GameSWF - Modern Fork

A modernized fork of the original GameSWF library from the tu-testbed project.

GameSWF is an open-source SWF (Shockwave Flash) player library that uses OpenGL for rendering. This fork has been updated to compile and run on modern Linux systems with current toolchains.

About This Fork

This is a modernized version of the original GameSWF library by Thatcher Ulrich. The original source was retrieved from the tu-testbed project on SourceForge and has been updated to work with:

• C++17 standard
• SDL2 (migrated from SDL 1.2)
• Modern GCC (tested with GCC 13.3.0)
• CMake build system (replacing the old Autotools setup)
• 64-bit systems (fixed hash table issues on 64-bit platforms)

Building

Prerequisites (Ubuntu/Debian)

sudo apt install build-essential cmake libsdl2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev \
    zlib1g-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libfreetype-dev

Optional for sound support:

sudo apt install libsdl2-mixer-dev

Build Instructions

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)

The player executable will be at build/bin/gameswf_test_ogl.

Usage

./build/bin/gameswf_test_ogl [options] movie.swf

Options

Option	Description
-h	Print help
-v	Verbose output (print log messages)
-va	Verbose about movie Actions
-vp	Verbose about parsing
-a <level>	Antialiasing level (0,1,2,4,8,16,...)
-r <0|1|2>	0=no render/sound, 1=render+sound, 2=render only
-1	Play once and exit
-p	Run full speed, log frame rate
-f	Force realtime framerate
-w <W>x<H>	Window size (e.g., 1024x768)

Keyboard Controls

Key	Action
ESC / Ctrl+Q / Ctrl+W	Quit
Ctrl+P	Toggle Pause
Ctrl+[ / KP-	Previous frame
Ctrl+] / KP+	Next frame
Ctrl+A	Toggle antialiasing
Ctrl+T	Debug: show wireframe
Ctrl+B	Toggle background color

Sample Files

Sample SWF files are included in gameswf/samples/. Try:

./build/bin/gameswf_test_ogl gameswf/samples/gameswf_logo.swf
./build/bin/gameswf_test_ogl gameswf/samples/test_gradients_alpha.swf
./build/bin/gameswf_test_ogl gameswf/samples/test_shape_tweening.swf

Changes from Original

• Migrated build system to CMake
• Updated for SDL2 compatibility (from SDL 1.2)
• Fixed 64-bit hash table corruption issues
• Fixed deprecated C++ code for modern compilers
• Fixed libpng API compatibility
• Fixed OpenGL extension type conflicts
• Removed SDL_KillThread (deprecated in SDL2)
• Added SDL2 compatibility layer for legacy code

License

This source code has been donated to the Public Domain. Do whatever you want with it.

See http://tulrich.com/geekstuff/gameswf.html for more info about the original project.

Embedding in Other Applications

GameSWF can be embedded in game engines like Godot, custom engines, or any application with an OpenGL context. See gameswf/gameswf_embed.h for the simplified C/C++ API.

Quick Start (C++)

#include "gameswf/gameswf_embed.h"

// Initialize (your OpenGL context must be current)
gameswf_embed::init();

// Load and use
gameswf_embed::SWFMovie movie;
movie.load("animation.swf");

// In your render loop:
movie.advance(delta_time);           // Update animation
movie.render(0, 0, width, height);   // Render to GL context

// Handle input
movie.mouse_move(x, y);
movie.mouse_button(x, y, 1);         // Left click
movie.key_down(GAMESWF_KEY_SPACE);

// Cleanup
movie.unload();
gameswf_embed::shutdown();

Quick Start (C)

#include "gameswf/gameswf_embed.h"

gameswf_init(1);  // 1 = use built-in OpenGL renderer

gameswf_instance swf = gameswf_load("animation.swf");

// In render loop:
gameswf_advance(swf, delta_time);
gameswf_render(swf, 0, 0, width, height);

// Input
gameswf_mouse_move(swf, x, y);
gameswf_mouse_button(swf, x, y, GAMESWF_MOUSE_LEFT);

// Cleanup
gameswf_unload(swf);
gameswf_shutdown();

Custom Render Handler (Vulkan, etc.)

For Vulkan or other rendering APIs, implement the gameswf::render_handler interface and call gameswf_set_render_handler() before loading movies. See gameswf/example_embed.cpp for a skeleton implementation.

Original Author

• Thatcher Ulrich [email protected]

Fork Maintainer

• Quaylyn Rimer (@killerdevildog)