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Hi all,

I was playing a little bit with the SDL2 library last night, and I hit a
problem that looks like a nasty SDL bug..

I am primarily developing on Linux, and there my code works fine, but
then I tried to port my app to Windows, using a Windows XP system
running on a VirtualBox. The code compiles fine, but whenever it tries
to call SDL_CreateRenderer, the application crashes.

I don't post my code, because I think it is irrelevant - to be sure, I
also tested with the official code example from there:
https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL_CreateRenderer

...and it also crashes, at the same moment (calling SDL_CreateRenderer).

This is how I compile the application (I copied the list of parameters
from the sdl-config file shipped with the library):

C:\>gcc -O3 -Wall -std=gnu89 test.c -o test.exe -lmingw32
-Dmain=SDL_main -lSDL2main -lSDL2 -mwindows -Wl,--no-undefined -lm
-ldinput8 -ldxguid -ldxerr8 -luser32 -lgdi32 -lwinmm -limm32 -lole32
-loleaut32 -lshell32 -lversion -luuid -static-libgcc

The SDL lib I test with is the v2.0.3. I also tested on v2.0.2 - same
result.
The Windows XP virtual machine I am testing this on is a bare, freshly
installed Windows XP service pack 3, without any add-ons.

To avoid crashing, I pass the parameter "SDL_RENDERER_SOFTWARE". When
using no flags, or the "SDL_RENDERER_ACCELERATED" flag, it crashes.

I presume that the crash is somehow related to the fact that SDL tries
to probe for some acceleration magic, and hangs on it... Now, how should
I proceed to be able to use accelerating on systems that have such
capabilities, and avoid crashing on systems without any powerful GPU
(basic GDI) ?

best regards,
Mateusz
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Hello,

I would assume that VirtualBox is the problem here ( it might say it has acceleration, but when SDL is trying to use it something goes wrong ? ).
Is it possible to provide a dump file? Without one I can only guess what happens.
In normal conditions if SDL_CreateRenderer fails to create a render according to your flags it just returns NULL. So I think that you can check for that and try again with SDL_RENDERER_SOFTWARE.
Maybe some more experienced people can give a better suggestions.

Chees,
Alexandru Ene





On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 12:20 PM, Mateusz Viste wrote:

Am 03.04.2014 11:47, schrieb Alexandru Ene:

Only if you activate it in the VM Settings (Display -> Video:
[x] Enable 3D Acceleration) *and* install the VirtualBox guest additions
in the VM.

So if that is indeed not activated (and/or the guest additions not
installed), there should be no acceleration and SDL should ideally
detect that and fall back to software rendering instead of crashing.
(I can imagine that this case wasn't tested much, because outside of VMs
you usually always have 3D acceleration)

Cheers,
Daniel

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Hi,

Might be that Virtualbox is doing something wrong, but nonetheless,
having SDL crashing is no good business :P

I do know about the fact that SDL_CreateRenderer() returns NULL when no
acceleration is possible, unfrotunately the problem is that
SDL_CreateRenderer() doesn't return anything, since the crash occurs
inside it. :/

I prepared a little package that contain the example program allowing to
exhibit the problem:
http://www.viste-family.net/mateusz/temp/test-sdl/test.zip

Mateusz



On 04/03/2014 11:47 AM, Alexandru Ene wrote:
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On 04/03/2014 04:14 PM, Daniel Gibson wrote:

Yes, you are right - I checked the checkbox about 3D acceleration, and
now the crash is gone.
I was on this track before, but I checked only "2D" acceleration... I
wasn't expecting SDL to use any kind of "3D" stuff.


That would be ideal, exactly. Unfortunately the reality is a bit
different - SDL shamelessly crash :)

Thanks for the "3D checkbox" hint!

cheers,
Mateusz
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SDL2 typically chooses the Direct3D renderer as the "best choice", depending on the flags ofc.
VirtualBox probably provides drivers that crash on some Direct3D call when 3D acceleration is not enabled, rather than returning an error code.
If you're developing on a Linux+X11 system, I definitely think Wine will be a better choice for testing Windows builds (there is a mingw cross-compiler available for Linux, probably in your distro's package manager even).