SDL3 - Add DOS platform support
27 points by linkdd
27 points by linkdd
I had to check if this was posted on April 1st and still not believe until I read the PR. Impressive. SDL3 really pushing forward (GPU support) and backward to VESA and Sound Blaster.
The latest posts on the PR show cross-OS multiplayer working too, which is astounding.
I wonder how multiplayer works in that context. If it's going over the network, there needs to be a TCP stack somewhere (either in the app or in a driver that's loaded somehow? a TSR, maybe?). I'm so used to operating systems providing TCP that I have trouble imagining alternatives.
At any rate, this is wonderfully mad science!
Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if the SDL port links WATTCP or something like that, since from memory the hardware driver (packet driver, NDIS 2.0 driver, or ODI) is a TSR and then applications bring their own networking stack which uses it.
https://fo.ax/kali-kit/html_docs/drivers.html seems to match my memory.
My first thought was a DOS packet driver, but I think SDL itself doesn't include networking and it's in a separate library, SDL_net. I don't see anything about DOS support in SDL_net.
Maybe it's DOSBox's IPX-over-IP support?
Now I'm curious, too!
Is there any insight into the motivation? If it's just for fun, that is great and I fully support it. But if there's there some ultimate goal (e.g. porting a particular game to really old hardware), I'd be excited to hear more!