Game Programming and Development Tools

Allegro vs. SDL – crazyishone

crazyishone

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Posts: 1685
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Registered: 08-25-2004
I have started using Allegro, but today I took a peak at SDL and started doing some tutorials. Frankly, it seems far more promising. What are your thoughts on this?

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Lazarus

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Posts: 1668
From: USA
Registered: 06-06-2006
I've used Allegro somewhat - and SDL a little - personally I think SDL is definitely the way to go.

TwoBrothersSoftware

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Posts: 141
From: Janesville, Wi USA`
Registered: 08-05-2006
quote:
Originally posted by crazyishone:
I have started using Allegro, but today I took a peak at SDL and started doing some tutorials. Frankly, it seems far more promising. What are your thoughts on this?


I used Allegro for a while found it buggy. It does have a slightly smaller learning curve - but SDL seems to work better.

Allegro never liked non full screen apps on my system

crazyishone

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Posts: 1685
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Registered: 08-25-2004
Ok, thanks for the help guys. I think I will go with SDL then. It really does seem to be more up-to-date and promising.

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D-SIPL

Moderator

Posts: 1345
From: Maesteg, Wales
Registered: 07-21-2001
Allegro all the way. I have found it more well rounded and inclusive. There are some great examples. I'm currently writing a CyberPunk style game in it. I also took both SDL and Allegro into account.

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crazyishone

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Posts: 1685
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Registered: 08-25-2004
Hmm, well suckage. Now I've got very trusted sources going both ways, so I suppose I'll have to learn the hard way and use one until something seems wrong for me. I appreciate your replies.

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jestermax

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Posts: 1064
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: 06-21-2006
well, if you have a lenovo/ibm thinkpad or a macbook then you can use SDL to hack the accelerometers that way you can use your laptop as a steering wheel, etc.

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SSquared

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Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
I took out "Game Programming All In One 3rd Edition" from the local library and it uses Allegro for coding examples. I have yet to really read/look at the book. I did look up Allegro and it appears like it may be adding some 3D-related functionality sometime in the future.

I've done some development with SDL so am a bit familiar with it, but am likewise interested in knowing differences between SDL and Allegro.

crazyishone

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Posts: 1685
From:
Registered: 08-25-2004
Hmm, I'm going to look around gamedev.net and see if there is any worthwhile information in some old thread.

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[This message has been edited by crazyishone (edited April 16, 2007).]

steveth45

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Posts: 536
From: Eugene, OR, USA
Registered: 08-10-2005
I'll put my two cents in for SDL. They are both written in C, so the functions all pollute the global namespace, but SDL is nice enough to prefix all the functions with "SDL_" which is not likely to collide with anything whereas Allegro doesn't have any standard prefix at all.

SDL is the first game engine I used, and I picked it over Allegro just because a quick comparison of example programs showed me how much cleaner the SDL API is. Also, many of the Allegro samples and instructions seemed really out of date, with instructions on how to compile your game for DOS. If you want to support 8-bit palletized video modes and ancient operating systems, Allegro is your best bet. If you want a cleaner API, go with SDL.

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SSquared

Member

Posts: 654
From: Pacific Northwest
Registered: 03-22-2005
Hmmm, good description. Thanks.