Game Engine Recommendation

[Frozen In Ice]

I've tried searching the forums, but didn't see anything that answered the question nagging my ole brain.

I'm looking for recommendations for a 2D game engine that is compatible with Dev-C++.

(All the posts I reviewed point to VC , which I don't use. I'm quite happy with my present compiler.)

Thanks all!

[Savant]

I'm confused as to how your choice of compiler affects which library you can use.

[Tertsi]

Unless the engine comes with source code: The static library generated by a compiler is at least in Visual Studio's case not cross-compiler compatible.

[Gilzu]

http://www.libsdl.org/

[Gilzu]

I'm confused as to how your choice of compiler affects which library you can use.

I thought so myself, then made a short seach just to be sure and found out that both PopCap and PTK don't support MinGW compiler (as it needs a .a library to link with).

[Frozen In Ice]

Popcap,Ptk and Torque are not Dev-C compatible. When Popcap released it's framework, many of us asked in their forum and were informed no, it was only compatible to Visual C. I just came from PTK and when I downloaded it stated Visual C. Torque as far as I know is also only for Visual C. I have SDL and Allegro here. Judging by what I'm seeing so far, my choices are going to be limited. I used Allegro a couple of years ago and that maybe the route I'll end up taking unless anyone else knows of other possibilities.

[Emmanuel]

ptk now comes with sourcecode when you purchase it. You can recompile it with mingw if you really don't want to at least check out Visual Studio Express (entirely free).

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Tertsi]

Emmanuel, then why doesn't it say so in the order page of PTK? Since when have they been giving the source code with the engine? (I understand that you might not have an answer to either of these questions but since you've been working so closely with Pat, you might just have.)

[Emmanuel]

As far as I know, developers that purchase ptk get full sourcecode now. I don't know why the page hasn't been updated. For $215 that's pretty unbeatable value.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Jack Norton]

Yes I can confirm it (at least I got the sources too), pat has too much to do and didn't update the page, I'll tell him

[James C. Smith]

Isn’t there a big different between PopCap (or PTK or whatever) not supporting other compilers, and it being imposable to port to or use with other compilers?

In other words, if I was going to open source my game engine code I would be 99% sure it would compiler with little trouble on any C++ compiler out there. But if you asked me which compilers it “supported” I would tell you just MSVC because that is the only one that we would have samples and projects for and that is the one I would know how to answer questions about.

[Pyabo]

James makes a very good point. The PopCap framework comes with full source. If you can't get it to work in MinGW, how hard is it going to be to write a game?

[Frozen In Ice]

James makes a very good point. The PopCap framework comes with full source. If you can't get it to work in MinGW, how hard is it going to be to write a game?

Ask Popcap. When they released their framework, they were asked in their forums about making it compatible to the gcc compiler. Their response was it was too much work, rewritting etc, as well as the asm code.

[James C. Smith]

I guess it depends if you are looking for a jump start so you don’t have to write everything from scratch yourself vs. an off the shelf solution where you don’t have do to any low level work yourself.

[Greg Squire]

FYI, TGB doesn't require a compiler at all if you stick to writing script (which is the way they are intending the engine to be used). All script (torque script) gets compiled by the engine for you. Garage Games will be releasing a binary only version soon, which will limit you to only writing script, so that's evidence that they feel it's possible to create a game in that manner. However, if you do have to modify the engine code, then I believe you are limited to using VC++.

[Pyabo]

Ask Popcap. When they released their framework, they were asked in their forums about making it compatible to the gcc compiler. Their response was it was too much work, rewritting etc, as well as the asm code.

I think you missed James's point. It's "too much work" for them because they don't NEED to do it, and there's no payoff for them. It probably wouldn't be difficult for someone who knew the [MinGW|gcc|dev-c++] compiler well. We are talking about C++ code after all. It follows a fairly rigid standard, and 99% of the code is going to work with most C++ compilers. (but please, let's not get into an argument about what compilers actually follow the ARM, STL, etc)

[Frozen In Ice]

I see his point now. I suppose I'm a little stubborn as well. I've been using Open Watcom and gcc+ (Dev-C) for quite some time and became quite comfortable. However, it seems many libraries are being developed with mainly Visual C support, so I bit the bullet I guess you say. I finally installed Visual C++ (Express) and trying to get used to it's interface. Right now, I'm reviewing the Popcap framework. Can't get any more gray hairs than I have already

[kolka]

Haaf's Game Engine — does work with Dev-C++
download it here
It is very good engine! It has even particle system editor!
And it is completly free.


The home page of the engine.