SDL 2.0 Release Improves 2D/3D Rendering, Better Audio & New Features 42
An anonymous reader writes "Simple DirectMedia Layer 2.0 has finally been released. The cross-platform multimedia layer used by hundreds of cross-platform games has seen its first major release in years. The SDL 2.0 release has many new features including GL3 and OpenGL ES rendering support, a new 2D rendering API, better full-screen / multi-window support, multiple input support, Android and iOS support, power management, and other new functionality. SDL 2.0 can be downloaded from libsdl.org."
Staticlinkable to closed software not a good thing (Score:4, Insightful)
With SDL 1.2, if there was a bug on SDL... or if in need to run the game on the new directfb/wayland/whatever frontend, updating SDL was enough.
With SDL 2 linked statically against some closed game... not so much.
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Re:Staticlinkable to closed software not a good th (Score:5, Informative)
The license change happened more than a year before Sam Lantinga was hired by Valve.
Re:Staticlinkable to closed software not a good th (Score:4, Informative)
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He probably meant SDL v1.2 which was licensed under the LGPL.
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Installation Information (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Installation Information (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, in general, console makers are against open-source period. Technically speaking, you COULD use GPLv2 code in your game (making it GPLv2), but pretty much all the console makers prohibit any sort of thing like that. In 2009, the ScummVM team found ScummVM used in 3 Wii games [wikipedia.org] and then people realized their SDK agreement prohibited open-source.
And naturally, the installation information will never be public because it'll contain private keys that the console makers would rather keep private.
About the only code allowed for a console game is BSD or BSD like (zlib, apache, etc). where the developer has full control of the code.
Of course, the Wii U, Xbox One and PS4 will probably see hefty revisions to their developer agreements as AAA titles become de-emphasized and the next gen will be about indie games.
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Technically speaking, you COULD use GPLv2 code in your game (making it GPLv2), but pretty much all the console makers prohibit any sort of thing like that.
Some Slashdot users who replied to the ScummVM-on-Wii and VLC-on-iOS stories would prefer to reword it to place the blame on the other party, however: "You could release your game on a locked-down platform, but pretty much all the GPL library authors prohibit any sort of thing like that. Copyleft takes away the ability to release on what may be the best platform for the job. This is why I and others who agree will avoid copylefted software in favor of permissively licensed software."
Of course, the Wii U, Xbox One and PS4 will probably see hefty revisions to their developer agreements
The Wii U developer agre
Re:Installation Information (Score:5, Insightful)
Then.... write your own damn game library if you don't want to play nice.
The anti-copyleft trend in the "open source" world has been awful. Possibly because the kids these days don't remember how awful it was before there was Free Software for basically any task you needed. But they'll know soon enough...
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How does one spell "non-sequitor"?
You got it close; it's -tur. But I don't see how mentioning a second implication of relicensing from LGPL to a permissive license is a non-sequitur in a reply to a comment mentioning a first implication.
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How does one spell "non-sequitor"?
With great difficulty, apparently.
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With SDL 1.2, if there was a bug on SDL... or if in need to run the game on the new directfb/wayland/whatever frontend, updating SDL was enough.
With SDL 2 linked statically against some closed game... not so much.
Perhaps this is for iOS / Android? Statically linking allows for dead-stripping of unused code and possibly considerably smaller binaries which is ideal for Mobile Apps that will run on limited platforms -- especially since you can't update a single dynamically linked binary for a mobile app anyhow.
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I believe you can actually update the QT libraries on Android separately using Ministro. I don't know if any other libraries do something like this.
without a kickstarter project? (Score:1, Funny)
Wow, reading /. the last couple of days, it amazes me that opensource development can still happen without a successful kickstarter project!
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Well, it's probably because they want GMO plants as payment.
Thanks! (Score:4)
Thank you to everyone who made this possible.
Python bindings (Score:3)
SDL_main (Score:1)
It looks like they've stopped using the preprocessor to hijack the entry point for SDL_main. That practice caused no end of annoying mysterious problems in the past - I can't wait to get home and test to see if it's true.
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Actually some pretty nice improvements (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been reading through the improvements, and this actually seems like a big step forward for SDL. It's dropping antique crap like CD audio playing, moving towards a more modern GPU-focused system. They're not keeping old API bits around just for compatibility, but none of these changes seem like change-for-the-sake-of-change. I'm particularly interested in the OpenGL 3.0 stuff - getting a "modern" OpenGL context set up is a pain in twenty asses, and if they can simplify that, all the better.
Re:Actually some pretty nice improvements (Score:4, Interesting)
For me, the best improvement is that joysticks are hot pluggable now. So now all of the obnoxiousness with deprecating use of the linux joystick protocol in favor of evdev and losing calibration and button remapping is finally worth it. Combined with the sixaxis daemon [sourceforge.net], emulators and native games are downright pleasant to use nowadays (yeah yeah, you have to give evil Sony tons of money, but I like to delude myself into thinking the input device people aren't as evil as the rest of the company). If only most programs didn't get confused by the accelerometers making configuration a pain (dear fellow hackers: please require an axis to change by some threshold and not just have a non-zero value in auto-configuration. I'm looking at you armagetronad).
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License change (Score:3)
One of the more interesting changes is the license switch from LGPL to zlib.
I suspect this was done due to the rise of SFML (Simple and Fast Multimedia Library).
Vsync? (Score:2)
I never got this command to enable OpenGL vsync properly under Windows:
SDL_GL_SetAttribute(SDL_GL_SWAP_CONTROL, 1);
However this works:
typedef bool (APIENTRY *PFNWGLSWAPINTERVALFARPROC)(int);
PFNWGLSWAPINTERVALFARPROC wglSwapIntervalEXT = 0;
wglSwapIntervalEXT = (PFNWGLSWAPINTERVALFARPROC)wglGetProcAddress("wglSwapIntervalEXT");
if (wglSwapIntervalEXT) {
wglSwapIntervalEXT(1);
}
Why did the SDL-specific method not work with any GPU? Does it work in 2.0?
Does the SDL 2.0 support Occulus Rift? (Score:1)
I ask because Occulus Rift is the next MUST need and MUST support in future Games.
It is a new Game experience and will be similar like the rise of the first 3d video accelerator Voodoo Graphics cards.
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