That SDL port


Snooty

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Jun 8, 2003
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Hi folks. I've been reading about the new SDL port that's being done (thanks to www.gp32news.com). Read about it here: http://www.libsdl.org/index.php

Sounds exciting. Can anyone a little more knowledgeable expand upon the potential implications for the GP32?

Cheers,

Paul
 
SDL is an interfacing library *kind of* like direct X. Many open source projects use it as games that are developed on SDL are easy to port to other platforms.

Some may have heard of Abuse, which is now open source. Someone ported it to SDL so it could be easily ported to other platforms. However, there may still be x86 code in it.
 
And another aspect:
It makes life for the coders more easy!
They don't have to fiddle around with video and audio output or keyboard input, as the SDL does this already.
Thus, they can concentrate themselves more on the main code itself :)
 
I am told by a friend who knows about these things, that this; in theory; really opens lots of opportunities for ports to be done a lot more easily. I tend to belive him as it was he who converted me to the cause and he suggests this is a most exciting prospect.
 
Yes, one of the potential Amstrad CPC emulators to be ported to the GP32 runs off SDL.
This could be very good news.
 
SDL isnt "like directx", it IS directx, and opengl, and a software renderer.

It simplifies the proccess of writing cross platform applications, you use SDL, and SDL uses DirectX or OpenGL, or the software renderer, etc...

by the way, do u think an x86 emulator could be made and that it will be
usefull ???
Gonna bite my tongue on this one.
 
A few small points to note,

SDL is a wrapper to the low-level functions very much like DirectX and its only real drawback on the GP32 is that it is dependent on the GamePark SDK currently for providing most of the low-level bits so there is a performance hit (and necessary libC wrapper).

The GP32 SDL port is not a new project, Chui has been working hard on it for well over a year with other projects (http://sdl-gp32.sourceforge.net/). It is currently in its third beta (based on SDL 1.2.7) and is maturing quite nicely. It is still too slow (IMHO) to run any large scale projects (I dust off my SDL GP32 backend for ScummVM every now and then to test this) however it will run most small SDL games quite nicely with a little bit of work, there are already a number of SDL games ported to the GP32 (and DreamCast) by Chui himself that show what it can do..

I used a modified version of the current GP32 SDL port to do my (now discontinued) RAW port and it was at least a viable option for that.

However the GP32 SDL port benefits a lot (speed wise) from being recompiled from source on a newer version of GCC (I use 3.4) as the pre-compiled libraries that are available for download are built with an old version of GCC (with nasty things like interworking enabled etc.). I am testing my versions of Chui’s SDL libs with WinterMutes DevKitArm (GCC 3.4) with a view to packaging them with that if people are interested.
 
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