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Ask Sam Lantinga About SDL On PS2 And More
Sam Lantinga is the author and project lead of the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL), which was recently ported amid general acclaim to the Sony PS2. People have been curious about SDL for a long time (it's been around for a while, and used in quite a few games). He's not just a library programmer though; he also designs games (in this case, working with Lauren MacDonell) and thinks hard and lucidly about the intricacies of information display within them. Here's your chance to ask Sam directly what's on your mind about SDL, game design and more. Note -- many questions are answered within the links already given, so hit those first. One question per post, please (but as many posts as you'd like) -- we'll forward the highest-rated questions on to Sam, and post his answers soon after.
Without Loki's business, I don't know that we would have SDL.
just a thought about these types of libraries in general...
Seems to me that a lot of gamers have complained on and off about the lack of original games and general stagnation of the game industry. In my opinion, that was alleviated a bit with the introduction of 3d engines that were produced specifically to make life easier for game developers. No longer did you need to have a large staff of programmers to write your game engine (2d or 3d) from the ground up. Take a portion of your game dev budget and plunk it down for a proven graphics engine. Get some artists, perhaps some 3d modelers and have at it.
I think the proliferation and evolution of game development libraries like this will lead to making better games. The more of the budget that can be dedicated to fine-tuning the gameplay and design, the better. On the other hand, though, I fear that making games really easy and quick to create will lead to even more cheap, crappy quickie games with no substance.
My sigs always suck.
Maybe as a large complimation?
You have seen the ones:
1000 Game complimation
As the PS2 uses DVD you might well be able to do this (or similer) and have a menu at the beginning that lets you choose which game to play.
Would that be a problem?
StarTux
Loki is in the toilet. They screwed most of their vendors, they screwed most of their employees, they've broken laws and are being sued by multiple entities for large amounts of money. i just heard that they filed for bankruptcy last week. serves them right if they can't treat people well.
Have you ever actually used SDL?
I play SDL-based games regularly, and to me it looks like a direct parallel to DirectX.
I can play every game on my system, using only a single shared library for graphics and sound I/O.
These games were all developed using a single shared library for graphics and sound I/O.
Tell me how this adds 50-75% overhead?
From http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5756218.html, linked in the slashdot story:
The programming blueprints, or source code, for the kernel--the heart of Linux--is included on the DVD, Sony said. But the source code for a proprietary "runtime environment" that lets games play on the system is not.
I know its slashdot, but I can't believe being a blind, mad, and paranoid GPL zealot will still score you +5.
In your communications with Sony has anything been expressed about opening up the PS/2 to home developers? The Linux thing is neat but most hackers would like to develop a game for the PS/2 and then burn it to DVD for distribution to friends, customers etc.
Never gonna happen. The console sells at a loss, Sony makes that up by licensing fees on the game titles. If every Joe with a PS2-SDK-Linux-SDL could crank out his own games:
- the quality of games would go down (I'm sure there would be some real gems, but I'm generalizing).
- Licensing would become a nightmare, with hobbyist either bitching about having to pay, or design companies bitching about hobbyist not paying.
- DMCA violations left and right as hobbyists reverse-engineered the console.
Hope this clears some things up for you.
Hammer of Truth