|
Frog
|
 |
« on: April 05, 2009, 12:52:42 AM » |
|
I've been learning C++ recently (started around Christmas) and I feel I'm starting to get the hang of things. I've been wanting to get into game development for a while and I feel it's time to start pursuing my goal further by learning to program some simple games (I've mainly been doing WinAPI stuff up until now).
My question is this, what is the best library to use for simple, lo-fi games development. I want something fairly bare bones and flexible, I don't want a game engine, just a simple graphics library.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: April 20, 2009, 05:05:45 PM by Derek »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Kekskiller
Guest
|
 |
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2009, 01:01:42 AM » |
|
SDL! It's simple and effective, yet flexible.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Akhel
|
|
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2009, 05:05:42 AM » |
|
I've never used SDL and I'm also still learning, but, from what I've heard, Allegro is easier. It's what I'm using and I'm liking it.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
mirosurabu
Guest
|
|
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2009, 05:57:24 AM » |
|
Allegro.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
raigan
|
|
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2009, 06:42:04 AM » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Mr. Yes
|
|
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2009, 07:06:07 AM » |
|
I've tried SDL, Allegro, and SFML. By far, SFML was the easiest for me to learn and get started with. All of them are good choices though, I think.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Gravious
|
|
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2009, 08:54:47 AM » |
|
I'd back SDL, it has a pretty decent range of features and plays nice with other platforms. It also has some decent support for handling OpenGL which you may want to pickup at a later date. Its all horses for courses though, you can do most things in most libraries now and its all down to personal taste, so good luck! |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
One day I'll think about doing something to stop procrastinating.
|
|
|
Ivan
Owl Country
Level 10
alright, let's see what we can see
|
|
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2009, 09:29:56 AM » |
|
SDL
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Glaiel-Gamer
Guest
|
|
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2009, 09:47:23 AM » |
|
OpenGL. I just use SDL for handling input and opening a window. When I get a little more experienced with OS specific code I might strip out SDL altogether and write my own wrappers.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
go
|
|
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2009, 10:09:41 AM » |
|
What about IndieLib ? Is it as reliable as SDL, Allegro and SFML ?
I've been mostly using SDL so far, but I was thinking about trying IndieLib for my next project.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
David Pittman
|
|
« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2009, 10:25:01 AM » |
|
When I last used SDL a few years back, it was pretty lacking in audio functionality. Have they improved that, or is it still best to use a separate audio library?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Gold Cray
|
|
« Reply #11 on: April 05, 2009, 10:30:08 AM » |
|
I didn't have any trouble using audio with pygame, but in C++ I still use FMOD instead of SDL for sound.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
mirosurabu
Guest
|
|
« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2009, 11:20:50 AM » |
|
SMFL, ClanLib and IndieLib (which I didn't try yet, but guessing from example code) are more high-level than Allegro and SDL, which means quicker, easier and ready to use. But the original poster said he doesn't want "game engine" so I thought these might not be what he's looking for.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Snakey
|
|
« Reply #13 on: April 05, 2009, 12:54:42 PM » |
|
I use wxWidgets and pretty much hand roll everything... but I suppose I've done this for a bit longer.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
I like turtles.
|
|
|
|
Mikademus
|
|
« Reply #14 on: April 05, 2009, 04:16:37 PM » |
|
Yeah, for tools wxWidgets is a great C++ library. As a beginner I don't think you can go wrong with either SDL or Allegro, but SDL forces you to jump through some pretty quirky hoops that might seem unfamiliar or counter-intuitive to initialise your application, iirc - sbeenawhile'nallthat.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
\\\"There\\\'s a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person,\\\" says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex. --IGN<br />My compilation of game engines for indies
|
|
|
|
Frog
|
|
« Reply #15 on: April 05, 2009, 10:34:23 PM » |
|
I've had people recommend me Allegro but looking at the site there doesn't seem to be libraries for MSVC++ made up and I have no idea how to compile the source myself.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Core Xii
|
|
« Reply #16 on: April 05, 2009, 11:25:32 PM » |
|
What about IndieLib ? Is it as reliable as SDL, Allegro and SFML ?
I've been mostly using SDL so far, but I was thinking about trying IndieLib for my next project.
Last I checked, IndieLib isn't cross-platform. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
gnat
|
|
« Reply #17 on: April 06, 2009, 12:40:48 AM » |
|
ClanLib Heh.. It's been a loooong time old friend. For C/C++, SDL (with support libs such as SDL_image, SDL_sound, etc) plus OpenGL for rendering is dynamite. Although you might want to pick up the OpenGL super bible to get a good footing in OpenGL before going that route.. Allegro 5 also looks very promising (D3D/OpenGL dual renderer!), but is still very Alpha/Beta stage as far as I know. If you need a very simple, yet complete SDL/OpenGL example game to learn from, check out my own gnat's tetris machine. It has rendering setup code for both 2D and 3D. Feel free to pick and choose snippets or even use it as basecode if you like.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Frog
|
|
« Reply #18 on: April 06, 2009, 03:13:22 AM » |
|
It's extremely important that it's cross platform as I'll be getting a macbook soon and using it as my primary computer. I'll have XP on there as well but I'd really prefer to develop in OSX.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Gravious
|
|
« Reply #19 on: April 06, 2009, 04:38:52 AM » |
|
Then you'll want SDL, cause then you're covered, also, I'll not secretly disapprove of everything you do because you'll be using what i use.
and all said and done, /thats/ whats important...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
One day I'll think about doing something to stop procrastinating.
|
|
|
|
Developer
