Linux (e.g. SteamOS), Windows, macOS 10.4+, iOS 3.1.3+, tvOS,[2]Android 2.3.3+, FreeBSD 8.4+, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 2, Haiku, RISC OS 3.5+[3] Additionally before v2.0.0: e.g. AmigaOS and MorphOS, and consoles (PlayStation, XBox, Wii, etc), Nintendo DS
Type
API
License
zlib License Before 2.0.0: GNU LGPL[4]
Website
www.libsdl.org
Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) is a cross-platform software development library designed to provide a hardware abstraction layer for computer multimedia hardware components. Software developers can use it to write high-performance computer games and other multimedia applications that can run on many operating systems such as Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows.[5]
SDL manages video, audio, input devices, CD-ROM, threads, shared object loading, networking and timers.[6] For 3D graphics, it can handle an OpenGL, Vulkan,[7] Metal, or Direct3D11 (older Direct3D version 9 is also supported) context. A common misconception is that SDL is a game engine. However, the library is suited to building games directly, or is usable indirectly by engines built on top of it.
The library is internally written in C and possibly, depending on the target platform, C++ or Objective-C, and provides the application programming interface in C, with bindings to other languages available.[8] It is free and open-source software subject to the requirements of the zlib License since version 2.0, and with prior versions subject to the GNU Lesser General Public License.[4] Under the zlib License, SDL 2.0 is freely available for static linking in closed-source projects, unlike SDL 1.2.[9] SDL 2.0, released in 2013, was a major departure from previous versions, offering more opportunity for 3D hardware acceleration, but breaking backwards-compatibility.
SDL is extensively used in the industry in both large and small projects. Over 700 games, 180 applications, and 120 demos have been posted on the library website.[10]
^"2.30.2". 1 April 2024. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
^"Oh look, we'll have official tvOS support in SDL 2.0.5, for people that want their SDL-based games on Apple TV!". 15 September 2016.
^"SDL/docs/README-riscos.md at 9d83c0a65d969a902c91f4f94fd5a904c0828a33 · libsdl-org/SDL". GitHub. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
^ ab"SDL license". Retrieved 3 March 2014.
^"a list of the platforms SDL supports". Libsdl.org. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
^"SDL official website". Libsdl.org. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
^"CategoryVulkan - SDL Wiki'". wiki.libsdl.org. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
^"SDL Language Bindings". libsdl.org. Simple DirectMedia Layer. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
^"Licensing the Simple DirectMedia Layer library". Retrieved 30 January 2012.
^"Simple DirectMedia Layer". 29 June 2010. Archived from the original on 29 June 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
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