Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer.
20
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3answers
742 views
Multi-platform multi-threading: What are the real challenges?
While a library like SDL provides a cross-platform wrapper API for threading, I think it would be naive to assume that this leads directly to easy development of games across vastly different ...
10
votes
2answers
579 views
What should I worry about when changing OpenGL origin to upper left of screen?
For self education, I'm writing a 2D platformer engine in C++ using SDL / OpenGL. I initially began with pure SDL using the tutorials on sdltutorials.com and lazyfoo.net, but I'm now using SDL to ...
9
votes
1answer
290 views
SDL blitting multiple surfaces at once
I'm trying to write a platforming game where the sprites for the level backgrounds are broken up into 512x512 chunks. I keep 3 chunks in memory at a time and I'm trying to write code to blit all three ...
9
votes
1answer
531 views
Why does V8 not run with SDL threads?
i was able to compile and link V8 against my game and code interpretation works fine. However I want to divide my code and the game loop should exist in one thread and the scripting engine should run ...
8
votes
1answer
807 views
Getting OpenGL hardware acceleration with SDL on Linux
I'm trying to use SDL + OpenGL but I don't believe hardware acceleration is working because the framerate for around 18000 polys is about 24fps on a quad core machine but is a hopeless 1-2fps on an ...
8
votes
1answer
742 views
Separating logic/update from render/drawing code in a single thread using sleep
I've read that the speed of game objects should not be hindered by FPS but instead should be based on time. How can I seperate the update/draw code to maximize performance without limiting the drawing ...
8
votes
2answers
608 views
How to deal with OpenGL and Fullscreen on OS X
I do most of my development on OS X and for my current game project this is my target environment. However when I play games I play on Windows. As a windows gamer I am used to Alt+Tab switching from ...
7
votes
3answers
635 views
What is the contents of the buffer *after* a call to glSwapBuffers()?
(SDL_GL_SwapBuffers() in particular)
When you have drawn a scene, and you call swap-buffers, it is routine to then glClear() the scene before drawing anything; if you don't clear, what is the ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
Turn-based JRPG battle system architecture resources
The past months I've been busy programming a 2D JRPG (Japanese-style RPG) in C++ using the SDL library. The exploration mode is more or less done. Now I'm tackling the battle mode.
I have been unable ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
SDL2 with OpenGL — weird results, what's wrong?
I'm porting an app to iOS, and therefore need to upgrade it to SDL2 from SDL1.2 (so far I'm testing it as an on OS X desktop app only). However, when running the code with SDL2, I'm getting weird ...
7
votes
5answers
518 views
Graphics module: Am I going the right way?
I'm trying to write the graphics module of my engine. That is, this part of the code only provides an interface through which to load images, fonts, etc and draw them on the screen. It is also a ...
5
votes
3answers
918 views
What features do basic particle engines have?
I created a basic particle system for SDL in C++. It has some basic stuff like an emitter, as well as a simple particle class. It can load a image, or create a dot of a color. And that's it. What ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
2D Platformer Collision Handling
I am trying to create a 2D platformer (Mario-type) game and I am some having some issues with handling collisions properly. I am writing this game in C++, using SDL for input, image loading, font ...
5
votes
1answer
4k views
Time based movement Vs Frame rate based movement?
I'm new to Game programmming and SDL, and I have been following Lazyfoo's SDL tutorials. My question is related to time based motion and frame rate based motion, basically which is better or ...
5
votes
2answers
630 views
Custom extensible file format for 2d tiled maps
I have implemented much of my game logic right now, but still create my maps with nasty for-loops on-the-fly to be able to work with something. Now I wanted to move on and to do some research on how ...
5
votes
3answers
289 views
Current library situation
Allright so I've been doing some searches, here what I got:
SDL: It is a standard, very mature but very old. (I got posts of late 2009 where they were still waiting for the 1.3 to come up...we are ...
5
votes
4answers
8k views
Wavefront *.obj loader in C++
I'm creating a game using OpenGL (via SDL) and C++ (via Visual Studios 2010 Professional). During the game, I will be using 3D character animation. I'd like to use wavefront *.obj files for all the 3D ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
How should I manage level progression?
In my code, I just have a Level class right now in the main game loop that just blits a background and spawns some enemies for testing purposes...But I can't figure out how to go about implementing ...
5
votes
2answers
635 views
Splitting a tetris game apart - where to put time-management?
I am creating a tetris game in C++ & SDL, and I'm trying to do it "good" by making it object-oriented and keeping scopes small. So far I have the following structure:
A main with some lowlevel ...
5
votes
2answers
14k views
Making a 2D Platformer in C++/SDL. Looking for tutorials/examples/resources
I have a lot of experience with C++, but I have no experience with game programming. This summer I plan to create a 2D platformer from scratch using C++/SDL for the learning experience. I am looking ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
What animation technique is used in 'Dont Starve'?
While playing a few games in my personal time off development I've stumbled across a survival 2D/3D survival game. The game was apparently made in SDL and GLUT (Dont starve) but what really amazed me ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
Integrate LibRocket With SDL And OpenGL
I been currently involved in a game project and we reach the point we're want to added the GUI for menus and other stuff but the time that we maybe spent developing our own system could cost us a bit ...
4
votes
3answers
339 views
Smooth Sprite Movement - Don't Add Velocity to Position?
I am trying to figure out if there is a way to move a sprite smoothly on the screen at different speeds without stuttering, but keeping the effect that it's moving smoothly; especially at faster ...
4
votes
5answers
455 views
Trying to make a game with C++, using lists to store bullets and enemies, but they are not erased
I've been trying to make a pretty simple space shooter game with C++, and I have been having a lot of trouble trying to use lists to store enemies and bullets.
Basically I followed the post here ...
4
votes
1answer
85 views
Key events outside of an SDL application
I'm developing an app under C++ and SDL running in Ubuntu. I'm using the SDL events to handle the keypad buttons. My problem is that my app launch other programs and it should close they with a key ...
4
votes
1answer
311 views
How to use caching to increase render performance?
First of all I am going to cover the basic design of my 2d tile-based engine written with SDL in C++, then I will point out what I am up to and where I need some hints.
Concept of my engine
My ...
3
votes
3answers
219 views
Unable to detect continuous keypress event in SDL
I am developing a game using SDL, and am unable to do continuous motion for my object when a key is held down.
I'm calling SDL_PollEvent() to retrieve all events during a frame, and passing each ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
Gamestate management without evil Singletons
I wanted to use a game state management system similiar to this approach: Managing Game States in C++
But from what I've heard singletons are evil and should not be used in 99.9%.
Can you tell me ...
3
votes
7answers
3k views
OpenGL Insanely Slow
I'm learning C++, and I'm writing my first OpenGL program. Unfortunately, it seems to be defaulting to Software Rendering (CPU uses bounces, GPU uses stays at 1%). I'm using SDL as the Windowing ...
3
votes
5answers
1k views
Does SFML support these specific features that I require?
I've been working on a game in c++ for about a week and a half, and I've been using SDL. However, my current engine only needs the following from whatever library I use:
enable double buffering
load ...
3
votes
1answer
302 views
Is basic SDL hardware accelerated?
I'm going over some SDL tutorials aimed at creating 2D games.
However, when I create a basic SDL program - is it hardware accelerated?
Or is hardware acceleration only relevant when it comes to 3D ...
3
votes
2answers
169 views
How does this background scrolling code work?
I'm glad that this code does exactly what I wanted it to do...But I can't make sense of it although I wrote it from scratch myself. What I wanted to do was create an infinitely scrolling background.
...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Setting up OpenGL 3.3 in SDL 1.2
I've been using SDL 1.2.14 for awhile without using many of the features from newer OpenGL versions. I'm now interested working only with the 3.3 API (not using the deprecated functions, etc... that's ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Trap mouse in SDL
How can I trap the user's mouse inside my game? It's not a fullscreen game, but I want it so that the user cannot drag the mouse to outside the screen?
Do I have to check the coordinates of the mouse ...
3
votes
1answer
507 views
What are the performance implications of multiple windows with indivdual OpenGL contexts?
For an engine I'm developing I've decided to allow users to set up multiple windows showing differing views of the same "world." This is being developed using OpenGL (hopefully aiming for 3.2 core ...
3
votes
1answer
70 views
Does SDL running on Mac OS not recognize Xbox controllers?
I'm trying to learn a bit of SDL, and have been bouncing between Windows and Mac platforms, but am noticing that an SDL program running on my Macbook doesn't recognize the presence of the Xbox ...
3
votes
2answers
185 views
Not So Beginner Tutorial Request
So my game is done for now but every time it flashes on the screen and my game loop is awful. So crowded with logic.
I need to learn more about games and how they are running. My idea now is that at ...
3
votes
1answer
188 views
How do I multiply pixels on an SDL Surface?
Okay so I'm able to put blank pixels into a surface and also draw gradient pixels rectangles,etc
But I don't know how to multiply the pixels on a surface so I was hoping someone could provide me ...
3
votes
2answers
128 views
Best way to distribute graphics, audio and levels with an SDL game?
I'm working on finishing up a game written in C++ with SDL I've been working on for awhile, and I'm starting to ponder how I'm going to distribute it. It has hundreds of images that are loaded and ...
3
votes
1answer
157 views
Why (SDL) animated filled-circle leaves trail of movement?
I'm trying to achieve proper animation using SDL. Used flags are SDL_HWSURFACE and SDL_DOUBLEBUF.
That what I'm getting is technically smooth (I think), but I can figure out what should I do to ...
3
votes
2answers
227 views
Defining and selecting an area from an image
I want to create a game, where the world is loaded from an image file, much like Paradox Interactive does it for their games. If I have this image:
Then the red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, white, ...
3
votes
1answer
79 views
What does `FPSManager.lastticks` stand for in SDL_gfx?
I'm having trouble finding documentation on SDL_gfx, and I can't figure this out. I've managed to use SDL_gfx to automatically cap the framerate, and I it's working a lot better than my manual attempt ...
3
votes
1answer
399 views
OpenGL textures loaded with SDL_Image display with no alpha
I am making a game using OpenGL, with SDL_Image employed to load the textures. When drawn on screen, there's no alpha -- in an exact square around the opaque contents of the texture, black is drawn; ...
3
votes
1answer
455 views
How to create a simple “spot light” effect with Sdl or Sdl.Net?
i'm wondering: how to create a simple "car headlight" (for i.e) or a torch spotlight in Sdl or Sdl.NET ?
Does anyone know how ?
Thanks
2
votes
4answers
610 views
Should the main game object be static in c++
I am creating a 2d platformer using SDL and I was thinking that my game object could be static, but I wasn't sure if this was a good idea.
The pros (that I can see):
Accessing settings options ...
2
votes
3answers
340 views
How can I measure the execution time of some code?
How can I capture how long something takes to complete and log it to the output window (in Visual Studio)?
Is there a special library for this?
clock_t start, end;
double cpuTime;
start = clock();
...
2
votes
3answers
374 views
Should I dedicate a single thread to each player in a split-screen game?
I was thinking about making multiplayer version of a game I am making with SDL and OpenGL. It would be a split-screen game.
Do you think it would be a good idea to have each part of the screen (game ...
2
votes
3answers
855 views
OpenGL & SDL textures… game shuts down
I'm going to create a game in C++ with SDL & openGL but adding textures won't work.
the code is in some different classes.
here's the main file
...
2
votes
2answers
924 views
How can I create a rectangular SDL surface filled with a particular color?
I'm learning SDL. I'd like to create rectangular surface filled with a flat color (not an image). Below is my code -- it compiles fine, but doesn't work.
I'm passing the function these parameters:
...
2
votes
3answers
383 views
How should I store levels in a C++ game?
I am writing in C++. I am storing game levels as a 2-dimensional int array. This may be a hacky way of doing things, but I am not ready to change it unless I have to. I store values in the array and ...
