Visual Studio 2015 cross-platform template

[sfUser]

Hi there.

First of all, let me just thank the SFML community for the great project (been using it for a while).

As you probably already know, visual studio 2015 (and 2013?) allow us to create projects for various platforms.

I think it would be nice for you to have a template for visual studio to use SFML on Windows/Android/iOS similar to this one from Microsoft: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2015/07/29/visual-studio-template-for-cross-platform-opengl-development.aspx

I know WPhone/WinRT is not yet supported, but the initial template could have classic win32/Android/iOS templates instead. As a bonus, you could add WinRT support using ANGLE and OSX/Linux project templates as well.

Just something to consider for a next release. You could add it to the samples folder with a simple OpenGL hello world demo.

Also, will you ever offer SFML through NuGet? I know there is an unofficial version, but it's not official nor updated. You could create the template using nuget to get SFML.

Also, the comments in the forum about ANGLE are a bit old. SFML already works with Android/iOS, which use OpenGL ES 2, so using ANGLE for WP/WinRT shouldn't be such a hurdle now, right?

Thanks and keep up the good work

[eXpl0it3r]

I think it would be nice for you to have a template for visual studio to use SFML on Windows/Android/iOS similar to this one from Microsoft: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2015/07/29/visual-studio-template-for-cross-platform-opengl-development.aspx

We use CMake to not having to include templates for all possible IDEs, compilers and OS in existence and I don't see why we would change that in the near future.

Also, will you ever offer SFML through NuGet? I know there is an unofficial version, but it's not official nor updated. You could create the template using nuget to get SFML.

As with package managers on Linux we don't want to maintain these. It can be a lot of additional work and doesn't really give us anything in return. We offer pre-build libraries on our website which is already more than many other libraries have. Of course if someone wants to take up the project of updating NuGet then go ahead.

Also, the comments in the forum about ANGLE are a bit old. SFML already works with Android/iOS, which use OpenGL ES 2, so using ANGLE for WP/WinRT shouldn't be such a hurdle now, right?

SFML currently only uses OpenGL ES 1 on Android and iOS. An update to OpenGL ES 2 is currently not really possible due to SFML still using legacy OpenGL (afaik).
And "shouldn't be such a hurdle" is most likely a huge understatement. Otherwise you could try it "shouldn't be such a hurdle now, right?".

[Mario]

I've looked into this last week but haven't found the time to do so (at least Windows + Android; don't have any iOS device).

But besides that, you can just use CMake for cross-platform building (the mobile platforms need some more work here though).

[sfUser]

OK, I understand the reasons for the ANGLE/NuGet parts.
I'm not complaining, SFML was one of the easiest C++ projects I ever set up (most open source c++ projects are a pain to build).
In fact, that's one of my criteria for choosing open source libraries

The template thing is nice because it allows you to test/debug on MSVC/Clang/GCC all within visual studio, which will give you hints if you are using things not supported on all platforms/compilers. Also, you can test/remote debug android/iOS the proper way

I still think it would be nice to include such template in the examples folder for a future release. I also don't have the iOS part, If i have the time, I will try to set up a simple project and put it here for reference.