Hello:
I'm going to practice making a little game (a simple space shooter) and with this training to do bigger things.
I do not need and i don't want the part of VCL-like facilities (no visual programming of these)
I was reading a lot and testing SDL2. This is my very first impresion:
PROS
- Good support and will be supported
- helpers: Loadimage, fonts.. Not many, but functional.
- full multimedia support: audio, and input/output
- seems portable with little efford.
- does the work.
- 2d hardware acceleration
CONS:
- portability is not straightforward (not like a TCanvas, for example).
- use of C external code (well, this is a personal choice) with need of use headers and wrappers
- very bad primitives (only lines, points and rectangles). It's bitblitzing oriented.
- no 3d, but i do not need it just now.
Then i'm reading now (but not using) BGRAbitmap library, and i need help about their pros and cons from SDL2
In a first read it seems that
PROS:
- Good primitive support (curves, beziers, etc..).
- Pascal native and object oriented and free code
- Good pixel access
- Seems less efford to port between platforms.
CONS:
- Only a graphical library, but i'm testing only this part, i could think i could use other audio libraries and input/output libraries to complete this
DON'T Know:
- Seems visual programming oriented (use Tform or thing like that to make the window, but i see it accepts a GL context, i want to use it without using forms and LCL, like a console-like program )
- How accelerate or performs in 2D vs SDL2 and how BGRA performs in GL context (SDL2, in fact, uses Open GL internally)
- Fonts and their treatment..
- What are the future plans and actual support (it seems supported).
- Android support.
- Other pixel formats (for example, in future it we have a 64 bit pixel and not a 32 one)
Well, in first impression, i saw BGRA a good candidate and i like the work there, but i never used it and i see it's used mostly like a fast replacement of actual lazarus components but i think it can be used for fast paced shooter as well and without SDL2 oddities
Could you help me with your experience on SDL2 and/or BGRA?