   What is OpenGL, SDL etc?
  A simple question: What is the OpenGL, Allegro, DirectX, SDL?what are there for?   
Quote:A simple question: What is the OpenGL, Allegro, DirectX, SDL?what are there for?I'd recommend starting by reading the Wikipedia entries for each of the topics you mentioned:OpenGLDirectXSDLAllegroI haven't read all of the articles linked above, but I'm assuming that each offers a reasonably accurate overview of its subject matter.In short, OpenGL and Direct3D are APIs that facilitate communication with the graphics hardware in your computer. Most modern graphics-intensive games use one or the other of these APIs, either directly or indirectly.DirectX is a collection of APIs dealing with games and multimedia; Direct3D is one of these APIs.SDL and Allegro are multi-platform libraries that offer relatively low-level services such as input, windowing, sound, and software blitting. SDL can be used along with OpenGL or Direct3D; not sure about Allegro. For hobbyist and indie game development in particular, SDL+OpenGL is a fairly common combination (largely due to its portability).The tools you're asking about are just some of the many tools that are available these days to make games. There are many options available - Flash, Python+Pygame, C#+XNA, Game Maker, Unity, and any number of other libraries, languages, APIs, tools, and frameworks.There is plenty of information on these topics available online and elsewhere. I'd recommend researching a bit, and then posting back here if you have more specific questions.   ;  i already did my research from wikipedia and other sources but they were using complex computer terms and i wanted a definition in the simplest form possible..You answer was good. Thank you.   ;  I'm a bit lazy, and I'm a bit noob. Does SDL cross-platformness mean that you have to compile on each platform, or you can compile on any platforms, and the application will work on all the others (supported by SDL)?   ;  The crossplatformness just means that you can use the same library on all platforms.But you'd still need to recompile on that platform to link everything correctly.Different operating systems have a lot of differences in how they work under the hood. Including the format of the EXE (PE vs ELF), and how it links libraries ("shared objects" vs "dynamic link libraries"). This causes you to need to recompile the program.;  Thanks!I asked, because I don't want to look into SDL in detail, since I can't recompile my application in various systems.   ;  Moving you to For Beginners.   