SDL3 App From Source Minimal Example

This is a minimal example for building and using SDL3 from source using C++ and CMake. It also demonstrates setting up things like macOS/iOS bundles. See src/main.cpp for the code.

Building And Running

Are you a complete beginner? If so, read this! Otherwise, install CMake and your favorite compiler, and follow the commands below:

# You need to clone with submodules, otherwise SDL will not download.
git clone https://github.com/Ravbug/sdl3-sample --depth=1 --recurse-submodules
cd sdl3-sample
cmake -S . -B build

You can also use an init script inside config/. Then open the IDE project inside build/ (If you had CMake generate one) and run!

Supported Platforms

I have tested the following:

Platform	Architecture	Generator
macOS	x86_64, arm64	Xcode
iOS	x86_64, arm64	Xcode
tvOS	x86_64, arm64	Xcode
visionOS*	arm64	Xcode
Windows	x86_64, arm64	Visual Studio
Linux	x86_64, arm64	Ninja, Make
Web*	wasm	Ninja, Make
Android*	x86, x64, arm, arm64	Ninja via Android Studio

*See further instructions in config/

Note: UWP support was removed from SDL3 during its development. For historical reasons, you can get a working UWP sample via this commit: df270da

Updating SDL

Just update the submodule:

cd SDL
git pull

You don't need to use a submodule, you can also copy the source in directly. This repository uses a submodule to keep its size to a minimum. Note that as of writing, SDL3 is in development, so expect APIs to change.

Reporting issues

Is something not working? Create an Issue or send a Pull Request on this repository!