Windows Phone 8 SDL support

Limanima · August 5, 2014, 1:24pm

Hi, I’ve already searched about Windows Phone 8 SDL support but I couldn’t find anything, probably indicating that it’s not supported at this time.

Can someone please confirm me if it’s supported or not?
I’m currently finishing my iOS/Android SDL game and It would be great to have a Windows Phone version.

Thanks!

Limanima · August 6, 2014, 11:02am

Hum… All this silence is not a good indication…

Sylvain_Becker · August 6, 2014, 12:17pm

Hello,

Sorry, I saw your message on my mobile and I forgot answering.
The SDL does support Window Phone 8. you can find WP8 projet files
that are under mercurial.

SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone80_VS2012/
SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone81_VS2013/

The lib ttf, mixer, and image are also working.

Cheers,
SylvainOn Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 1:02 PM, Limanima <jorge.raposo.lima at gmail.com> wrote:

Hum… All this silence is not a good indication…

SDL mailing list
SDL at lists.libsdl.org
http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org

–
Sylvain Becker

Limanima · August 6, 2014, 12:26pm

slvn wrote:

Hello,

Sorry, I saw your message on my mobile and I forgot answering.
The SDL does support Window Phone 8. you can find WP8 projet files
that are under mercurial.

SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone80_VS2012/
SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone81_VS2013/

The lib ttf, mixer, and image are also working.

Cheers,
Sylvain

Thanks!
I’m certainly going to check that. I’ll only need mixer and image. Net would also be great, but it’s not mandatory.

Sylvain_Becker · August 6, 2014, 12:36pm

Another remarks :

I don’t remember exactly, but you may need to get the library
freetype/jpeg/png on their official websites to have their wp8 project.
It exists (or will exist) a universal project for Window Phone + WinRT.
If you start from scratch, it may be worth starting with this solution.On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 2:26 PM, Limanima <jorge.raposo.lima at gmail.com> wrote:

slvn wrote:

Hello,

Sorry, I saw your message on my mobile and I forgot answering.
The SDL does support Window Phone 8. you can find WP8 projet files
that are under mercurial.

SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone80_VS2012/
SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone81_VS2013/

The lib ttf, mixer, and image are also working.

Cheers,
Sylvain

Thanks! [image: Very Happy]
I’m certainly going to check that. I’ll only need mixer and image. Net
would also be great, but it’s not mandatory.

SDL mailing list
SDL at lists.libsdl.org
http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org

–
Sylvain Becker

David_Ludwig · August 6, 2014, 10:03pm

Thanks for the info, Sylvain! I’m on vacation, and my net access has been limited, otherwise I would’ve replied earlier.

Limited support for SDL, SDL_mixer, and SDL_image is available for Windows Phone 8.0 and Windows Phone 8.1, as well as other platforms in the “WinRT” family (Windows 8.0, 8.1, and RT, inclusive). On Windows Phone, SDL support is currently limited to apps that don’t use Windows Phone’s native “XAML” based UI controls. Apps that only draw content, and process input with SDL should, however, be fine.

Here are a bunch of notes that I hope will help:

Regarding build environments: a copy of Visual C++ is required, at present. One of the free (cost-wise), “Express” editions should suffice.

The Windows Phone ports of SDL_mixer and SDL_image support a limited number of formats. Notably-supported formats include PNG, Jpeg, WebP, and Ogg Vorbis. If one of SDL_image or SDL_mixer’s usual file formats isn’t supported on Windows Phone (such as .mod, MIDI, and a bunch of others) and you need it, feel free to let me know and I’ll try adding it in.

Support for SDL_net on Windows Phone is not currently available, but in theory, could be possible. I can provide skeleton project files for such, if you’d like to try to get this up and running. Do note that such a port wouldn’t immediately work on Windows 8/8.1/RT, due to API limitations in the OS (assuming you’re interested in porting your app to those platforms as well, at some point).

Some limited documentation is available at http://bit.ly/1zVi3bC. Do note that it’s geared towards setting up a Windows 8 app, however the instructions for Windows Phone 8 are almost identical. Just be sure to start with Visual C++'s project files for Windows Phone 8, rather than the “Windows Store” app templates (which apply to Windows 8.x, and not Windows Phone).

Work on easier setup procedures (for SDL/Windows Phone apps) is on my to-do list (and will probably involve NuGet package management support, if possible), however I make no guarantees when that’ll be available. It won’t start until I get back from vacation and get settled back in, which shouldn’t be for another couple of weeks, at best. Feel free to ask questions in the meantime, if you run into trouble.

Cheers!

David L.

Limanima wrote:>

slvn wrote:

Hello,

Sorry, I saw your message on my mobile and I forgot answering.
The SDL does support Window Phone 8. you can find WP8 projet files
that are under mercurial.

SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone80_VS2012/
SDL/VisualC-WinRT/WinPhone81_VS2013/

The lib ttf, mixer, and image are also working.

Cheers,
Sylvain

Thanks!
I’m certainly going to check that. I’ll only need mixer and image. Net would also be great, but it’s not mandatory.

Limanima · August 6, 2014, 11:53pm

Following this Win8 question, and a problem I’m having with sound in Android (not playing any sounds at all) I decided to update to the last mercurial version or all SDL libraries ( a little bit skeptical because everything was very stable).
I’m having some trouble compiling/linking, a new post will follow. [Rolling Eyes]

David_Ludwig · August 11, 2014, 2:39am

Hi Limanima,

I just pushed-out a linker-related fix for ARM builds of SDL/WinPhone8 (and other WinRT platforms too; via https://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/101109110bf7).

I hope this helps!

– David L.

Limanima wrote:> Following this Win8 question, and a problem I’m having with sound in Android (not playing any sounds at all) I decided to update to the last mercurial version or all SDL libraries ( a little bit skeptical because everything was very stable).

I’m having some trouble compiling/linking, a new post will follow. [Rolling Eyes]

Limanima · August 11, 2014, 10:28am

DLudwig wrote:

Hi Limanima,

I just pushed-out a linker-related fix for ARM builds of SDL/WinPhone8 (and other WinRT platforms too; via https://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/101109110bf7).

I hope this helps!

– David L.

Limanima wrote:

Following this Win8 question, and a problem I’m having with sound in Android (not playing any sounds at all) I decided to update to the last mercurial version or all SDL libraries ( a little bit skeptical because everything was very stable).
I’m having some trouble compiling/linking, a new post will follow. [Rolling Eyes]

Ok, I will check it out.

Juan_Manuel_Borges_C · August 11, 2014, 11:49am

So SDL works on Windows Phones too!, I didn’t pay much attention to that.
Now, about the store… i’ll web.

David_Ludwig · December 3, 2014, 9:19pm

Meldryt wrote:

Is there still no SDL_net support for Windows Phone? In this case a skeleton project would be nice.

A build-able “port” of SDL_net for Windows Phone 8.x is now posted at https://bitbucket.org/DavidLudwig/sdl_net . It’s untested though, but should build. Project files exist for Windows Phone 8.0, Windows Phone 8.1, and Windows 8.1.

Some notes:

Windows 8.1 support requires at least Visual C++ 2013 Update 4 or higher. (Winsock only got enabled for Windows 8.1, via that update to MSVC.)
Windows 8.0 + Winsock is still unsupported in WinRT apps, as far as I’m aware.

Feel free to try it out, although I make no guarantees as to its usability or functionality.

Cheers!
– David L.

icculus · December 3, 2014, 9:38pm

A build-able “port” of SDL_net for Windows Phone 8.x is now posted at
https://bitbucket.org/DavidLudwig/sdl_net

You’re awesome, David, did you know that?

–ryan.

David_Ludwig · December 3, 2014, 11:25pm

Ryan C. Gordon wrote:

You’re awesome, David, did you know that?

Thanks!

Fortunately here, MS opened up access to WinSock 2 for most WinRT app types, with the notable exception of Windows 8.0. It seemed pretty odd that they didn’t leave it available in the first place. I’m not sure if there are any restrictions on its use though. Some details are available at http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/10/13/winsock-and-more-open-source-for-your-windows-store-apps/

One minor correction: Winsock appears to be accessible for Windows 8.1 WinRT apps as of MSVC 2013 Update 3, not Update 4, as I previously reported.

Cheers,
– David L.

Meldryt · December 11, 2014, 9:20am

thanks David! Nice work!

Meldryt · December 22, 2014, 1:00am

Is it possible to send and receive UDP packets between Windows Phone and Windows 7/8.
On WP8 i can only receive my own packets.

David_Ludwig · December 22, 2014, 1:31am

Meldryt wrote:

Is it possible to send and receive UDP packets between Windows Phone and Windows 7/8.
On WP8 i can only receive my own packets.

Off the top of my head, I’m not sure. I do know that there are a few network-related capabilities/access-grants that can be declared in the app package’s manifest file. Perhaps one or more of those are switched off, and need to be turned on? A list is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/JJ835817(v=win.10).aspx

– David L.

Limanima · January 4, 2015, 8:29pm

Hi, I’ve been away for sometime but I’m back.
So SDL_Net is working? I’m going to try that out.

Meanwhile my game is working on Windows Phone (with some limitations).
I still have a problem with the viewport aspect ratio that I have to fix.

I’ll take this chance to make another question:
Is it possible to open a native pop up box on top of my app?

David_Ludwig · January 5, 2015, 1:23am

Limanima wrote:

Hi, I’ve been away for sometime but I’m back.
So SDL_Net is working? I’m going to try that out.

Meanwhile my game is working on Windows Phone (with some limitations).
I still have a problem with the viewport aspect ratio that I have to fix.

I’ll take this chance to make another question:
Is it possible to open a native pop up box on top of my app?

SDL_net is building successfully (for most WinRT platforms, including WinPhone 8+ ones), however it’s untested at runtime, at least from my end. Perhaps others have had luck with it? Regardless, if you’d like to try using it, a copy of this is available at https://bitbucket.org/DavidLudwig/sdl_net.

Regarding pop-ups, SDL’s message box API is working, with a caveat that there is a limitation on the number of buttons each message box can display. I believe it’s two for WinPhone and three for Win 8.x, but it might be vice-versa. Any more beyond that and Windows gets angry (and doesn’t display the message box).

Regarding pop-ups more complicated than simple message boxes, support for overlaying more complicated, Windows-native controls (via Windows’ new-ish XAML APIs) is still pending. I’ve started work on this, but it’s not quite ready for use just yet.

Cheers!
– David L.

Meldryt · January 24, 2015, 12:54am

update: WP8.1 & SDL_net works for me with Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013.
I can send and receive packets from Windows 7/MacOS/iOS/Android/Linux version of my app.

slouken · January 25, 2015, 12:54am

Nice! Thanks for the update! :)On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 4:54 PM, Meldryt wrote:

update: WP8.1 & SDL_net works for me with Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio
2013.
I can send and receive packets from Windows 7/MacOS/iOS/Android/Linux
version of my app.

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