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Cross-Platform Game Development Libraries?

Posted by Cliff on from the the-holy-grail-of-gaming dept.

Ratfink18 asks: "Is there a cross platform Game development library for Windows, Macintosh (Carbon or Coca) and Linux? I am a project director for a computer game and as such I am strongly pushing for release on all platforms simultaneous. Since programmers are limited I am looking for a library that will take the pain out of simultaneous releases of software. The library should support both 2D, 3D, input and sound functions."

2 of 13 comments (clear)

  1. Here's a couple I like by JediTrainer · · Score: 3

    Twilight 3D claims to have an SDK which will save you 7570 man-hours of coding time, which is a multi-plaform multimedia framework and 3D engine.

    Crystal Space is a free 3D engine which is supported on multiple platforms, or

    Flight Gear is around for those who'd like to code a Flight Sim of some sort.

    All of the above are noted for their portable API and I've been following their progress for some time now. I hope this helps.

    --

    You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
  2. My experience by Adam+Wiggins · · Score: 3

    Back in the "old days", I worked at a company that created products that ran on Linux, Windows, and DOS. This was about four years ago and there weren't as many choices. We used:

    rendering: Glide
    input: DirectInput on Windows, /dev/js0 on Linux
    sound: Midas
    widget set: Qt on Linux, win32 on Windows, text mode hackery on DOS

    There were plenty of custom code blocks (file access, system timers, keyboard input, window setup) but they were all small, very quick to write, and self-contained.

    In other words, it's actually no big deal to not use a single, all-encompassing library to protect you from the horrors of coding to a specific platform.

    However, there are other choices these days. OpenGL+OpenAL+Qt would make a pretty nice, completely cross-platform toolkit setup that should do everything you want and more.

    And of course there's SDL, which I think is probably the best choice. I haven't used it extensively myself, but everything I've seen looks very good, and moreover it's what Loki uses, so that's a pretty good recommend right there.

    Also, you might check out the links here.