Need Advice on what to use...

[{MSX}]

How different is it from OpenGL? (I do know that the SDL is cross-platform and it uses GL/DX) I'm getting used to the style of OpenGL and must say that I like it.

If you do 3D with SDL you *use* OpenGL. No wrappers. You can use SDL to set up the window, handle events etc, and use OpenGl directly to render and such.
Look at the demo included, or at my project

[WILL]

Best thing about SDL is the fact that it has everything! The timer, input handler(mouse, keyboard, joysticks), and even sound and a basic MOD mixer too.

www.sdllib.org for more information about the SDL libraries themselves.

And http://www.delphi-jedi.org/Jedi:TEAM_SDL_HOME for the JEDI-SDL library/headers that all us Pascal programmers use.

[Robert Kosek]

Right now, since I'm using DOT, my windows is set up easily. Since there is little difference I may as well stick with OpenGL for a bit. Thankfully DOT manages my "frame-independent" stuff, so though I get 400fps-it isn't wild. For sound/music I'll probably go with Bass.

[{MSX}]

Right now, since I'm using DOT, my windows is set up easily. Since there is little difference I may as well stick with OpenGL for a bit. Thankfully DOT manages my "frame-independent" stuff, so though I get 400fps-it isn't wild. For sound/music I'll probably go with Bass.

But is DOT cross platform? with SDL you can just set up the window in Windows, Linux and Mac
Also, bass is not portable and is not open source. What about OpenAL ? noeska worked out a nice wrapper for them.

[WILL]

OpenAL is just like OpenGL, only sound, of course.

It was designed to compliment and mirror OpenGL as a twin set of APIs.

BASS is anything but cross-platform. It is Windows only. FMOD I is cross-platform, including the major consoles too.

In fact I am making use of both SDL and OpenAL in one of my own projects and it works just fine. And setup of JEDI-SDL is do easy monkies can do it.

[Robert Kosek]

I am more experienced with BASS, and at the moment I'm using Windoze. DOT is cross-platform compliant because it's a header/sdk for OpenGL. DOT Documents.

Though once I know enough of OpenGL I'll be switching to FPC + SDL + OpenAL. Happy? Who knows, I may even switch to Linux!

[WILL]

Well it isn't so much our happiness as it would be the amount of work that you would be doing to convert from one API to the other. Just be warned that whatever to start in one API, restructuring it for another can really mess with your projects functionality. This from experiance in my own projects.

[Robert Kosek]

Since I'm a fast learner and am good at adaptability ... it should be with a little hitch only. I may or may not switch to SDL but one thing is for sure ... FPC is my next move.

The "happy?" comment was for all the restatements of what I'm doing.... Sorry if I was offensive.

[cairnswm]

The beauty of SDL is that you dont need to knoe the underlying technology layer. Its all hidden from you.

(I tried to find a reference on the net to what I say next but couldn't find the original ref)
SDL uses DirectX 5 for 2D rendering (if it cant find it it then uses GDI or equivilent).

This seems to indicate its a bit old. However because it uses alternatives it means you dont need to worry about the correct drivers being in place which is what I have experienced on both DelphiX and GLXtreem.

SDL is really easy to use. Once I decided to look at it it took me less that 3 hours to have my first example program up and running. Less that 8 hours to have my first Library (S2DL) developed. Using that library I developed a puzzle game in 3 hours. (Including sound)

[savage]

So is "Farmer Joe's Matching Yard" an SDL app then?

I would have to agree that SDL is a lot easier to use that most API's out there. In a future release, they will be adding an OpenGL back-end to it so even 2D applications will make use of hardware acceleration, without the need for recompiling. I am hoping it will be in v1.2.8, but realistically it probably won't make it until v2.0.0 is released.