Comments on: SDL Image

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:53:04 +0000

Adrian,
There is no Z-order anywhere. The only thing that resembles a Z-order, is the order in which you blit the surfaces. The surfaces you blit first will appear on the bottom, while the very last surface blit will appear at the top.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:40:39 +0000

Thanks Tim, Loving the tutorials.
Years since I played with C, lots of changes!
Have been playing with png files but having some problems:
I note that the order in which images are loaded, and NOT the Surf_Display order, sets the Z-Order, am I missing something(s)?

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:15:14 +0000

Danny,
Library files are either: .a files or .lib files. .a files are typically found on everything other than Windows, while .lib files are typically found on windows. I say typically, because that’s not always the case. But, the idea is the same, they are both static library files. In other words, they are code compiled into a file. When you are using static libraries, you usually only need two things: the library file(s), and the header files (sometimes you also need a .dll file). The process is usually always the same as well. You link the static library in your project, and #include the header files in your project. If you have dll files, drop them in the same folder as your program. That’s it. If you have other files, like .c/.cpp, make, autogen, etc. – these are files so that if you wanted, you can compile the static library yourself. In that way, you can customize the library to your needs. To quickly point you in the right direction: 1) .a/.lib files go in the lib folder, 2) .h files go in the include folder, 3) .dll files go in the same folder as your program.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:01:23 +0000

In case there are others who are having the same issue I am, I’ll note a few more details to perhaps reach some conclusion of what goes where.

Around comment #26 in the basics tutorial, Tim says the following:

“Notice you have .lib files, not .a files. Also, you don’t use mingw. Hopefully that helps!”

This makes me think that the library files are in fact the .a files. Perhaps the .c and .a files belong in the …\SDL\SDL\lib directory, and the single .h file belongs in the include directory.

I’ll try that at some point within the next two days before going on with the tutorial, but I’m still confused since the content within the lib directory was (if I remember correctly) two .dll files.

By: Danny

Danny — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:26:26 +0000

Hi, Tim.

I’m a bit confused regarding the location of files within the SDL Image library. I went back and checked out the basics tutorial, but I’m still unclear about which files go where.

The library consists of files that include both .c and a .h file. Within the include directory, I have only .h files. In addition, there are other files in the library, such as “aclocal.m4″, “autogen.sh”, “CHANGES”, and others. Do all these belong in the SDL/include/SDL directory, which I see contains *only* .h files? You also say “and your lib files in the same directory as your SDL lib files to make things easier”. The files in my SDL/lib directory are of .dll.a, .la, and .a format.

Am I barking up the completely wrong tree?

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:31:15 +0000

Yes, the .lib files which are VC specific do in fact work with mingw. I have successfully used sdl_mixer, sdl_ttf, and sdl_image with the VC libs on Codeblocks with mingw. Regarding sdl_net, I am not entirely sure if that would work or not.

By: Vin

Vin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:49:37 +0000

Hi Tim,
Just to clarify. I’m using Codeblocks 8.02 (mingw) on Windows. So I can use the SDL_image-devel-1.2.6-VC8 libraries? Is this also the case for sdl_mixer, sdl_net and sdl_ttf?
I’m just surprised VC8 libraries are compatible with the mingw linker.

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:20:00 +0000

Thanks Gaurav!

Regarding installing the image library, download SDL_image-devel-1.2.6-VC8.zip off of the SDL project site: http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/. Inside, you will find the include folder and lib folder. Copy these both to where you have your SDL include folder and lib folder. It will say the directory already exists, just press okay, and it will merge the two folders together. It’s exactly the same process as stated on the first tutorial, I encourage to read that for some additional help.

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:27:13 +0000

2 thumbs up for the brilliant set of tutorials, without a doubt the best set of tutorials on SDL I’ve seen for an SDL beginner.

Also, Could you teach how to install the image library on windows from the package on the project site.

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:22:44 +0000

There is one specific one made for SDL that I have found. I cannot vouch for any specific one though, as I have not needed to use vector graphics before in SDL:

http://www.linuxmotors.com/SDL_svg/

There are also a few multi-purpose ones out there, that I am sure you can convert the output to an SDL Surface:

http://librsvg.sourceforge.net/
http://www.antigrain.com/

I hope that helps!

Screenshots might be a good idea for all the tutorials, I’ll keep that in the back of my mind. I am trying to finish the next major tutorial though first.