SDL Net – Part 2 (User Tutorial)

January 7th, 2010 by Tim Jones 8 comments »

The following user tutorial was created by Kahshoo-heem, for the purpose of expanding upon the SDLTutorials.com series, and expounding upon the use of SDL. This tutorial, though not purposely a part of the SDLTutorials.com or created for the series, may be a branch or addition to the series. Please read notes by the author for any additional code and/or framework used by the author. If you wish to submit your own tutorial to this site, please visit the “User Tutorials” page.


Once we have made our common library, it’s time to think on designing the game. Network games can have many architectures, but, normally, there are always at least two applications: a server and a client.

» Read more: SDL Net – Part 2 (User Tutorial)

SDL Net – Part 1 (User Tutorial)

January 7th, 2010 by Tim Jones 2 comments »

The following user tutorial was created by Kahshoo-heem, for the purpose of expanding upon the SDLTutorials.com series, and expounding upon the use of SDL. This tutorial, though not purposely a part of the SDLTutorials.com or created for the series, may be a branch or addition to the series. Please read notes by the author for any additional code and/or framework used by the author. If you wish to submit your own tutorial to this site, please visit the “User Tutorials” page.


In this tutorial, I will show you a simple c++ library to add network resources to your game.

Firstly, we have to add the SDL_net headers and libraries to your desktop environment. If you are using a linux distro like Ubuntu, it is enough to download the libsdl-netx.x-dev package from the repositories. If not, the process is analogous of including sdl mixer, image, etc, better explained by Tim’s Tutorials.
Don’t forget, as well, to set the linker options in your IDE, adding the SDL_net library.

» Read more: SDL Net – Part 1 (User Tutorial)

A sad day?

December 5th, 2009 by Tim Jones 8 comments »

If you all cannot tell, I have been very busy in life lately with two kiddos, full time job, and all sorts of other stuff. As such, I’m having to cut certain things out to make more time for other things. Unfortunately, that may mean SDLtutorials.com . I hate to say this, but only by donating will keep SDLtutorials.com going (it’s actually depressing to have only 1 donation [for the contest] come in since the website started). Otherwise, I’ll be looking to sell the SDLtutorials.com domain name, and only the domain name, to the highest bidder. Sorry, I won’t be selling the rights to my tutorials unless you make an extremely good offer.

Update:
It has come to my attention that even if I wanted to sell the domain today, I wouldn’t be able to do so for at least a year. At any rate, I am simply stressed out and I don’t think I want to give up on this venture. So, I need your help. 1. Please continue to be patient as more tutorials will eventually come. 2. Lets be an active community helping each other, so that if I’m idle for a while, people are still getting help. 3. If you’d like to donate, that’s up to you guys.

SDL 1.12.14 Released

October 20th, 2009 by Tim Jones No comments »

Welcome to the last planned release for SDL 1.2!
http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php

This release is intended to clean up the bug list for SDL 1.2 and let us focus on new development for SDL 1.3!

I would like to thank everybody who contributed bug reports and fixes for this release!

General Notes

* Fixed flicker when resizing the SDL window
* Fixed crash in SDL_SetGammaRamp()
* Fixed freeze in SDL_memset() with 0 length when assembly code is disabled.
* Added SDL_DISABLE_LOCK_KEYS environment variable to enable normal up/down events for Caps-Lock and Num-Lock keys.
* Fixed audio quality problem when converting between 22050 Hz and 44100 Hz.
* Fixed a threading crash when a few threads are rapidly created and complete.
* Increased accuracy of alpha blending routines.
* Fixed crash loading BMP files saved with the scanlines inverted.
* Fixed mouse coordinate clamping if SDL_SetVideoMode() isn’t called in response to SDL_VIDEORESIZE event.
* Added doxygen documentation for the SDL API headers.

Unix Notes

* Fixed potential memory corruption due to assembly bug with SDL_revcpy()
* Fixed crashes trying to detect SSE features on x86_64 architecture.
* Fixed assembly for GCC optimized 50% alpha blending blits.
* Added configure option –enable-screensaver, to allow enabling the screensaver by default.
* Use XResetScreenSaver() instead of disabling screensaver entirely.
* Removed the maximum window size limitation on X11.
* Fixed SDL_GL_SWAP_CONTROL on X11.
* Fixed setting the X11 window input hint.
* Fixed distorted X11 window icon for some visuals.
* Fixed detecting X11 libraries for dynamic loading on 64-bit Linux.
* SDL_GL_GetAttribute(SDL_GL_SWAP_CONTROL) returns the correct value with GLX_SGI_swap_control.
* Added SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_DISPLAY as a preferred synonym for SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_HEAD on X11.
* The SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_DISPLAY environment variable can be set to 0 to place fullscreen SDL windows on the first Xinerama screen.
* Added the SDL_VIDEO_FBCON_ROTATION environment variable to control output orientation on the framebuffer console.
Valid values are:
o not set – Not rotating, no shadow.
o “NONE” – Not rotating, but still using shadow.
o “CW” – Rotating screen clockwise.
o “UD” – Rotating screen upside down.
o “CCW” – Rotating screen counter clockwise.
* Fixed DirectFB detection on some Linux distributions.
* Added code to use the PS3 SPE processors for YUV conversion on Linux.
* Updated ALSA support to the latest stable API
* ALSA is now preferred over OSS audio. (SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dsp will restore the previous behavior.)
* Improved support for PulseAudio
* The Network Audio System support is now dynamically loaded at runtime.
* Fixed crash with the MP-8866 Dual USB Joypad on newer Linux kernels.
* Fixed crash in SDL_Quit() when a joystick has been unplugged.

Windows Notes

* Verified 100% compatibility with Windows 7.
* Prevent loss of OpenGL context when setting the video mode in response to a window resize event.
* Fixed video initialization with SDL_WINDOWID on Windows XP.
* Improved mouse input responsiveness for first-person-shooter games.
* IME messages are now generated for localized input.
* SDL_RWFromFile() takes a UTF-8 filename when opening a file.
* The SDL_STDIO_REDIRECT environment variable can be used to override whether SDL redirects stdio to stdout.txt and stderr.txt.
* Fixed dynamic object loading on Windows CE.

Mac OS X Notes

* SDL now builds on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
Eric Wing posted a good rundown on the numerous changes here: http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/big_behind-the-scenes_chang.html
* The X11 video driver is built by default.
* Fixed SDL_VIDEO_WINDOW_POS environment variable for Quartz target.
* Fixed setting the starting working directory in release builds.

And the winner is…

September 30th, 2009 by Tim Jones 11 comments »

Dun dun dun…

» Read more: And the winner is…

Contest 2009 | 24 Hours Left

September 29th, 2009 by Tim Jones 2 comments »

Alright guys, we’re down to the wire. Tomorrow, at approximately this time, I will post who is the winner. So what does that mean in the mean time? Well, vote! Give me your opinions, post in the forum! Remember, votes can help persuade me, but it alone will not determine the winner.

Contest Entries | Round 2

September 21st, 2009 by Tim Jones 12 comments »

I decided to shake things up a little bit. Today I am narrowing down the finalists to 4. First though, a big thank you and congratulations to all of you who participated in the contest. Keep on programming and continue making games. After this 2nd round, I’ll be deciding the winner. Again, the community can help influence my decision. This time around I’ll be putting up the source code, as I know some of you were unable to run some games. The focus is, is the code easy to compile? Does it work on multiple systems? Is the code “good code”?

Official Feedback Thread



Which game do you think is programmed the best?

View Results

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Ace of Space

Download
Source

K.A.A.T.I.

Download
Source

Supernova

Download | Alternative Download
Source

Zallan

Download
Source

Contest Entries

September 11th, 2009 by Tim Jones 19 comments »

These are being listed in alphabetical order. Because of the small number of entries I’ll be putting them all up here for people to look at and voice their opinion. Which one do you think is the best?

Which game do you think is the best?

View Results

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Ace of Space

Download

K.A.A.T.I.

Download

Labarum

Download

SDL Boss

Download

Supernova

Download

Zallan

Download

Late Entry:

First Flight Planet

Download

Contest Reviewing Progress

September 4th, 2009 by Tim Jones 4 comments »

No, I didn’t take all of the code submitted and run away. Yesterday I did a basic run through as a normal gaming user for actual game play. I am going to be reviewing the code next. I’ll get some videos up soon of each entry. Not too soon after that I’ll release the games themselves (no source) for people to try out, and I’ll put a poll up. There’s a few projects that because the way they are compiled don’t work quiet “out of the box.”

Last Day!

August 31st, 2009 by Tim Jones 18 comments »

Here it is guys, last day! You guys have until 11:59:59 AM tonight (Pacific time) to submit your contest project files.

Update:
The Contest has ended. I will take this week to review all entries. Here’s a list of people I have received contest entries from. If you sent something in, and are not on the list, email me asap.

Matt C.
Vincent L.
Anthony P.
Jason N.
Leonardo G., and Hugo V.
Zack F.

* Late Entry:
Fabrício G., and Paulo S.

* Because of the low turn-out I decided to accept this late entry; to be fair, I will give others until 9/3/2009 – 12:00 AM tonight (Pacific time) to also turn in a late entry. Please note that by being a late entry it will most certainly count against you in terms of judging. Existing entries from the people up who were on time can send in updated code if they like with no penalty. After 12:00 AM tonight, no more exceptions. If you turn something in to me after 12:00 AM you will not qualify for the contest, but I can put your name up.

Deadline Coming up…

August 17th, 2009 by Tim Jones 10 comments »

How is everyone doing on their projects? Run into any snags or problems? Remember, Sept. 1 is coming up real soon!

Good luck everyone.

SDL Collision Events

August 4th, 2009 by Tim Jones 26 comments »

Finally! The next tutorial. This is the 2nd part to the SDL Collision tutorial. We’ll be looking at collision events, the part we left unfinished in the last tutorial. To refresh your memory, a collision event is an event that is stored in queue after a collision has taken place. Take our recent shooter contest for an example. When the player fires a bullet, the bullet flies through the air, and then hits the enemy. The moment the bullet and the enemy collide, an event is triggered and stored in the queue. After all movement has taken place, the queue is iterated through, and events can appropriately respond.
» Read more: SDL Collision Events

Just to check up…

June 24th, 2009 by Tim Jones No comments »

So, how is everyone doing so far in the contest? Run into any problems?

Are you participating in the Contest?

View Results

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Some inspiration again:

Contest | Resources

June 11th, 2009 by Tim Jones No comments »

As a helpful gesture to all you out there that may need some resources (sounds, music, art), visit the link below:

http://forums.sdltutorials.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=36

Contest | Prize increase

June 5th, 2009 by Tim Jones No comments »

The dollar prize has changed to: $200 (PayPal)

A special thanks to Sergey Tikhonov for the donation!