Hi All,I just got finished compiling FlightGear 0.9.8 on Ubuntu. It wasn't an easy task and I feel like I went through Hades and back just to do it, but I was determined to get it done.When I did a ./configure --help before compiling FlightGear, I noticed the option "--enable-sdl Configure to use SDL instead of GLUT". Well I had already went through the trouble of installing OpenGL and getting plib to compile so I didn't choose this option.Now I guess my question is, would I see a difference or is there a difference between compiling with OpenGL or SDL? Will the visuals look any different? I did a google search for compiling with SDL but way too many non-relevant hits came up. I did come across one on the mailing list saying the FG developers wanted to stop using opengl because it was old, has problems, and hasn't been updated in a long time.Thank you for your input :)

> When I did a ./configure --help before compiling FlightGear, I> noticed the option "--enable-sdl Configure to use SDL> instead of GLUT". [...]> Now I guess my question is, would I see a difference or is> there a difference between compiling with OpenGL or SDL?glut isn't free software and it's badly maintained (or not maintained at all). SDL is free, more "modern" and supports joysticks and more keys. BUT: fgfs doesn't make use of any of SDL's advantages (apart from it's free-ness). And in fgfs 0.9.8 it even has the disadvantage, that windows can't get resized. On the other hand, there's now a free glut clone (http://freeglut.sf.net/) that works very well and *is* maintained. I may have missed any of SDL's advantages (multi-head? etc.), but currently it seems that using SDL is rather a degradation than an improvement. Also it seems that one can only have one HW accelerated application once there is an SDL app running. So, no HW accelerated Atlas (http://atlas.sf.net/) alongside fgfs/SDL, which is a royal pain.> Will the visuals look any different?no> I did come across one on the mailing list saying the FG> developers wanted to stop using opengl because it was old, has> problems, and hasn't been updated in a long time.If you replace *opengl* with *glut* then it was true at the time, but doesn't seem so today. If you leave the "opengl" in that sentence, then it's utter nonsense. :-]PS: I'm currently using SDL, because fgfs' development version can now resize SDL windows, and I use a patch that allows me to assign keyboard shortcuts to the SUPER keys (http://members.aon.at/mfranz/flightgear/super.html). But that's really the only reason, and I consider to switch back to glut.

> SDL is free, more "modern" and supports joysticks Just noticed that glut does support joysticks, too. We are using plib's joystick interface in either case, though, so it doesn't matter.> > Will the visuals look any different?>> noWell, the startup looks a little worse with glut. It takes longer until the window is drawn and there's that silly white square. Maybe we can get that fixed. Once you have fgfs running, there's no difference.>PS: I'm currently using SDL, because fgfs' development version>can now resize SDL windows, and I use a patch that allows me>to assign keyboard shortcuts to the SUPER keys [...]FWIW: I just switched back to glut and made my SUPER patch work with freeglut. :-)