Hello, I was wondering if you guys and gals could help me out. I am about to begin my journey down the linux game programmiong path and I''m looking for some advice as to what software I should be using. I have kdevelop 3 alpha3 installed now. I''ve noticed that there are a lot of game libraries out there for linux and I''m not sure which is best to use. The type of programming I want to do is 2D stuff for now. Thanks for any help, and advice... Mike

For software, i have tried not to use an IDE while in Linux. I dont really understand all the stuff they put in the makefiles and stuff always seems to get messed up. I just write my own simple makefile and I use gedit as my editor.
For libraries, i have always used SDL, but according to the guys at the arianne project, they got better speed with freeglut, or something. i think it was freeglut. anyway, i guess i dont have the best answer for this. It sounds like you might be looking for a ready to go 2d engine. i dont know any of those.
i hope that i have been at least somewhat helpful, though i am doubting it.

Hmmm... Somewhat helpful

I was thinking SDL as well, just because I see a lot of people talking about it. I kinda want to write my own 2D engine from scratch. I did this already in windows with DirectX. Too bad Linux doesn''t have DirectX hehe.

Hmm, I have another question. You may wonder why I''d want to do this, but is it possible to write directx programs, and compile them as win32 binaries within linux? Then run them using wine?
I suppose you would need a win32 compilier for that one. gcc doesn''t do that, does it?

Thanks,

Mike

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gedit? But that doesn''t even have syntax hilighting, does it?

You may be able to use Wine to get a Windows compiler running, which of course would compile for Windows. There''s a Windows version of gcc, which you may be able to get running under Wine. It shouldn''t be too hard, since its just a command line program. I''ve never tried this myself, though, so I''m not sure.

GCC does (can) do that. You can build native binaries of GCC that target Win32 machines (build on *nix run on Windows). That''s how I build the occasional Win32 release of my current project (add in the GNU build tools and it''s really easy to change what your project builds for: --host=arch-system). There''s no need to ever bring WINE into it.

If you''re looking for a library, just go with SDL. SDL isn''t an engine, it''s lower level, so there''s nothing stopping you from writing your own engine. If you really don''t like SDL, try ClanLib, Allegro, or PLib.

No, GEdit doesn''t support syntax highlighting.

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Original post by Erluk
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Nice, thanks for the link. Missed that.

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For libraries, i have always used SDL, but according to the guys at the arianne project, they got better speed with freeglut, or something.

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That comparison doesn''t make sense. SDL is a low-level game library with support for 2D graphics, input, etc.. Freeglut is apparently a free implementation of GLUT. If they''re using GLUT, they''re using OpenGL, and it''s pretty obvious that OpenGL is faster than plain SDL if hardware acceleration is available (unfortunately, SDL isn''t too good at obtaining hardware accelerated surfaces on Linux, although X may be the problem there; I never bothered to check). On the other hand, you can easily use SDL to set up an OpenGL context.

IMHO you should go with SDL, it does its job very well.

On a sidenote, you can use KDevelop 3 with your own custom makefiles. Use Project -> Import existing project and select Custom Makefiles or something. Some features don''t work that well, but you get syntax highlighting, a simple class browser which works most of the time, and when you build your project you can still jump to errors with a single click.

cu,
Prefect

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Original post by mrhodes
Hello,
I was wondering if you guys and gals could help me out. I am about to begin my journey down the linux game programmiong path and I''m looking for some advice as to what software I should be using. I have kdevelop 3 alpha3 installed now. I''ve noticed that there are a lot of game libraries out there for linux and I''m not sure which is best to use. The type of programming I want to do is 2D stuff for now.

Thanks for any help, and advice...

Mike

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Don''t use an IDE, use a standard editor, and as for the library, use SDL. IMHO, those are the best choices...

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[Cyberdrek | the last true sorcerer | Spirit Mage - mutedfaith.com][ Administrator TheLinuxForum.tk]

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Original post by mrhodes
Hmmm... Somewhat helpful

I was thinking SDL as well, just because I see a lot of people talking about it. I kinda want to write my own 2D engine from scratch. I did this already in windows with DirectX. Too bad Linux doesn''t have DirectX hehe.

Hmm, I have another question. You may wonder why I''d want to do this, but is it possible to write directx programs, and compile them as win32 binaries within linux? Then run them using wine?
I suppose you would need a win32 compilier for that one. gcc doesn''t do that, does it?

Thanks,

Mike

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Yes, gcc is cross-platform. I can''t say if you can actually compile DX apps on linux as the Libs don''t exist but GCC is cross-platform.

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[Cyberdrek | the last true sorcerer | Spirit Mage - mutedfaith.com][ Administrator TheLinuxForum.tk]