Author Topic: Future and desired potential (Read 6232 times)

Mossa TheGreat · « **on:** December 20, 2008, 09:18:16 pm »

Hello everyone!

This is my first thread, so let this be memoriable.

I have looked at the tutorials of SFML and I truly see some nice structure about it.

However, I do have a couple of questions that is targeted towards the community and the developers of SFML:

I hope we could have a nice discussion about this. I am wondering what the developers are intending to do with this SFML project.

Sincerely,

Mossa

Wizzard · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2008, 11:14:54 pm »

Welcome! I will give your questions a shot.

Quote from: "Mossa TheGreat"

What is the main purpose of SFML? Games? Visual Applications? Commercial or just indie?

SFML is targeted at commercial or indie applications in which need multi-threading, control of what is being put on to the screen, spatialized audio to play or stream or to capture audio data, or networking.

Quote from: "Mossa TheGreat"

What is the future of SFML? A simple framework or a major package with different subpackages?

It's hard for me to say, but I think SFML will always be a simple framework, but it may gain a lot of community sub-packages in order to make it "major".

Mossa TheGreat · « **Reply #2 on:** December 21, 2008, 12:28:22 am »

Do we have an IRC channel where every can meet and talk about their issues et cetera in realtime?

If no, can I please vote for one on FreeNode? Other libraries have their channels over there.

PS: I am interested in developing packages and frameworks with it - because of it being very nice and simple.

Best regards,

Mossa

heishe · « **Reply #3 on:** December 21, 2008, 12:29:09 am »

i don't see why sfml isn't one of the "majors" already. everyone suggests sfml to everyone who's trying to get into graphics programming. when somebody comes and asks for sdl tutorials, they all say "just use sfml, it's better", and they're damn right!

Mossa TheGreat · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2008, 12:32:43 am »

Quote from: "heishe"

i don't see why sfml isn't one of the "majors" already. everyone suggests sfml to everyone who's trying to get into graphics programming. when somebody comes and asks for sdl tutorials, they all say "just use sfml, it's better", and they're damn right!

Honeslty, I think SDL is superior, but SFML is far more elegant and simpler in terms of... Well, I could figure out how to use it by looking at the source alone since it is all C++.

I am honeslty thinking of devoting myself entirely to it, since Open Source development is really a good way to promote yourself and improve with the entire community giving feedback on one's work.

- Mossa

bullno1 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 21, 2008, 02:50:36 am »

I think SDL and SFML has different goals.
SDL is "simple" in design. It is a thin wrapper layer over OS-specific functions.
SFML is "simple" in use. It uses C++ with clean OOP design and it's not just a wrapper, there are even methods to load different image formats, load HLSL shaders or music playback.

christoph · « **Reply #6 on:** December 21, 2008, 09:18:25 pm »

Quote from: "Mossa TheGreat"

but SFML is far more elegant and simpler in terms of... Well, I could figure out how to use it by looking at the source alone since it is all C++.

This is one of the things I *really* like about SFML. I hope it will be kept

Another nice feature is the liberal license I guess (SDL uses LGPL AFAIR)

Imbue · « **Reply #7 on:** December 22, 2008, 01:50:04 am »

Quote from: "christoph"

Another nice feature is the liberal license I guess (SDL uses LGPL AFAIR)

SFML uses the zlib/png license, which is even more permissive.

Mossa TheGreat · « **Reply #8 on:** December 22, 2008, 12:12:14 pm »

Quote from: "Imbue"

Quote from: "christoph"
Another nice feature is the liberal license I guess (SDL uses LGPL AFAIR)
SFML uses the zlib/png license, which is even more permissive.

I mean Laurent doesn't even ask for changes to his project being reported to update the SFML itself! Ogre3D asks for that I think?

Sincerely,

Mossa Nova

christoph · « **Reply #9 on:** December 22, 2008, 01:32:42 pm »

Quote from: "Imbue"

Quote from: "christoph"
Another nice feature is the liberal license I guess (SDL uses LGPL AFAIR)
SFML uses the zlib/png license, which is even more permissive.

This is what I wantedto say

heishe · « **Reply #10 on:** December 22, 2008, 03:41:40 pm »

whats better about sdl? sfml has more features and is way faster than sdl (because of the lacking hardware acceleration support by sdl). you even have direct contact to the developer over here.

also, i myself find that sfml is way simpler to use than sdl. object oriented design just fits the human brain more.

Core Xii · « **Reply #11 on:** December 22, 2008, 06:50:35 pm »

The only reason I'm still using SDL is its convenient condition variables (for multithreading).