SDL 2.24 Released With New APIs, D3D12 Renderer Work On Windows, New Linux Hints

SDL 2.24 has been released as the newest update to this widely-used abstraction layer library commonly used by cross-platform games, including heavily by games on Steam.

SDL 2.24 first up introduces a new versioning scheme, taking the approach of Flatpak and Glib for even numbers in the minor version to represent production-ready stable releases. Odd numbers in the minor version are for pre-release/development builds.

SDL 2.24 is primarily made up of bug fixes but there are a number of new APIs introduced, support for the mini-gamepad mode on Nintendo Joy-Con controllers, support for the Nintendo Online classic controllers with the HIDAPI driver, support for the NVIDIA SHIELD Controller with the HIDAPI driver, audio handling improvements, and more.

SDL2 has also been working on a DirectX 12 back-end as part of Game Development Kit support. GDM support is being worked on for allowing use by Windows Xbox Game Pass titles, Xbox consoles, and more.

On the Linux side, SDL 2.24 has removed XVidMode support in favor of using XRandR exclusively to change modes, various new hints around Wayland video mode emulation, hats, and the KMS/DRM device to use.

Plus there are a variety of other bug fixes and smaller enhancements to this popular cross-platform library. Downloads and all the details on the SDL 2.24 changes can be found via GitHub.