Should you learn SDL, SFML, or GLFW? (or GLUT) #indiegamedevontop

[Carlos-khqu]

I really like the portability of SDL, if you look away for 10 seconds they might do a HolyC port for a random console from 2004

[fcmedic]

I'm now immortalized in a video, I've never felt more honored. Great video, very straight to the point and informative. I joined the discord as well.

[mkac]

I think that SDL2 is the best. It has a built-in renderer, that can target OpenGL, Software rendering, Vulkan is worked on and it has sister libraries like SDL_image, SDL_net, ... It has great compatability, you can use emscripten to compile to wasm, and it has a well documented, feature-rich API.

Overall, I recommend

[immanuelcharles]

For audio I really like using this library call irrklang a powerful but simple library with GLFW it’s really simple and requires like 10 lines of code to load in and play sounds. I haven’t really messed with 3D sounds though

[EpicVideoGamer]

Thanks dude, I think I'll go with SFML after I get better at C++

[TiaguinhouGFX]

You can say that C++ is better in your opinion, but objectively C is better.

[nobyra]

0:44 sounded like "dont use API" scared me
Like damn time to learn it all from scratch

[yolamontalvan]

Thank you for your SDL information. Keep up the good work, your videos are easy to understand.

[dreamhollow]

I've been using SFML for a while. It's not so much that it's hard to troubleshoot, it's more like you have to develop your own tools for debugging WHILE troubleshooting.
It saves you a massive amount of time in figuring out where your biggest problems are.

[therealvbw]

Man I wish more videos were as short and sweet as this

[santiagolerin]

Really good video, good enough graphic and audio quality and straight to the point

[graphicsrush]

Thanks to @FcMedic42 for this video idea! If y'all want to see something specific on this channel feel free to tell me in the comments below!

EDIT: X11 technically isn't an API at all...

[legacywolf]

SDL has extensions for things like network and is compatible with pretty much anything it could technically be possible to run it on.

[wiskasIO]

Saying that SFML is underrated it's an underrated statement on itself... SFML is the shoot!!💪🏼++

[ade]

i wish i viewed this video earlier, really would've helped with decision paralysis :)

[RobotronSage]

Great stuff
Was looking for something like this
Maybe you could do another video going more in detail on the differences
I.E which API is more intuitive to use
And perhaps organise the differences better, the question marks kindof confused me
Like after watching this i still have a lot of questions

I've used a bit of SDL and SFML and i think even some GLFW already so that's why i am confused as to which library to use primarily. I think i'm leaning on towards SDL as iirc (i had a concussion last year) it was easier to setup in my opinion.

I am trying to configure some IMGUI stuff but i don't know which OpenGL library to choose :'D

[CmRde]

Well if there was an API as simple as SFML and capable of 3D, it would be priceless. SFML is very, VERY simple, well-sharpen for many platforms and the same code works properly on Windows and Linux (its latest stable version also has good backwards compatibility down to Windows XP, which I think is nice). You can use lots of other languages with SFML beside C++ (but that bindings are not official and some of them might be outdated). But it has one big con, it doesn't support 3D and never will and you should use low-level OpenGL calls to work with it. It's not very important for me cuz I don't use 3D, but if I want to try it, I should learn GLFW instead (because pure OpenGL is platform-specific). Maybe I could bind SFML and GLFW and use it both for 3D, but I dunno.

[NoName-mdfd]

If you are fiddling with game programming, SFML and raylib just work. If you want to have the game on steam, pick SDL as valve supports it. If you used either SFML or raylib then SDL won't be as much of a chore to learn.

[teasauce]

GLFW grants total freedom - but in cost of your soul, however :)

[ivanenzhaev]

Thanks for video. It is good. But you did not say about a very important thing for many people - Android and iOS. You can check what is better for mobile development by searching tutorials on YouTube: sdl android, sfml android, sdl ios, sfml ios. Spoiler ->








SDL2 is better for mobile development for Android and iOS