Caleb Cornett's comments:
"A few weeks ago, Alex added a partial Metal API to SDL2:
https://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/22c8e7cd8d38
I noticed it was missing a few features that would help Metal become a
first-class citizen in SDL, so I went ahead and wrote them! Here are the new
APIs:
1. SDL_WINDOW_METAL flag for SDL_CreateWindow(). This allows the programmer
to specify that they intend to create a window for use with SDL_MetalView.
The flag is used to ensure correct usage of the API and to prevent
accidentally defaulting to OpenGL on iOS.
2. SDL_Metal_GetLayer(). This function takes a SDL_MetalView and returns a
pointer to the view's backing CAMetalLayer. This simplifies things
considerably, since in the current version of the SDL_Metal API the
programmer is required to bridge-cast a SDL_MetalView handle to an NSView or
UIView (depending on the platform) and then extract the layer from there.
SDL_Metal_GetLayer automatically handles all of that, making the operation
simple and cross-platform.
3. SDL_Metal_GetDrawableSize(). This function already exists in the current
SDL_Metal API (and is used behind-the-scenes for SDL_Vulkan_GetDrawableSize
on Apple platforms) but was not publicly exposed. My patch exposes this
function for public use. It works just like you'd expect.
Tested on macOS 10.14 and iOS 12.4."
Fixes Bugzilla #4796.
meyraud705
Added Linux implementation, otherwise you get "Unsupported direction type" error.
Added documentation to explain why one would use SDL_HAPTIC_FIRST_AXIS.
Mathieu Laurendeau
Consider a device supporting effects on multiple axes.
There's currently no way to play effects against a single-axis direction.
A device supporting effects against X and Y may not allow to play effects with a two-axis direction coordinate, even if one of the coordinates is null.
My current (ugly) work around for this is to add a direction type SDL_HAPTIC_X_FORCE to play effects against a X-axis only direction (patch attached).
This issue impacted two GIMX users using the following wheels:
- Leo Bodnar SimSteering force feedback wheel
- Accuforce direct drive wheel
Playing constant/spring/damper effects against a X-axis direction worked well for the first wheel, but not for the second one.
A better strategy seems to play the effects against the first axis reported by the DirectInput enumeration.
This strategy also works with Logitech wheels (at least the DFGT).
It's been more than a year that I have the latest patch (playing effects against the first axis only) in the GIMX software. It's being used by thousands of people, mostly for adapting their FFB wheel to the PS4. I had no report that proves this strategy to be wrong.
Jimb Esser
Add new RawInput controller API, and improved correlation with XInput/WGI
Reorder joystick init so drivers can ask the others if they handle a device reliably
Do not poll disconnected XInput devices (major perf issue)
Fix various cases where incorrect correlation could happen
Simple mechanism for propagating unhandled Guide button presses even before guaranteed correlation
Correlate by axis motion as well as button presses
Fix failing to zero other trigger
Fix SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI not working if set before calling SDL_Init()
Add missing device to device names
Disable RawInput if we have a mismatch of XInput-capable but not RawInput-capable devices
Updated to SDL 2.0.13 code with the following notes:
New HID driver: xbox360w - no idea what that is, hopefully urelated
SDL_hidapijoystick.c had been refactored to couple data handling logic with device opening logic and device lists caused some problems, yields slightly uglier integration than previously when the 360 HID device driver was just handling the data.
SDL_hidapijoystick.c now often pulls the device off of the joystick_hwdata structure for some rumble logic, but it appears that code path is never reached, so probably not a problem.
Looks like joystick_hwdata was refactored to not include a mutex in other drivers, maintainers may want to do the same refactor here if that's useful for some reason.
Something changed in how devices get names, so getting generic names.
Had to fix a (new?) bug where removing an XInput controller caused existing controllers (that moved to a new XInput index) to get identified as 0x045e/0x02fd ("it's probably Bluetooth" in code), rendering the existing HIDAPI_IsDevicePresent and new RAWINPUT_IsDevicePresent unreliable.
David Ludwig
I have created a new driver for SDL's Joystick and Game-Controller subsystem: a Virtual driver. This driver allows one to create a software-based joystick, which to SDL applications will look and react like a real joystick, but whose state can be set programmatically. A primary use case for this is to help enable developers to add touch-screen joysticks to their apps.
The driver comes with a set of new, public APIs, with functions to attach and detach joysticks, set virtual-joystick state, and to determine if a joystick is a virtual-one.
Use of virtual joysticks goes as such:
1. Attach one or more virtual joysticks by calling SDL_JoystickAttachVirtual. If successful, this returns the virtual-device's joystick-index.
2. Open the virtual joysticks (using indicies returned by SDL_JoystickAttachVirtual).
3. Call any of the SDL_JoystickSetVirtual* functions when joystick-state changes. Please note that virtual-joystick state will only get applied on the next call to SDL_JoystickUpdate, or when pumping or polling for SDL events (via SDL_PumpEvents or SDL_PollEvent).
Here is a listing of the new, public APIs, at present and subject to change:
------------------------------------------------------------
/**
* Attaches a new virtual joystick.
* Returns the joystick's device index, or -1 if an error occurred.
*/
extern DECLSPEC int SDLCALL SDL_JoystickAttachVirtual(SDL_JoystickType type, int naxes, int nballs, int nbuttons, int nhats);
/**
* Detaches a virtual joystick
* Returns 0 on success, or -1 if an error occurred.
*/
extern DECLSPEC int SDLCALL SDL_JoystickDetachVirtual(int device_index);
/**
* Indicates whether or not a virtual-joystick is at a given device index.
*/
extern DECLSPEC SDL_bool SDLCALL SDL_JoystickIsVirtual(int device_index);
/**
* Set values on an opened, virtual-joystick's controls.
* Returns 0 on success, -1 on error.
*/
extern DECLSPEC int SDLCALL SDL_JoystickSetVirtualAxis(SDL_Joystick * joystick, int axis, Sint16 value);
extern DECLSPEC int SDLCALL SDL_JoystickSetVirtualBall(SDL_Joystick * joystick, int ball, Sint16 xrel, Sint16 yrel);
extern DECLSPEC int SDLCALL SDL_JoystickSetVirtualButton(SDL_Joystick * joystick, int button, Uint8 value);
extern DECLSPEC int SDLCALL SDL_JoystickSetVirtualHat(SDL_Joystick * joystick, int hat, Uint8 value);
------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous notes on the initial patch, which are also subject to change:
1. no test code is present in SDL, yet. This should, perhaps, change. Initial development was done with an ImGui-based app, which potentially is too thick for use in SDL-official. If tests are to be added, what kind of tests? Automated? Graphical?
2. virtual game controllers can be created by calling SDL_JoystickAttachVirtual with a joystick-type of SDL_JOYSTICK_TYPE_GAME_CONTROLLER, with naxes (num axes) set to SDL_CONTROLLER_AXIS_MAX, and with nbuttons (num buttons) set to SDL_CONTROLLER_BUTTON_MAX. When updating their state, values of type SDL_GameControllerAxis or SDL_GameControllerButton can be casted to an int and used for the control-index (in calls to SDL_JoystickSetVirtual* functions).
3. virtual joysticks' guids are mostly all-zeros with the exception of the last two bytes, the first of which is a 'v', to indicate that the guid is a virtual one, and the second of which is a SDL_JoystickType that has been converted into a Uint8.
4. virtual joysticks are ONLY turned into virtual game-controllers if and when their joystick-type is set to SDL_JOYSTICK_TYPE_GAMECONTROLLER. This is controlled by having SDL's default list of game-controllers have a single entry for a virtual game controller (of guid, "00000000000000000000000000007601", which is subject to the guid-encoding described above).
5. regarding having to call SDL_JoystickUpdate, either directly or indirectly via SDL_PumpEvents or SDL_PollEvents, before new virtual-joystick state becomes active (as specified via SDL_JoystickSetVirtual* function-calls), this was done to match behavior found in SDL's other joystick drivers, almost all of which will only update SDL-state during SDL_JoystickUpdate.
6. the initial patch is based off of SDL 2.0.12
7. the virtual joystick subsystem is disabled by default. It should be possible to enable it by building with SDL_JOYSTICK_VIRTUAL=1
Questions, comments, suggestions, or bug reports very welcome!
Martin Fiedler
To be precise, this is about *desktop OpenGL* on X11. For OpenGL ES, EGL is already used (as it's the only way to get an OpenGL ES context), as Sylvain noted above.
To shine some light on why this is needed:
In 99% of all cases, using GLX on X11 is fine, even though it's effectively deprecated in favor of EGL [1]. However, there's at least one use case that *requires* the OpenGL context being created with EGL instead of GLX, and that's DRM_PRIME interoperability: The function glEGLImageTargetTexture2DOES simply doesn't work with GLX. (Currently, Mesa actually crashes when trying that.)
Some example code:
https://gist.github.com/kajott/d1b29c613be30893c855621edd1f212e
Runs on Intel and open-source AMD drivers just fine (others unconfirmed), but with #define USE_EGL 0 (i.e. forcing it to GLX), it crashes. The same happens when using SDL for window and context creation.
The good news is that most of the pieces for EGL support on X11 are already in place: SDL_egl.c is pretty complete (and used for desktop OpenGL on Wayland, for example), and SDL_x11opengl.c has the aforementioned OpenGL-ES-on-EGL support. However, when it comes to desktop OpenGL, it's hardcoded to fall back to GLX.
I'm not advocating to make EGL the default for desktop OpenGL on X11; don't fix what ain't broken. But something like an SDL_HINT_VIDEO_X11_FORCE_EGL would be very appreciated to make use cases like the above work with SDL.
[1] source: Eric Anholt, major Linux graphics stack developer, 7 years ago already - see last paragraph of https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE3MTI
Konrad
This kind of blending is rather quite useful and in my opinion should be available for all renderers. I do need it myself, but since I didn't want to use a custom blending mode which is supported only by certain renderers (e.g. not in software which is quite important for me) I did write implementation of SDL_BLENDMODE_MUL for all renderers altogether.
SDL_BLENDMODE_MUL implements following equation:
dstRGB = (srcRGB * dstRGB) + (dstRGB * (1-srcA))
dstA = (srcA * dstA) + (dstA * (1-srcA))
Background:
https://i.imgur.com/UsYhydP.png
Blended texture:
https://i.imgur.com/0juXQcV.png
Result for SDL_BLENDMODE_MOD:
https://i.imgur.com/wgNSgUl.png
Result for SDL_BLENDMODE_MUL:
https://i.imgur.com/Veokzim.png
I think I did cover all possibilities within included patch, but I didn't write any tests for SDL_BLENDMODE_MUL, so it would be lovely if someone could do it.
Konrad
This was something rather trivial to add, but asked at least several times before (I did google about it as well).
It should be possible to dynamically change scaling mode of the texture. It is actually trivial task, but until now it was only possible with a hint before creating a texture.
I needed it for my game as well, so I took the liberty of writing it myself.
This patch adds following functions:
SDL_SetTextureScaleMode(SDL_Texture * texture, SDL_ScaleMode scaleMode);
SDL_GetTextureScaleMode(SDL_Texture * texture, SDL_ScaleMode *scaleMode);
That way you can change texture scaling on the fly.
Added the functions SDL_JoystickFromPlayerIndex(), SDL_JoystickSetPlayerIndex(), SDL_GameControllerFromPlayerIndex(), and SDL_GameControllerSetPlayerIndex()
Aaron Barany
Add SDL_HINT_VIDEO_EXTERNAL_CONTEXT hint to notify SDL that the graphics context is external. This disables the automatic context save/restore behavior on Android and avoids using OpenGL by default when SDL_WINDOW_VUKLAN isn't set.
When the application wishes to manage the OpenGL contexts on Android, this avoids cases where SDL unbinds the context and creates new contexts, which can interfere with the application's operation.
When using Vulkan and Metal renderer implementations, this avoids SDL forcing OpenGL to be enabled on certain platforms. While using the SDL_WINDOW_VULKAN flag can be used to achieve the same thing, it also causes Vulkan to be loaded. If the application uses Vulkan directly, this is not necessary, and fails window creation when using Metal due to Vulkan not being present. (assuming MoltenVK isn't installed)
Using (1 << 14) instead of 0x4000 might be clearer for the maintainer, but
it makes it harder to look up these flags when debugging an app. The value
has to be written once by one person, the has to be read by tons of people
over and over.
