Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) is one of the most important pieces of open source for Linux gamers, as it's the tech used by various game engines and games. It's also about to continue changing the game for the Linux desktop in the upcoming version.
What does it actually do? It's a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware.
It has been announced that the SDL 2.0.22 will default to Wayland, preferring it over X11. This is another big step towards Wayland properly being a replacement for the old and crusty X11 everywhere. With this we might end up seeing more games and applications be native to Wayland, rather than having to run through XWayland.
Developer Ryan C. Gordon (also known as Icculus) mentioned on Twitter: "If you or your distro has not supplied a libdecor, you absolutely want to get that in place by around March 2022". A lot of the heavy lifting involved was done by Ethan Lee (also known as flibitijibibo), who mentioned on Twitter that almost all of the work involved was funded by sponsors of their GitHub.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
QuoteA lot of the heavy lifting involved (in libdeco) was done by Ethan Lee (...) almost all of the work involved was funded by sponsors of their GitHub.Gnome/RedHat aren't exactly supportive of native Linux gamedev, are they.
Quoting: orzoQuoteA lot of the heavy lifting involved (in libdeco) was done by Ethan Lee (...) almost all of the work involved was funded by sponsors of their GitHub.Gnome/RedHat aren't exactly supportive of native Linux gamedev, are they.
nit: two words, Red Hat
I'm not sure what you mean by not supportive. Red Hat employs a number of big contributors to graphics libraries and drivers like Mesa and nouveau.
Quoting: orzoQuoteA lot of the heavy lifting involved (in libdeco) was done by Ethan Lee (...) almost all of the work involved was funded by sponsors of their GitHub.Gnome/RedHat aren't exactly supportive of native Linux gamedev, are they.
I don't think that Red Hat could care less for gaming, they make their money on servers and workstations, not on desktops for gaming.
Quoting: rcritQuoting: orzoQuoteA lot of the heavy lifting involved (in libdeco) was done by Ethan Lee (...) almost all of the work involved was funded by sponsors of their GitHub.Gnome/RedHat aren't exactly supportive of native Linux gamedev, are they.
nit: two words, Red Hat
I'm not sure what you mean by not supportive. Red Hat employs a number of big contributors to graphics libraries and drivers like Mesa and nouveau.
That's 100% correct, Red Hat is steadily driving desktop Linux forward, but do not confuse "desktop support" for "support for gamedevs". Everybody needs drivers in top state - from browsers to edu to med to heavy industry. Not just gamers. In this case gamedev community had to spent extra effort, time and money (that could be invested elsewhere) to make native wl games run in windowed (eg debug) mode. *Someone* from linux gamedev scene (most likely Ethan Lee) will have to maintain libdeco for years to come. Constantly test it for Plasma, Gnome etc etc... It's a valid question to ask - "why was there no other way"?
Quoting: slapinThat won't affect SDL1 games.
Wasn't there talk of a SDL1 -> SDL2 wrapper library? So older SDL games could also benefit from the newer library?
Quoting: PhlebiacQuoting: slapinThat won't affect SDL1 games.
Wasn't there talk of a SDL1 -> SDL2 wrapper library? So older SDL games could also benefit from the newer library?
Such a wrapper does exist:
https://github.com/MrAlert/sdlcl
Quoting: F.UltraYou probably want this https://github.com/libsdl-org/sdl12-compatQuoting: PhlebiacQuoting: slapinThat won't affect SDL1 games.
Wasn't there talk of a SDL1 -> SDL2 wrapper library? So older SDL games could also benefit from the newer library?
Such a wrapper does exist:
https://github.com/MrAlert/sdlcl
Whitewolfe80 27 Jan
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: AussieEeveeSo if you're using xorg.... you don't get this? I honestly am not sure I understand what this article is saying.It will continue to work fine with X11 it's not dropping support, but developers using it will see Wayland as the default now.
and thats good beacuse last time i checked xorg still curb stomped wayland in terms of gaming performance
Quoting: Whitewolfe80last time i checked xorg still curb stomped wayland in terms of gaming performance
Recent benchmarks suggest otherwise:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=kde-gnome-wayland21&num=1
TheRiddick 28 Jan
Wayland still has loads of little problems that all add up.. X11 does too but actually has solutions to them for the most case!
Last edited by TheRiddick on 28 January 2022 at 5:18 am UTC
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