Comments on: Setting up Visual Studio and SFML development environment

By: John Horton

John Horton — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:04:35 +0000

Many thanks! This formatting is hopefully correct. I really need a new website.

By: James

James — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:13:03 +0000

//////////////////////////////////////////
// Timber game project
// using SFML 3
// James Butler April 15, 2026
//////////////////////////////////////////

#include
#include

using namespace std;
using namespace sf;

int main()
{

// Create a video mode object
VideoMode vm({ 1920, 1080 });

// Create and open a window for the game
RenderWindow window(vm, “Timber!!!”, Style::Default, State::Fullscreen);

// Create a texture to hold a graphic on the GPU
// Load a graphic into the texture using the texture constructor
Texture textureBackground(“graphics/background.png”);

// Create a sprite and
// Attach the texture to the sprite using the sprite constructor and
// set its position to Vector2(0.f, 0.f) so it covers
// the whole screen.
Sprite spriteBackground(textureBackground);
spriteBackground.setPosition(Vector2f(0.f, 0.f));

while (window.isOpen())
{
// Handle input, note the difference between this code
// and code for SFML 2
while (const optional event = window.pollEvent())
{
if (event->is() ||
Keyboard::isKeyPressed(Keyboard::Key::Escape))
{
window.close();
}
}

// clear the window
window.clear();

// Draw here
window.draw(spriteBackground);

// update the window
window.display();
}

return 0;
}

By: John Horton

John Horton — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 18:08:06 +0000

Probably yes. I just spent a week converting an ongoing project to SFML 3 and the good news is if you have learned 2, 3 is just afew syntax changes for …Rect, different pattern for some of the constructors like Text and Sound and the biggest change is probably the way you handle input but not that different. The biggest thing for me was that when I finished the conversion from 2 to 3 it ran about 20% faster. I was making additional tweaks and what I thought were minor optimisations during the conversion so I don’t know for sure if the improvement is the tweaks, SFML 3 or both.
Anyway it works great. I am not sure when though. I am thinking of doing a few roguelike type tutorials like generating and drawing 2d dungeons, and a mini turbased game to play in the dungeon.

By: James

James — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 01:26:29 +0000

Are you going to update your SFML tutorials for SFML 3?

By: John Horton

John Horton — Mon, 26 May 2025 06:58:01 +0000

Hi Luis,
Nice to here from you.

The approximate steps are:
1. Set Up the Project
Open or create a new C++ project. Configure: Include directories, Library directories, Linker input libraries and anything else.

This could be an existing project where you know the settings already work!

2. Remove code or files you don’t want in the template.

3. Export the Project as a Template

Go to:
Project > Export Template…
Choose Project Template (not Item Template).
Follow the wizard.

Pay attention to where it gets saved.

It is complicated setting up a new project but getting used to it is worthwhile and another way is you can open two instances of Visual Studio and copy paste the settings from a completed project to the new project.

Thanks,

John