SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) bindings for the PHP language. The extension allows you to create multimedia desktop applications with windows, input handling, events, and more.

• C compiler
• Automake tools
• PHP8.1 devel
• libSDL2 devel libraries and headers
• UN*X OS (eg Linux, Macos)

pecl install sdl-beta

Then add

extension=sdl.so

to your php.ini file.

The SDL extension mimics in almost every single aspect to the official C library, so until we write our own documentation, refer to the C counterpart.

Standard SDL2 API is available in procedural style:

$window = SDL_CreateWindow( "Foo window", 500, 50, 350, 300, SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN+SDL_WINDOW_RESIZABLE);
SDL_SetWindowTitle($window, "Some new title");
SDL_DestroyWindow($window);

And is also available in object oriented style:

$window = new SDL_Window( "Foo window", 100, 50, 350, 300, SDL_Window::SHOWN|SDL_Window::RESIZABLE);
$window->SetTitle("Some new title");
unset($window); // will destroy the window

Complete examples can be found in the examples folder.

• PHP-SDL_Mixer
• PHP-SDL_Image
• PHP-OpenGL
• PHP-OpenAL

• CubeCraft
• Conway's game of life
• PhpOkoban
• Inphpinity
• PhPresent

To compile your new extension, you will have to execute the following steps:

phpize
./configure [--with--sdl] 
make
make test
sudo make install