Translating from french : 3/22
SFML is a simple to use and portable API, written in C++. You can think of it as an object oriented SDL. SFML is made of modules in order to be as usefull as possible for everyone. You can use SFML as a minimalist window system in order to use OpenGL, or as a complete multimedia library full of features to build video games or multimedia softwares.
You can find a more specific presentation of its features on this page.
SFML is currently available and fully functional in Windows (Vista, XP, 2000, 98) as well as Linux. A port of the current version to MacOS is in progress. SFML works both on 32 and 64 bit systems.
SFML is implemented in C++. That said, several bindings have been created for other languages that allow SFML to be used from C, D, Ruby, and Python. A .NET binding (C#, C++/CLI, VB.NET, …) is also in development.
SFML is under the zlib/png license. You can use SFML for both open-source and proprietary project, including paid or commercial ones. If you use SFML in your projects, a credit or mention is appreciated, but is not required.
The development sources of SFML are regularly updated in the SVN repository. Read this to get them, or directly via the download page.
Although the latest source code can be considered stable enough, keep in mind that it hasn't been fully tested and may contain bugs.
SFML has both internal and external dependencies:
Post any questions in the SFML forum.
Post in the forum of the package in question, and don't forget to provide a precise description of your problem, the version of SFML you're using, your system configuration, and compilable code, if necessary, or the logs of your compiler or linker.
A minimal code is a source which everyone can easily compile after a simple copy-paste in a single file (no extra .h, .hpp or .cpp) and which is made only of source code showing the bug.
Easy :
Before anything else, check the roadmap to see if the functionality has already been planned. If not, there is a forum heading dedicated to these requests. Please search before posting, and stick to the spirit of SFML as a multimedia, multi-platform library, so an XML parser, a database library, or a platform-specific function is unlikely to be accepted.
At the moment, SFML does not have a GUI package. You can certainly use any external OpenGL-based libraries, such as CEGUI or Guichan. Such functionality is on the long-term plan for SFML. Note that there does exist a project by some users of SFML to integrate an GUI package (see entrée).
SFML does not have a video playback module.
Yes, you can see examples for Qt, WxWidgets, and the native Win32 and X11 APIs in the official tutorials.
The Audio module can play WAV, Ogg, in addition to the formats supported by libsndfile. MP3 is covered by a license from Thompson Multimedia. Because of this, support for it is not included in SFML. For more information regarding the MP3 license, see http://www.mp3licensing.com.
Image loading is handled by an external library, SOIL. It support most modern image formats (BMP, TGA, JPEG, DDS, and PSD). See this page for more information about SOIL.
SFML supports the input and display of international characters, via the UTF-16 encoding. Input is provided via sf::Event::TextEntered, and display via sf::String.
First, make sure that you have followed the installation instructions in the official tutorials.
Have you:
If you've checked all of those, and SFML still refuses to work, see “I found a bug!”
MinGW does not include the external libraries when doing static compilation, so you must add them after compilation, or link them directly into your project.
To fuse two libraries, you can use the ar.exe utility provided with MinGW. You'll also need a minimal Unix environment (like CYGWIN). The syntax is:
ar xv lib1.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs lib2.a
Here are the commands to together the external dependencies:
ar xv libgdi32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-window-s-d.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libgdi32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-window-s.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libopengl32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-window-s-d.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libopengl32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-window-s.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libwinmm.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-window-s-d.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libwinmm.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-window-s.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libws2_32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-network-s-d.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libws2_32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-network-s.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libfreetype.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-graphics-s-d.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libfreetype.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-graphics-s.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libopenal32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-audio-s-d.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libopenal32.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-audio-s.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libsndfile.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-audio-s-d.a && rm *.o && echo 'done' ar xv libsndfile.a | cut -f3 -d ' ' | xargs ar rvs libsfml-audio-s.a && rm *.o && echo 'done'
With MinGW, you must link the libraries in a precise order: if libX depends on libY, libX MUST be linked before libY. For example, si you use the Graphics and Audio modules, the correct linking order would be the following: sfml-audio, sfml-graphics, sfml-window, sfml-system.
If you use the dynamic versions of the SFML libraries, you must also define the SFML_DYNAMIC symbol in the options for your project. For more details, see the installation tutorial for Code::Blocks.
In Windows, if you compile your project, you will have a console that attaches itself behind your window. To avoid this, you must create a Console project, and then:
To maintain a portable entry point (main), you link your program with the sfml-main.lib library. If not, you'll need to define the entry point, which is not int main(void) or int main(int argc, char** argv), but int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hThisInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpszArgument, int nCmdShow).
This is due to a premature destruction of the sf::Image. Indeed a sf::Sprite only point to an external sf::Image. You have to keep yourself the sf::Image “alive” as long as the sprite use it.
When your image is move from one memory place to another you have to update your sprite ( via SetImage function ) .
Make sure that you're linking against the correct version of the libraries for your project. If you're compiling in Debug mode, you must link with the Debug versions of SFML, and vice-versa for Release mode. To recall, the naming conventions for SFML are:
If you link with the DLL versions, you must copy the required DLLs beside your executable:
Before anything else, make sure that the following packages are installed:
If you're compiling version 1.3, you must add
#include <string.h>
in Packet.hpp in the Network module, and SoundFileDefault.cpp in Audio.
If you're using the SVN version, remember to do a make clean before compilation to avoid any problems.
If you're running compiz, then turn it off, because compiz interfere with other OpenGL applications.
You can use this simple script to toogle compiz on and off, if you're using metacity as your window manager:
#!/bin/bash pid=`ps --no-heading -C compiz.real | cut -d "?" -f1`; if [ -n "$pid" ]; then metacity --replace & else compiz --replace & fi
