Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SDL 2.0 Release Improves 2D/3D Rendering, Better Audio & New Features

Posted by timothy on from the simple-is-modest dept.

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."

15 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Staticlinkable to closed software not a good thing by rvalles · · Score: 3, 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.

  2. Thanks! by Kludge · · Score: 3

    Thank you to everyone who made this possible.

  3. Python bindings by tepples · · Score: 2

    A set of Python bindings similar in scope to SDL 1.2's Pygame has been released: sdl2.ext.

  4. Re:without a kickstarter project? by NatasRevol · · Score: 2

    Well, it's probably because they want GMO plants as payment.

    --
    There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
  5. Installation Information by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Like the GPL, the LGPL requires distributions of executable applications to provide "scripts for controlling installation" (2.1) or "Installation Information" (LGPLv3) for running an application with a modified library. Console makers have shown themselves unwilling to allow video game publishers to provide this sort of Installation Information to the public.

    1. Re:Installation Information by Gaygirlie · · Score: 2

      Well, thanks for clarifying that bit.

    2. Re:Installation Information by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Like the GPL, the LGPL requires distributions of executable applications to provide "scripts for controlling installation" (2.1) or "Installation Information" (LGPLv3) for running an application with a modified library. Console makers have shown themselves unwilling to allow video game publishers to provide this sort of Installation Information to the public.

      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 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.

    3. Re:Installation Information by Unknown+Lamer · · Score: 4, 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...

      --

      HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
  6. Re:Staticlinkable to closed software not a good th by Narishma · · Score: 4, Informative

    The license change happened more than a year before Sam Lantinga was hired by Valve.

    --
    Mada mada dane.
  7. Re:Staticlinkable to closed software not a good th by HaZardman27 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Oh, interesting; I did not know that. Thanks for pointing it out instead of yelling at me for being lazy and not looking it up ;)

    --
    Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
  8. Re:Staticlinkable to closed software not a good th by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2, Funny

    How does one spell "non-sequitor"?

    With great difficulty, apparently.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  9. Actually some pretty nice improvements by gman003 · · Score: 4, 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.

    1. Re:Actually some pretty nice improvements by Unknown+Lamer · · Score: 3, 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, 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).

      --

      HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
  10. License change by Necreia · · Score: 2

    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).

  11. Re:Staticlinkable to closed software not a good th by assassinator42 · · Score: 2

    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.