On Sunday, 15 March 2020 at 21:33:29 UTC, Arine wrote:
I wouldn't use SDL2 for rendering. It is really just there for legacy. The only thing people use SDL2 is for setting up a window and creating a render context for OpenGL/Vulkan/Directx, along with handling input/events.
There's no need for someone just learning 2D games to implement their own OGL/Vulkan/DX renderer. The SDL2 rendering API is plenty fine.
And it isn't just for "legacy". It was supposed to be an enhancement over SDL's old SDL_Surface API. When they first implemented it, they restricted it to the features they implemented cross-platform in software. It also didn't do any batching for the hardware rendering. As of SDL 2.10, they have batching for the hardware renderers, which makes it even more usable.
The only time I would recommend against the SDL2 renderer for a 2D game is when you A) already have your own renderer implemented anyway, or B) need some fancy shader effect. I've seen people get some decent F/X with the SDL2 renderer, but it's limited in that regard. Still no need to implement a custom renderer, though, as SDL_gpu opens the doors to shaders.
