For tutorials and more info, visit The Proton SDK wiki

License: BSD style with attribution required

Seth's GL/GLES messy multi-platform C++ game SDK. Can output to Windows, Linux (including the Raspberry Pi), HTML5, OS X, iOS, Android

A component based toolbox of useful things built up over the last SEVENTEEN years. Instead of a giant .lib you link only the .cpp files used when possible to simplify multiplatform support as well as keep code size down.

It's kind of a SDL-like on steroids (while also being able to target SDL2 for setup/input/audio itself when needed) but generally gets the best results with its own native implementations of things. For example, it can target the following audio subsystems: SDL2_mixer, Audiere, FMOD, FMODStudio, Native iOS, Native Android, Denshion. It's mostly written in C++.

It's designed with a "Write stuff in Windows, then compile/export to other platforms as needed" mentality.

_{Some things written with Proton: Tanked, Dink Smallwood HD, Dungeon Scroll, Mind Wall}

Deprecated platforms no longer actively supported: Flash, BBX, WebOS

8/30/2026 Note - the renderer got modernized

Proton SDK has been GL 1.x/GLES1 until now because when I wrote it (2009?) and have been too lazy to ever update it, but today that changes!

See, I need a fancy shader for something and I want to use Proton SDK, so it's been modified to support a GLES2-class render pipeline alongside the old fixed-function GL 1.x/GLES1 path.

The important part: existing app code needs no changes, a compatibility shim remaps the fixed-function gl* calls apps make onto the new pipeline, and the regression suite verifies both paths render pixel-identical.

What this gets you:

• Custom GLSL shaders in your app via the new RTShader class + SetActiveShader(), and render-to-texture via Surface::InitRenderTarget(). See the new RTShader example app for a short, heavily commented tour that runs on every supported platform: full-screen post-process effects, plus the same 3D cube drawn twice - once with classic fixed-function-style GL calls (no GPU code, the built-in math) and once through a custom vertex+fragment shader that bends it like jelly, so you can flip between them and SEE the difference.
• The shader pipeline is the default in projects that compile it in (all the included demo apps). On desktop builds you can launch with -fixedpipeline to compare against the legacy path, which is still fully intact. (for now) If for some reason you REALLY want to use the old path, you can define PROTON_USE_FIXED_PIPELINE in your project to force it.
• iOS and Android now build as pure GLES2, and HTML5 targets WebGL directly instead of LEGACY_GL_EMULATION, granting us speed gains across the board.

The pre-shader engine is tagged v1.0.0 if you need the old baseline.

8/29/2023 Note

I had to make a breaking change - I updated the Boost library to the latest for proper C++20 support and it doesn't support signal anymore, just signals2.

If you're updating an old project, When you get this error:

1>c1xx : fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: '....\shared\util\boost\libs\signals\src\connection.cpp': No such file or directory 1>named_slot_map.cpp 1>c1xx : fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: '....\shared\util\boost\libs\signals\src\named_slot_map.cpp': No such file or directory 1>signal_base.cpp 1>c1xx : fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: '....\shared\util\boost\libs\signals\src\signal_base.cpp': No such file or directory 1>slot.cpp 1>c1xx : fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: '....\shared\util\boost\libs\signals\src\slot.cpp': No such file or directory 1>trackable.cpp 1>c1xx : fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: '....\shared\util\boost\libs\signals\src\trackable.cpp': No such file or directory

Remove references to those files, they don't exist anymore, signals2 is header-only, no source needed.

If you get errors like "1>D:\projects\proton\UGT\Source\App.h(132,9): error C2039: 'signal': is not a member of 'boost'" in your code, you'll need to change it.

From this:

boost::signal<void(void)> m_sig_target_language_changed;

To this:

boost::signals2::signal<void(void)> m_sig_target_language_changed;

Some things written with Proton:

• Growtopia - 2D MMO, a good example of using Proton's GUI for many screen sizes.
• Dungeon Scroll - A word game. (HTML5 version)
• Dink Smallwood - Good example of porting old code to Proton to add touch controls and multiplatform support. Open source. HTML5 version
• Mind Wall - 3D puzzle game
• Tanked - 3D multiplayer tank combat game including four player split screen support as well as internet match making.
• Arduboy Simulator - Allows you to write and debug Arduboy apps with MSVC as well as output HTML5 playable versions (included with Proton SDK) HTML5 Example game

Credits and links

• Proton SDK wiki/tutorial site
• Seth A. Robinson (seth@rtsoft.com) (Wrote most of Proton SDK) (Codedojo, Seth's blog)
• Aki Koskinen (Contibutions to Linux support, SpriteAnim, documentation)
• Clanlib team (Some math functions were taken from Clanlib)
• Dan Walma (contributions to SoftSurface)
• Fatalfeel's Proton SDK forks for GLES 2 support and Cocos2D integration
• Vita platform support by @NabsiYa
• Mateus Sales Bentes (@mateusbentes) (Mac support improvements)

AI Disclosure

This project was developed with assistance from AI tools. (well, starting in August 2026) I mean, you can still blame me (Seth) for bugs, but I just wanted to mention it.

Want to contribute?

Well, these days it's generally easier for me to get a bug report and fix it myself as I can test on six platforms automatically, rather than a PR. But as with any of my stuff, fork away!