libSDL2pp

This library provides C++11 bindings/wrapper for SDL2 and satellite libraries.

Synopsis

try {
  using namespace SDL2pp;

  // Init SDL; will be automatically deinitialized when the object is destroyed
  SDL sdl(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);

  // Likewise, init SDL_ttf library
  SDLTTF sdl_ttf;

  // Straightforward wrappers around corresponding SDL2 objects
  // These take full care of proper object destruction and error checking
  Window window("libSDL2pp demo",
                SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED, SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED,
                640, 480, SDL_WINDOW_RESIZABLE);
  Renderer renderer(window, -1, SDL_RENDERER_ACCELERATED);
  Texture sprite1(renderer, SDL_PIXELFORMAT_ARGB8888,
                            SDL_TEXTUREACCESS_STATIC, 16, 16);
  Texture sprite2(renderer, "sprite.png"); // SDL_image support

  Font font("Vera.ttf", 20); // SDL_ttf font

  // Create texture from surface containing text rendered by SDL_ttf
  Texture text(renderer, font.RenderText_Solid("Hello, world!",
               SDL_Color{255, 255, 255, 255}));

  unsigned char pixels[16 * 16 * 4];

  // Note proper constructor for Rect
  sprite1.Update(Rect(0, 0, 16, 16), pixels, 16 * 4);

  // Most setter methods are chainable
  renderer.SetLogicalSize(640, 480).SetRenderColor(0, 16, 32).Clear();

  // Also note a safe way to specify null rects and points
  renderer.Copy(sprite1, NullOpt, NullOpt);

  // There are multiple convenient ways to construct e.g. a Rect;
  // Objects provide extensive set of getters
  renderer.Copy(text, NullOpt, Rect(Point(0, 0), text.GetSize()));

  // Copy() is overloaded, providing access to both SDL_RenderCopy and SDL_RenderCopyEx
  renderer.Copy(sprite2, NullOpt, NullOpt, 45.0);

  renderer.Present();

  // You can still access wrapped C SDL types
  SDL_Renderer* sdl_renderer = renderer.Get();

  // Of course, C SDL2 API is still perfectly valid
  SDL_Delay(2000);

  // All SDL objects are released at this point or if an error occurs
} catch (SDL2pp::Exception& e) {
  // Exception stores SDL_GetError() result and name of function which failed
  std::cerr << "Error in: " << e.GetSDLFunction() << std::endl;
  std::cerr << "  Reason: " << e.GetSDLError() << std::endl;
} catch (std::exception& e) {
  // This also works (e.g. "SDL_Init failed: No available video device")
  std::cerr << e.what() << std::endl;
}

There's also more elaborate tutorial.

Features

Currently, the library provides wrapper classes for

• SDL
  • Library initialization/deinitialization
  • Audio
    • Audio device
    • WAV-related functions
    • SDL_AudioSpec
  • Graphics
    • SDL_Point
    • SDL_Rect
    • SDL_Renderer
    • SDL_Surface
    • SDL_Texture
    • SDL_Window
  • I/O
    • SDL_RWops
• SDL_image
  • Library initialization/deinitialization
  • Loading functions integrated into Texture and Surface
• SDL_ttf
  • Library initialization/deinitialization
  • TTF_Font (all functions covered)

each with subset of methods corresponding to SDL functions working with sepcific type of object and in some cases additional convenience methods. These classes support:

• RAII-style initialization and destruction
• Total error checking: exception is thrown if any SDL function fails. Exception itself allows to retrieve SDL error string
• C++11 move semantics support, which allow you to store SDL objects in containers and pass/return them by value with no overhead

Set of functional exensions above SDL2 is also available:

• RWops adapters for C++ containers and streams
• Optional object to safely handle values which may not be present, (for which SDL2 usually uses NULL pointers)

Building

To build libSDL2pp, you need a compiler with C++11 support, for example clang 3.4+ or gcc 4.8+.

Dependencies:

• cmake
• SDL2
• SDL_image2 (optional)
• SDL_ttf2 (optional)

To build standalone version:

cmake . && make

Following variabled may be supplied to CMake to affect build:

• SDL2PP_WITH_IMAGE - enable SDL_image support (default ON)
• SDL2PP_WITH_TTF - enable SDL_ttf support (default ON)
• SDL2PP_WITH_WERROR - treat warnings as errors, useful for CI (default OFF)
• SDL2PP_CXXSTD - override C++ standard (default C++11). With C++1y some additional features are enabled such as usage of [[deprecated]] attribute and using stock experimental/optional from C++ standard library
• SDL2PP_WITH_EXAMPLES - enable building example programs (only for standalone build, default ON)
• SDL2PP_WITH_TESTS - enable building tests (only for standalone build, default ON)
• SDL2PP_ENABLE_GUI_TEST - enable tests which require X11 to run (only for standalone build, default ON)
• SDL2PP_WITH_2_0_4 - enable experimental features available since SDL 2.0.4 (default OFF). These were not tested and may not even compile.

Installation

To install the library systemwide, run:

cmake . && make && make install

You can change installation prefix with CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX cmake variable:

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local . && make && make install

SDL2pp installs pkg-config file, so it can be used with any build system which interacts with pkg-config, including CMake and GNU Autotools. It also installs CMake module file, which can be used from CMake directly:

FIND_PACKAGE(SDL2PP REQUIRED)

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(${SDL2PP_INCLUDE_DIRS})
...
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(... ${SDL2PP_LIBRARIES})

SDL2pp is also already available from the following package repositories:

• Arch Linux AUR
• DragonflyBSD DPorts
• FreeBSD ports
• Yet Another Cygwin Ports

Bundling

The library is easy to integrate into other CMake-using projects (and as the library has no stable API yet, this way of using it is still recommended).

Just place the library into dedicated directory in your project (for example, extlib/libSDL2pp) and add

SET(SDL2PP_WITH_IMAGE ON) # if you need SDL_image support
SET(SDL2PP_WITH_TTF ON) # if you need SDL_ttf support
ADD_SUBDIRECTORY(extlib/libSDL2pp)

into your core CMakeLists.txt. This will act as similar to what FIND_PACKAGE usually does, and will provide ${SDL2PP_INCLUDE_DIRS} and ${SDL2PP_LIBRARIES} variables for your project. You will then be able to use them as usual:

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(${SDL2PP_INCLUDE_DIRS})

ADD_EXECUTABLE(mytarget ...)
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(mytarget ${SDL2PP_LIBRARIES})

if bundled, libSDL2pp does not build examples and becomes a static library, providing required SDL2 includes/libs in the mentioned variables.

Completeness

Library still doesn't cover all aspects of SDL2, and the development is generally guided by the author's needs and interest without a goal for covering all SDL2 functions as soon as possible. However, if you need specific bits which are not yet implemented in the library, feel free to drop an issue. Patches are of course more than welcome.

It should be noted, however, that I currently do not plan to implement any wrappers over non object-oriented SDL2 code, as these will not bring any benefits over using plain C API. E.g. I see no point in implementing SDL2pp::Delay() as it won't bring any convenience over SDL_Delay().

The same strongly applies to the SDL2 bits which duplicate C++11 standard library, e.g. threads and atomic ops.

Users

Projects using libSDL2pp:

• fontbm - Command line font generator, compatible with BMFont
• neopedersia - Nexus Wars style game
• OpenDaed - Libre reimplementation of The Daedalus Encounter game
• OpenStrike - Libre reimplementation of Jungle and Desert Strike games
• planetonomy - Old-school platformer/exploration game with CGA graphics

Author

• Dmitry Marakasov amdmi3@amdmi3.ru

Contributors

• Carl Schwope
• kumar8600
• Vladimir Gamalian

License

libSDL2pp comes under zlib license, the same license as SDL2. See COPYING.txt.