SDL still active ??–
P.O.M.P.E.I. du 47-20
Pompei2 wrote:
That’s a simple question that i have: Is SDL still active ??
I mean I have looked at the CVS and most of the files are a few years old !!
The mailing list is still active but is the sdl project ?
I would like to know this because i use SDL in a game that i’m writing
and I decided to use the SDL because the game has to work on windows AND
linux.
Everything worked fine as long as i didn’t use alpha transparence.
When i started using it, SDL was VERY slow on windows, so I looked in
the code what it does and i saw it still uses DX 5 !!
I meant that’s really old ! Now I began to write the drawing code of my
app with dx 9 on windows and sdl on linux using
#ifdef _WIN32
/* … /
#else
/ … */
#endif
but that’s not a very nice code and i’d really like to only use the SDL !!
So, is SDL still active ??
SDL is very mature now, works very well, so the CVS don’t change, but
that don’t mean that SDL is not usable.
If you want hardware accelerated alpha transparence, use SDL+OpenGL,
it’s the better solution around…–
Gautier Portet
http://kassoulet.free.fr
Quoting Pompei2 :
That’s a simple question that i have: Is SDL still active ??
Pretty much. SDL 1.3 is currently in development.
Everything worked fine as long as i didn’t use alpha transparence.
When i started using it, SDL was VERY slow on windows, so I looked in
the
code what it does and i saw it still uses DX 5 !!
This is actually fairly acceptable; the 2-D DirectX interfaces have not
changed much since DX5, and the newer DirectX versions don’t support
pure 2-D anymore. Furthermore, there are no versions of DirectX that I
know of that actually has support for alpha transparency in 2-D; only
the newer versions of GDI has it. (I encountered that when I was
writing a sprite-based game engine for Anino entertainment about five
years before – I’m not sure whether this is still true now, but I’m
willing to bet on it.)
The two solutions you could go for are: (1) to implement limited
blending using assembly language or really fast C (ala Baldur’s Gate),
or (2) use 3-D functionality in DirectX 8+ or in OpenGL. I went for
the 3-D option using DX 8.1, and the game I was working on eventually
became mostly 3-D anyway…
Since it seems like you are already keen on using DX9 for your Windows
code – If you want to maintain a completely portable program, try
OpenGL. Once you’ve programmed for both API’s, you’ll see why OpenGL
still sticks around even though its functionality is arguably weaker
compared to the newer DirectX stuff.
Eric Vidal
Lecturer / Graduate Research Assistant, DISCS
Ateneo de Manila University
http://aegis.ateneo.net/evidal/
That’s a simple question that i have: Is SDL still active ??
Pretty much. SDL 1.3 is currently in development.
Oh but then it’s already in development for a long time is that possible ??
cauz i only know about SDL 1.2, as long as i am a linux user (about 2 or 3
years) i only heard about SDL 1.2 ^^
Thank you for your answer Eric but …
My problem is that I simply want to draw a 2D picture with hardware support
on all OS’s
And it looks as if it’s really a hard thing to do 
I have a bit the impression that now it becomes harder to code a 2D
application then a 3D one :s
I think the best thing I can do is to forget alpha transparence … that’s a
bit dumb but It seems as if I want to keep it with a acceptable framerate,
I’ll have to re-write my complete drawing engine to make it use OpenGL and I
dont know if I want to do this.
Or can someone help me and tell me how to blit a picture with alpha
transparence using hardware acceleration ??
It would be really nice !
… Or I do like u and make it simply completely 3D :p–
P.O.M.P.E.I. du 47-20
That’s a simple question that i have: Is SDL still active ??
Pretty much. SDL 1.3 is currently in development.
Oh but then it’s already in development for a long time is that possible ??
cauz i only know about SDL 1.2, as long as i am a linux user (about 2 or 3
years) i only heard about SDL 1.2 ^^
Keep in mind that these version numbers mean more than just ‘newer’. Anything
compiled with one version of SDL 1.2 ought to work with any other version of
SDL 1.2 because they share the exact same API. SDL’s been changing inside,
but it still has the same function names.
My problem is that I simply want to draw a 2D picture with hardware support
on all OS’s
And it looks as if it’s really a hard thing to do
Why do you need this? Maximizing is good, but it’s a poor place to start.
You can also use something like glsdl:
http://olofson.net/download/glSDL-0.6.tar.gz
2D SDL with an OpenGL backend. There’s continuing rumors of a real opengl
backend for 2D sdl but I don’t see it in the source yet.
Or can someone help me and tell me how to blit a picture with alpha
transparence using hardware acceleration ??
Under Windows? Or Linux? Or MacOS? Or Solaris? Or… you see the problem.
SDL’s not just windows, it covers a huge amount of ground.On Sunday 15 May 2005 13:18, Pompei2 wrote:
SDL 2.0 is planned to have this, I think it may just be rumor though.
The 2.0 isn’t scheduled for anytime soon, no work has begun as far as
I know, so don’t hold your breath.
By the way you could always use pure OpenGL for hardware acceleration,
and perhaps fall back on SDL for software redering if need be.
Have fun.On 5/15/05, Tyler Montbriand wrote:
2D SDL with an OpenGL backend. There’s continuing rumors of a real opengl
backend for 2D sdl but I don’t see it in the source yet.
That’s not a rumour, the glSDL backend does actually exist.
The following tarball has it (plus a number of other SDL patches) :
http://icps.u-strasbg.fr/~marchesin/sdl/SDL12-experimental.tgz
I’m not responsible for merging it to CVS, so I can’t say when/if it will happen.
Stephane> On 5/15/05, Tyler Montbriand wrote:
2D SDL with an OpenGL backend. There’s continuing rumors of a real opengl
backend for 2D sdl but I don’t see it in the source yet.
SDL 2.0 is planned to have this, I think it may just be rumor though.
The 2.0 isn’t scheduled for anytime soon, no work has begun as far as
I know, so don’t hold your breath.
Thanx to yall, and the glSDL looks nice but i have a bit the impression that
nowadays it’s more simple to write a 3d game then a 2d game
So now i thought about all the biggest difficulties that i’d encounter if i
make my game 3D and found a solution for nearly everyone so i think i’ll
really write it in 3d !
But thanx for the help you gave me 
PS: if someone wants to help me making the game … why not (a game
similar to warcraft)–
P.O.M.P.E.I. du 47-20
Who is? 
Pity it’s not quite ready, I for one would LOVE to see that
happen.
Also there’s been a number of patches posted lately that don’t seem to have
made it to CVS for reasons unexplained… who do we bug? ;)On Sunday 15 May 2005 18:05, Stephane Marchesin wrote:
On 5/15/05, Tyler Montbriand <@Tyler_Montbriand> wrote:
2D SDL with an OpenGL backend. There’s continuing rumors of a real
opengl backend for 2D sdl but I don’t see it in the source yet.
SDL 2.0 is planned to have this, I think it may just be rumor though.
The 2.0 isn’t scheduled for anytime soon, no work has begun as far as
I know, so don’t hold your breath.
That’s not a rumour, the glSDL backend does actually exist.
The following tarball has it (plus a number of other SDL patches) :
http://icps.u-strasbg.fr/~marchesin/sdl/SDL12-experimental.tgz
I’m not responsible for merging it to CVS, so I can’t say when/if it will
happen.
Stephane
Also there’s been a number of patches posted lately that don’t seem to have
made it to CVS for reasons unexplained… who do we bug?
Of course Sam adds these patches even before my message gets back to me on the
mailing list. 0_O I shoulda just waited. Thanks Sam!