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Graphics for Beginners (Using SDL)

Posted by timothy on from the how-things-should-be dept.

Jari Komppa writes "Looking at how learning programming these days is much harder than when I was starting, I decided to write a tutorial on how to make graphics at pixel level. The aim for the tutorial is to show that programming can actually be fun."

7 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Also... by eviltypeguy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another great tutorial is the book called:

    http://www.nostarch.com/frameset.php?startat=plg

    One of the few programming books I've purchased that I didn't feel like I got ripped off in purchasing.

    Written by an Ex-Loki associated person John R. Hall

    1. Re:Also... by Krunch · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here it is. However it seems down for now but you can still grab it from archive.org.

      --
      No GNU has been Hurd during the making of this comment.
    2. Re:Also... by duckie13 · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you're looking for the actual text, I found it here:

      http://www.tux.org/pub/tux/plg/

      --
      "My days are less enjoyable because of people." ~ Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
  2. There are a couple of Ruby/SDL games... by tcopeland · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...on RubyForge, including Magic Maze (which was inspired by Gauntlet) and Tadpoles.

    --
    The Army reading list
  3. SDL == DirectX without the MS millstone by leonbrooks · · Score: 4, Informative
    OpenGL == Direct3D, SDL fills in the rest.

    It's an approximation, and there's some things which each set of software does markedly better than the other, but SDL+OpenGL is considerably easier to extend (e.g. the NET2 library mentioned above) so I'd expect to see it get better faster (cheaper :-).

    The big advantages are:
    • you're not tied to one platform, one manufacturer or a handful of languages; and
    • You can find out exactly what each function and parameter does; and
    • You can easily modify or extend anything (and no DMCA worries); and
    • You don't have to give away any rights before you start using it.

    These advantages are usually enough to handsomely compensate for any peripheral shortcomings (e.g. no force-feedback API, slightly smaller texturing envelope).

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
  4. Re:SDL is overrated by ggambett · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, what you say is true, but SDL is supposed to be a low level API. Things tend to get messy if you read the documentation, especially in a low level API.

    Other than that, I doubt anyone uses SDL directly. I wrote a high level framework on top of SDL, at a level of abstraction similar to Flash. It's quite good for doing that, precisely for being so low level and not forcing you to do things in a certain way. For the results, see my sig.

    --
    My website
  5. the 5k compo by Z-MaxX · · Score: 2, Informative
    Sounds like a common technique used in the 5k competition, a contest to make the coolest web page in 5 kilobytes.

    Check out some of the winners from the last 5k compo. Really cool stuff.

    --
    Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome