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Simple DirectMedia Layer
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CAPTION: Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer, Logo.svg
Original author(s) Sam Lantinga
Developer(s) SDL Community
Initial release 1998; 24 years ago (1998)
Stable release
2.0.20^[1] / 11 January 2022; 55 days ago (2022-01-11)^[2]
Repository
* github.com/libsdl-org/SDL Edit this at Wikidata
Written in C
Operating system Linux, Windows, AmigaOS, macOS 10.4+, iOS 3.1.3+,
tvOS,^[3] Android 2.3.3+, FreeBSD 8.4+, Haiku
Additionally before v2.0.0 (deprecated): RISC OS^[4]
Type API
License zlib License
Before 2.0.0:
GNU LGPL^[5]
Website www.libsdl.org
Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) is a cross-platform software development
library designed to provide a hardware abstraction layer for computer
multimedia hardware components. Software developers can use it to write
high-performance computer games and other multimedia applications that
can run on many operating systems such as Android, iOS, Linux, macOS,
and Windows.^[4]
SDL manages video, audio, input devices, CD-ROM, threads, shared object
loading, networking and timers.^[6] For 3D graphics, it can handle an
OpenGL, Vulkan,^[7] Metal, or Direct3D11 (older Direct3D version 9 is
also supported) context. A common misconception is that SDL is a game
engine, but this is not true. However, the library is suited to
building games directly, or is usable indirectly by engines built on
top of it.
The library is internally written in C and possibly, depending on the
target platform, C++ or Objective-C, and provides the application
programming interface in C, with bindings to other languages
available.^[8] It is free and open-source software subject to the
requirements of the zlib License since version 2.0, and with prior
versions subject to the GNU Lesser General Public License.^[5] Under
the zlib License, SDL 2.0 is freely available for static linking in
closed-source projects, unlike SDL 1.2.^[9] SDL 2.0, released in 2013,
was a major departure from previous versions, offering more opportunity
for 3D hardware acceleration, but breaking backwards-compatibility.
SDL is extensively used in the industry in both large and small
projects. Over 700 games, 180 applications, and 120 demos have been
posted on the library website.^[10]
[ ]
Contents
* 1 History
* 2 Software architecture
+ 2.1 Subsystems
+ 2.2 Language bindings
+ 2.3 Supported back-ends
* 3 Reception and adoption
+ 3.1 Video game examples using SDL
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 Further reading
* 7 External links
History[edit]
Sam Lantinga created the library, first releasing it in early 1998,
while working for Loki Software. He got the idea while porting a
Windows application to Macintosh. He then used SDL to port Doom to BeOS
(see Doom source ports). Several other free libraries were developed to
work alongside SDL, such as SMPEG and OpenAL. He also founded Galaxy
Gameworks in 2008 to help commercially support SDL, although the
company plans are currently on hold due to time constraints.^[11]
Soon after putting Galaxy Gameworks on hold, Lantinga announced that
SDL 1.3 (which would then later become SDL 2.0) would be licensed under
the zlib License.^[12] Lantinga announced SDL 2.0 on 14 July 2012, at
the same time announcing that he was joining Valve, the first version
of which was announced the same day he joined the company.^[13]
Lantinga announced the stable release of SDL 2.0.0 on 13 August
2013.^[14]
SDL 2.0 is a major update to the SDL 1.2 codebase with a different, not
backwards-compatible^[15] API. It replaces several parts of the 1.2 API
with more general support for multiple input and output options. Some
feature additions include multiple window support, hardware-accelerated
2D graphics, and better Unicode support.^[16]
Support for Mir and Wayland was added in SDL 2.0.2^[17] and enabled by
default in SDL 2.0.4.^[18] Version 2.0.4 also provided better support
for Android.^[19]
Software architecture[edit]
SDL is a wrapper around the operating-system-specific functions that
the game needs to access. The only purpose of SDL is to provide a
common framework for accessing these functions for multiple operating
systems (cross-platform).^[20] SDL provides support for 2D pixel
operations, sound, file access, event handling, timing and threading.
It is often used to complement OpenGL by setting up the graphical
output and providing mouse and keyboard input, since OpenGL comprises
only rendering.
A game using the Simple DirectMedia Layer will not automatically run on
every operating system; further adaptations must be applied. These are
reduced to the minimum, since SDL also contains a few abstraction APIs
for frequent functions offered by an operating system.
The syntax of SDL is function-based: all operations done in SDL are
done by passing parameters to subroutines (functions). Special
structures are also used to store the specific information SDL needs to
handle. SDL functions are categorized under several different
subsystems.
Subsystems[edit]
SDL is divided into several subsystems:^[21]
Basics
Initialization and Shutdown, Configuration Variables, Error
Handling, Log Handling
Video
Display and Window Management, surface functions, rendering
acceleration, etc.
Input Events
Event handling, Support for Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick and Game
controller
Force Feedback
SDL_haptic.h implements support for "Force Feedback"
Audio
SDL_audio.h implements Audio Device Management, Playing and
Recording
Threads
multi-threading: Thread Management, Thread Synchronization
Primitives, Atomic Operations
Timers
Timer Support
File Abstraction
Filesystem Paths, File I/O Abstraction
Shared Object Support
Shared Object Loading and Function Lookup
Platform and CPU Information
Platform Detection, CPU Feature Detection, Byte Order and Byte
Swapping, Bit Manipulation
Power Management
Power Management Status
Additional
Platform-specific functionality
Besides this basic, low-level support, there also are a few separate
official libraries that provide some more functions. These comprise the
"standard library", and are provided on the official website and
included in the official documentation:
* SDL_image -- support for multiple image formats^[22]
* SDL_mixer -- complex audio functions, mainly for sound mixing^[23]
* SDL_net -- networking support^[24]
* SDL_ttf -- TrueType font rendering support^[25]
* SDL_rtf -- simple Rich Text Format rendering^[26]
Other, non-standard libraries also exist. For example: SDL_Collide on
SourceForge created by Amir Taaki.
Language bindings[edit]
The SDL 2.0 library has language bindings for:
* Ada^[8]
* Beef
* C
* C++
* C#^[8]
* D^[8]
* Fortran^[27]
* Genie
* Go^[8]^[28]
* Haskell^[29]^[30]
* Java (e.g. JSDL)
* Julia^[31]^[32]^[33]^[28]
* Lua^[8]
* Nim
* OCaml^[8]
* Pascal^[8]
* Perl (via SDL)^[34]
* PHP^[35]
* Python (several, e.g. pygame_sdl2 and sdl2hl)^[8]
* Raku^[36]
* Ring^[37]^[38]
* Rust^[8]
* Vala
* Common Lisp^[39]
Supported back-ends[edit]
Abstraction layers of several SDL platforms
Because of the way SDL is designed, much of its source code is split
into separate modules for each operating system, to make calls to the
underlying system. When SDL is compiled, the appropriate modules are
selected for the target system. The following back-ends are
available:^[4]
* GDI back-end for Microsoft Windows.
* DirectX back-end; older SDL 1.2 uses DirectX 7 by default, while
2.0 defaults to DirectX 9 and can access up to DirectX 11.
* Quartz back-end for macOS (dropped in 2.0).
* Metal back-end for macOS / iOS / tvOS since 2.0.8; older versions
use OpenGL by default.^[40]^[41]
* Xlib back-end for X11-based windowing system on various operating
systems.^[42]
* OpenGL contexts on various platforms.^[43]
* EGL back-end when used in conjunction with Wayland-based windowing
system.,^[44] Raspberry Pi^[45] and other systems.
* Vulkan contexts on platforms that support it.^[7]
* sceGu back-end, a Sony OpenGL-like backend native to the PSP.
SDL 1.2 has support for RISC OS (dropped in 2.0).
An unofficial Sixel back-end is available for SDL 1.2.^[46]
The Rockbox MP3 player firmware also distributes a version of SDL 1.2,
which is used to run games such as Quake.^[47]
Reception and adoption[edit]
Workshop on SDL, University of Cadiz
Over the years SDL was used for many commercial and non-commercial
video game projects. For instance, MobyGames listed 120 games using SDL
in 2013,^[48] and the SDL website itself listed around 700 games in
2012.^[49] Important commercial examples are Angry Birds,^[50] Unreal
Tournament, and games developed using Valve's Source Engine, which uses
SDL extensively for cross-platform compatibility; ones from the
open-source domain are OpenTTD,^[51] The Battle for Wesnoth^[52] or
Freeciv.^[53]
The cross-platform game releases of the popular Humble Indie Bundles
for Linux, Mac and Android are often SDL-based.
SDL is also often used for later ports on new platforms with legacy
code. For instance, the PC game Homeworld was ported to the Pandora
handheld^[54] and Jagged Alliance 2 for Android^[55] via SDL.
Also, several non video game programs use SDL; examples are the
emulators, such as DOSBox, FUSE ZX Spectrum emulator and
VisualBoyAdvance.
There were several books written for development with SDL (see further
readings).
SDL is used in university courses teaching multimedia and computer
science, for instance, in a workshop about game programming using
libSDL at the University of Cadiz in 2010, or a Game Design discipline
at UTFPR (Ponta Grossa campus) in 2015.
Video game examples using SDL[edit]
* Unknown Horizons^[56]
* Hedgewars^[57]
* Scorched 3D^[58]
* Frets on Fire^[59]
* Oolite^[60]
* The Battle for Wesnoth^[61]
* OpenTTD
* 0 A.D.^[62]
* Secret Maryo Chronicles^[63]
* Trine
* Trine 2^[64]
See also[edit]
* Free and open-source software portal
* Allegro
* ClanLib
* Cross-platform support middleware
* DirectFB
* General Graphics Interface
* GLFW
* OpenML
* Pygame
* Raylib
* Ren'Py
* SFML
* SVGAlib
References[edit]
1. ^ "Simple DirectMedia Layer - SDL version 2.0.20 (stable)".
Libsdl.org. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
2. ^ "Index of /release". Libsdl.org. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
3. ^ "Oh look, we'll have official tvOS support in SDL 2.0.5, for
people that want their SDL-based games on Apple TV!". 15 September
2016.
4. ^ ^a ^b ^c "a list of the platforms SDL supports". Libsdl.org.
Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
5. ^ ^a ^b "SDL license". Retrieved 3 March 2014.
6. ^ "SDL official website". Libsdl.org. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
7. ^ ^a ^b "CategoryVulkan - SDL Wiki'". wiki.libsdl.org. Retrieved 5
May 2019.
8. ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ^i ^j "SDL Language Bindings".
libsdl.org. Simple DirectMedia Layer. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
9. ^ "Licensing the Simple DirectMedia Layer library". Retrieved 30
January 2012.
10. ^ "Simple DirectMedia Layer". 29 June 2010. Archived from the
original on 29 June 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
11. ^ "Exploring the Galaxy". 6 April 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
12. ^ SDL 1.3 to be zLib Licensed, SDL Mailing List, 7 April 2011
13. ^ "SDL 2.0 Is Coming Very Soon With New Features". Retrieved 17
August 2012.
14. ^ Announcing SDL 2.0.0, SDL Mailing List, 13 August 2013
15. ^ MigrationGuide - SDL Wiki'. Wiki.libsdl.org (21 November 2013).
Retrieved on 2013-12-08.
16. ^ "SDL 1.3 Roadmap". 14 June 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
17. ^ Sneddon, Joey-Elijah (5 February 2014). "Some of Linux's Most
Popular Games Will Run Natively On Mir". Retrieved 19 March 2014.
18. ^ Lantinga, Sam (2 January 2016). "SDL 2.0.4 Changelog". Retrieved
6 January 2016.
19. ^ "SDL_SysWMinfo".
20. ^ "Introduction to SDL". Retrieved 3 March 2014.
21. ^ "APIByCategory".
22. ^ "SDL_image 2.0". libsdl.org. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
23. ^ "SDL_mixer 2.0". libsdl.org. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
24. ^ "SDL_net 2.0". libsdl.org. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
25. ^ "SDL_ttf 2.0". libsdl.org. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
26. ^ "SDL_rtf 0.1". libsdl.org. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
27. ^ "f03sdl2". GitHub. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
28. ^ ^a ^b Robison, Arch D. (9 November 2015). "Go + Julia + Fourier =
Open Source Frequon Invaders". software.intel.com. Retrieved 2
August 2019.
29. ^ "SDL on Hackage".
30. ^ "SDL2 on Hackage".
31. ^ Bieler, Jonathan (30 July 2020).
"jonathanBieler/SimpleDirectMediaLayer.jl". GitHub. Retrieved 8
August 2020.
32. ^ SquidSinker (2 August 2020). "Example games for GameZero.jl".
GitHub. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
33. ^ Daly, Nathan (31 July 2019). "Example game written in julia using
SDL2". GitHub. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
34. ^ "PerlGameDev/SDL". GitHub. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
35. ^ "PHP-SDL". GitHub. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
36. ^ "SDL2::Raw". modules.raku.org. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
37. ^ Beginning Ring Programming - From Novice to Professional |
Mansour Ayouni | Apress.
38. ^ "Using RingLibSDL -- Ring 1.16 documentation".
39. ^ "cl-sdl2". GitHub. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
40. ^ "WhatsNew.txt". Retrieved 28 September 2020.
41. ^ "[Commits] SDL: Enable building the Metal renderer by default,
and weak lin..." 7 December 2017.
42. ^ "SDL: README-platforms.txt@3e2f230a6d62". Hg.libsdl.org.
libsdl.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013.
Retrieved 8 December 2013.
43. ^ "Using OpenGL With SDL". Retrieved 9 July 2015.
44. ^ "SDL and Wayland".
45. ^ Larabel, Michael (30 September 2013). "Raspberry Pi Support Added
To SDL2 Library".
46. ^ "SDL 1.2 Sixel". GitHub. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
47. ^ "SDLPluginPort". Retrieved 11 August 2019.
48. ^ "Middleware: SDL Group Description". MobyGames. 27 September
2013. Retrieved 18 May 2012. "Games that use the very portable
Simple DirectMedia Layer."
49. ^ "Games". libsdl.org. 18 May 2012. Archived from the original on
29 June 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
50. ^ "SDL Testimonials". Galaxygameworks.com. Archived from the
original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
51. ^ "Development". OpenTTD. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
52. ^ "CompilingWesnoth". Wesnoth. 27 February 2010. Retrieved 19 March
2010.
53. ^ "SDLClient - Freeciv.org". Freeciv.wikia.com. Retrieved 19 March
2010.
54. ^ may88 (23 June 2011). "Game of the Week #3 - Homeworld SDL".
pandorapress.net. Retrieved 8 May 2012. "[...] released port of
HomeworldSDL. Forum member Edglex enables your Pandora to
experience the excellent work done by the guys at HomeworldSDL."
55. ^ JA2 Stracciatella Feedback >> Jagged Alliance 2 Android
Stracciatella Port RC2 Release - please test Archived 23 October
2012 at the Wayback Machine on the Bear's Pit Forum, 3 October 2011
56. ^ "Features . fifengine/fifengine Wiki . GitHub". GitHub. Retrieved
9 March 2015.
57. ^ "FAQ Hedgewars". hedgewars.org. Retrieved 3 October 2014. "...SDL
>= 1.2.5..."
58. ^ "Development Details". scorched3d.co.uk. Archived from the
original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014. "...Simple
DirectMedia Layer - SDL for cross platform game windowing..."
59. ^ "About the game". Retrieved 20 September 2021.
60. ^ "OOlite SDL Dependencies". GitHub. 29 May 2016. Retrieved 21
September 2021.
61. ^ "Roadmap - Wesnoth". www.wesnoth.org. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
62. ^ "New Release: 0 A.D. Alpha 19 Syllepsis". 26 November 2015.
Retrieved 20 September 2021. "Linux users, please be advised that
SDL2 is now enabled by default on Linux."
63. ^ "Secret Maryo Chronicles". sourceforge.net. Retrieved 3 October
2014. "... based on SDL ..."
64. ^ "Frozenbyte Support". trine2.com. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
Further reading[edit]
* Alberto Garcia Serrano: Programacion de videojuegos en SDL,
Ediversitas,
ISBN 84-95836-08-4 (Spanish)
Ernest Pazera: Focus On SDL, Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade,
ISBN 1-59200-030-4
Ron Penton: Data Structures for Game Programmers, Muska &
Lipman/Premier-Trade, ISBN 1-931841-94-2 (game programming examples
with SDL)
John R. Hall: Programming Linux Games, No Starch, ISBN 1-886411-49-2
(First SDL book, by Loki Games, archived online version: PDF at the
Wayback Machine (archived 22 January 2003), LaTex sources at the
Wayback Machine (archived 14 February 2003))
External links[edit]
* Official website Edit this at Wikidata
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Simple_DirectMedia_Layer&ol
did=1075148020"
Categories:
* Simple DirectMedia Layer
* Application programming interfaces
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