SFML 2 Release?

[Jaskor88]

Hello

I´m new to these forums so hello all

I just wanted to ask when SFML 2 is going to be released, cause I would want to make small games with Visual Studio 2010 C++ and SFML 2 seems best library for me.

[Nexus]

This question is asked again and again, and Laurent always answers the same: When it is finished. At the moment, the graphics API is being redesigned, after that SFML 2 should be ready. There is no fixed date however.

Anyway, you can already use the SFML 2 development version from GitHub. Many people do, including me.

[Jaskor88]

I thought this was asked before sorry for that. I think i check up that GitHub stuff then.

Thanks.

[dydya-stepa]

talking about grapchics api - i'm seeing very dramatic fps decrease using fonts. Rendering ~500 characters drops fps to 47 in debug. (I'm not sure if release build will be much faster) I didn't have time to investigate yet. But this is something that makes me nervous as my target is to have lots of text in my game and 500 is not what i need. Besides I'm going to render up to 1000 particles at the same time.

I started my game with HGE and then switched to sfml as I found it better in many ways for me. I made all my benchmarks with HGE and it shown me about 120 fps with all my requirements. Now performance is not critical for me but going forward i'll do more investigation.

The worst case scenario - if i'd have to rewrite lots of sfml to suit me. So just wanna make sure if the performance is ok with sfml.

[Laurent]

I'm not sure if release build will be much faster

It will.

So just wanna make sure if the performance is ok with sfml.

With the new graphics API, performances will be much better with (static) texts and particles

[Delarock]

Is it possible to use debug mode, but do not debug graphics code (or what is it making so slow) ?

I use text/graphics a lot in my project, and that drops my FPS to 1-2 in debug mode, but 60+ in release. I of course would like to debug my actual "working" code and not SFML graphic library (which is working fine ).

[Laurent]

The new graphics API should be much faster in debug mode, there could even be almost no difference.

[dydya-stepa]

that sounds very promising

[Nexus]

Well, at some time in debug mode, it's other parts than the rendering calls who limit performance. For example the debug features (like STL checked iterators, runtime assertions etc.) which can take up a measurable part of the time. I have noticed this in a game where array-intensive actions like saving a whole level happen.

So, in the end, debug mode is probably still slower, even if the SFML rendering itself remains fast

[przemo_li]

I've seen some changes on SDL 1.3 page.

I hope SFML will be ready before next SDL release!

[Nexus]

SFML has outperformed SDL since ages, I don't think there is need for a release date competition

[Laurent]

SFML has outperformed SDL since ages, I don't think there is need for a release date competition

Don't underestimate SDL 1.3, this update will be really a good one.

[Nexus]

I don't know much about the new functionality of SDL 1.3. The issues that especially took my attention were the C API (rather unfriendly for direct use in C++), the split packages (you need mixer, ttf etc. for basics) and the slow rendering. And unless the SDL developers break their whole API/philosophy, it's difficult to improve these points in a new release.

I am not saying that SDL won't offer enough functionality, but I doubt it will be as simple to use as in SFML