Handcrafted game programming and custom game engines.https://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lwwlheh7qc2kJust finished implementing asset hot-reloading and dynamic texture atlasing in the engine. #gamedev #c #sdl21 Aug 2025 18:35 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwwlheh7qc2khttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lvstsizyvs2xI just upgraded my C99 codebase to C11. It improves a few things here and there: • I use forward declarations a lot. But it turns out redeclaring typedefs in the same scope, which is just fine in C++, is not legal in C99. I only learned about this when compiling with -pedantic for the first time.07 Aug 2025 13:29 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvstsizyvs2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lrl5kdxgzc2zA recent Fedora upgrade turned into a "Linux ecosystem: X11 and Wayland" crash course for me, so I wrote some quick notes about it in case they might be helpful. Or, in other words, why SDL 3 might still pick X11 over Wayland even on a Wayland-based distro. https://www.innercomputing.com/blog/x11-wayland-in-sdl314 Jun 2025 14:21 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lrl5kdxgzc2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lmjny542v22bSome nice improvements for C/C++ programming coming in GCC 15. https://developers.redhat.com/articles/2025/04/10/6-usability-improvements-gcc-15#11 Apr 2025 09:04 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmjny542v22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lkpxpq3p7k2rC has an official website now! www.c-language.org https://www.c-language.org/19 Mar 2025 10:23 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkpxpq3p7k2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3ljfmf3ew3222Every time I encounter a void*-based collection implementation in C, my heart sinks. 💔 So I wrote some notes on writing generic collection code, as it turns out you can go pretty far without sacrificing type safety in the process. #c #gamedev #indiedev https://www.innercomputing.com/blog/generic-collections-in-c02 Mar 2025 14:09 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljfmf3ew3222https://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3ljacr2zgrs2jSome #gamedesign notes by LocalThunk (of Balatro fame). It is very interesting to contrast the 'evergreen, comforting and low-stakes' type of experience the author intended with the way many players are interacting with the game. localthunk.com/blog/solitaire https://localthunk.com/blog/solitaire28 Feb 2025 11:33 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljacr2zgrs2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lj5djlifsk2mRunning DOOM on TypeScript types might just be the endgame of the "Can it run DOOM?" subject matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mCsluv5FXA27 Feb 2025 07:09 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lj5djlifsk2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3liu4ti23cc2bJust finished with the implementation of the 2D sprite renderer for my course. It uses the new GPU API in SDL 3, which is very nicely done. Now moving on to writing how it all works! ✍️ #gamedev #c #sdl23 Feb 2025 15:15 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3liu4ti23cc2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lhgixbhids2vPutting the final touches on the entity systems chapter of the course. It covers data-oriented programming and the implementation of an ECS in C, which is a very interesting exercise in terms of design decisions and data structures. #gamedev #indiedev #gameengine #c #sdl05 Feb 2025 11:50 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhgixbhids2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lgczo2vrjs2bSDL 3.2.0 is out! This is the first stable release of SDL 3, containing many notable changes and improvements. A particular highlight of mine is the new, compute-ready GPU API. #gamedev #indiedev #gameengine #c #sdl https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/releases/tag/release-3.2.022 Jan 2025 09:13 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgczo2vrjs2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lg3rkwcack2zI wrote some more detailed notes on single translation unit builds in C that might be useful if you are interested in keeping a simple workflow. Sometimes, the best build system is having no build system in the first place. #c #gamedev #indiedev https://www.innercomputing.com/blog/single-translation-unit-builds19 Jan 2025 11:59 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lg3rkwcack2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lfhmqbv7pk24Designated initializers and compound literals are awesome features of C99 that almost turn C into a new language, so I wrote a small blog post explaining how they work in order to spread the word. #c #gamedev #indiedev https://www.innercomputing.com/blog/designated-initializers-and-compound-literals-in-c11 Jan 2025 11:40 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfhmqbv7pk24https://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lfadelfqys2eSDL 3.1.8 is out! This pre-release version adds many goodies: • Asynchronous I/O • Main thread dispatching • Desktop tray API • Support for format strings in debug text rendering #gamedev #indiedev #gameengine #c #sdl https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/releases/tag/preview-3.1.808 Jan 2025 14:03 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfadelfqys2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3levtylw7lk2fI wrote some notes on how to get started with C programming. The process can be a bit overwhelming if trying to learn it all at once, and I have found that focusing your efforts on a smaller and more modern subset can be really helpful. #c #gamedev #indiedev https://www.innercomputing.com/blog/how-to-get-started-with-c-programming04 Jan 2025 10:02 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3levtylw7lk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lelmz5rtzc2iToday I realized my Linux machine had been stuck with an older kernel version ever since I did the upgrade from Fedora 40 to 41. 'Manually messing with the kernels' rite of passage is now complete. #framework #linux #fedora31 Dec 2024 08:30 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lelmz5rtzc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lehgt2wh7s2zI am really enjoying writing the chapter on memory management; it has become its own little mini-course within the main course. It goes from explaining the very basics of what memory is to writing your own custom memory allocators from scratch. #gamedev #indiedev #gameengine #c #sdl29 Dec 2024 16:29 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lehgt2wh7s2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lcupd25ink2fChristmas time is an opportunity to read great books. This year, I am revisiting 'The Rules of Programming' by Chris Zimmerman. It contains excellent advice from the trenches, with many useful examples drawn from the Ghost of Tsushima codebase. #gamedev #indiedev #gameengine09 Dec 2024 12:15 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcupd25ink2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lbzrwhpv4k2tCode hot-reloading for Linux is in. I also unified my Neovim configuration so that switching between platforms is more seamless. The thing I am missing the most so far when working in Linux is having access to the RAD Debugger (but an official port is on their roadmap). #gamedev #c #sdl #linux28 Nov 2024 19:20 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbzrwhpv4k2thttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lbxbkwxrjk27Hot-reloading of code for Windows is in. I have also set up a few custom commands to build, launch the RAD Debugger and reload directly from Neovim, which is a really nice workflow. Next step is Linux! #gamedev #c #sdl27 Nov 2024 19:22 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbxbkwxrjk27https://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3lbkmlorfd22cJust finished writing the chapters on SDL fundamentals, so I thought it would be cool to add a bonus lesson where we "port" Doom to SDL 3. It is not an actual, full port of the game (it uses doomgeneric), but serves as a practical and fun way to put everything together. #gamedev #c #sdl22 Nov 2024 18:34 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbkmlorfd22chttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3latcnbcj3c2yI have been daily driving a Framework 13 laptop as a Linux-only machine for a few days. My main goal here was to make sure all my code works well on Linux but, not having used the OS for the past 20 years or so, I have to say... it is actually getting there? #gamedev #c #sdl #linux #framework13 Nov 2024 12:05 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3latcnbcj3c2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/davidpol.bsky.social/post/3laiwmiomqk2tHaving so much fun at the moment as I prepare the upcoming lessons of my game programming course. Writing about the basics of animation seemed like the perfect excuse to pay homage to the Fire demo originally programmed by @thejare.bsky.social in 1993 and recreate it with SDL 3. #gamedev #c #sdl09 Nov 2024 09:03 +0000at://did:plc:oeng3pa4uuo7cne32ype6p5j/app.bsky.feed.post/3laiwmiomqk2t