Is there any difference between coding a Dreamcast game in SDL and Kallistios in terms of memory footprint, speed, graphics display or are they both equal? Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Vectrix Quest
SDL Vs Kallistios
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Vectrix Quest
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Re: SDL Vs Kallistios
Yes, there is a drastic difference.
SDL is a layer on top of KOS, so it will always use more resources than just using KOS directly to do an otherwise identical program (in functionality). The version of SDL included with KOS in its kos-ports tree is known to leak memory quite badly, and pretty much every other port of SDL to the Dreamcast (that I know of) has problems.
Speed wise, SDL does everything by drawing to the framebuffer. That means, in practical terms, that you're using the CPU to do what the GPU can do for you. Also, the framebuffer itself is a lot slower to access via the CPU than main ram (especially if you're using a cached area to access it), so that can become a concern too.
Simply put, if you're developing something specifically for the Dreamcast, I wouldn't recommend using SDL. If you're developing something for both a PC and Dreamcast, I'd recommend making some sort of abstraction library yourself and avoiding SDL on the Dreamcast. I've done similar things in the past when developing cross-platform stuff.
Also, moved to the appropriate forum.
SDL is a layer on top of KOS, so it will always use more resources than just using KOS directly to do an otherwise identical program (in functionality). The version of SDL included with KOS in its kos-ports tree is known to leak memory quite badly, and pretty much every other port of SDL to the Dreamcast (that I know of) has problems.
Speed wise, SDL does everything by drawing to the framebuffer. That means, in practical terms, that you're using the CPU to do what the GPU can do for you. Also, the framebuffer itself is a lot slower to access via the CPU than main ram (especially if you're using a cached area to access it), so that can become a concern too.
Simply put, if you're developing something specifically for the Dreamcast, I wouldn't recommend using SDL. If you're developing something for both a PC and Dreamcast, I'd recommend making some sort of abstraction library yourself and avoiding SDL on the Dreamcast. I've done similar things in the past when developing cross-platform stuff.
Also, moved to the appropriate forum.