Solar2D (formerly Corona SDK) is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

, cross-platform software development kit originally developed by

Corona Labs Inc. Corona Labs Inc., formerly Ansca Mobile, was a software company based in Palo Alto, California, best known for building a 2D game and app development platform. Its most popular product was the Corona SDK, a cross-platform mobile development fram ...

and now maintained by

Vlad Shcherban Vlad is a Romanian male given name. It is more commonly a nativized hypocorism of Vladislav and can also be used as a surname. It may refer to: Given name People * Vlad I of Wallachia (), ''voivode'' (prince) of Wallachia * Vlad II Dracul (b ...

. Released in late 2009, it allows software programmers to build 2D mobile applications for iOS,

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

, and

Kindle Kindle may refer to: Companies and products * Amazon Kindle, an e-reader line by Amazon.com ** Kindle Direct Publishing, an e-book publishing platform by Amazon ** Kindle Store, an online e-book e-commerce store by Amazon * Kindle Banking Systems, ...

desktop applications A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...

for Windows, Linux and macOS, and connected TV applications for

Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

, Fire TV and Android TV. Solar2D uses integrated

Lua Lua or LUA may refer to: Science and technology * Lua (programming language) * Latvia University of Agriculture * Last universal ancestor, in evolution Ethnicity and language * Lua people, of Laos * Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...

layered on top of C++/

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

to build graphic applications. The software has two operational modes: the Solar2D Simulator and Solar2D Native. With the Solar2D Simulator, apps are built directly from the Solar2D Simulator. Solar2D Native allows you to integrate your Lua code and assets within an Xcode or Android Studio project to build your app and include native features.

History

Walter Luh and Carlos Icaza started Ansca Mobile, later renamed Corona Labs, after departing from

Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

in 2007. At Adobe, Luh was the lead architect working on the Flash Lite team and Icaza was the engineering manager responsible for mobile Flash authoring. In June 2009, Ansca released the first Corona SDK beta free for early adopters. In December 2009, Ansca launched Corona SDK 1.0 for iPhone. The following February, the Corona SDK 1.1 was released with additional features. In September 2010, Ansca released version 2.0 of Corona SDK and added Corona Game Edition. Version 2.0 added cross-platform support for iPad and

, while Game Edition added a physics engine and other advanced features aimed specifically at game development. In January 2011, Corona SDK was released for Windows XP and newer, giving developers the opportunity to build

applications on PC. In April 2012, co-founder and CEO Icaza left Ansca, and CTO Luh took the CEO role. Shortly after, in June 2012, Ansca changed its name to Corona Labs. In August 2012, Corona Labs announced Enterprise Edition, which added native bindings for Objective-C. In March 2015, during GDC 2015 announcement was made that Corona SDK is completely free and will support Windows and Mac OS X deployment targets. In November 2015,

announced support for tvOS development for Apple TV. In March 2017, Corona Labs was acquired by Appodeal and announced that the Enterprise version of Corona would also become free. In June 2017, Corona Labs announced that Enterprise was renamed to Corona Native, is free for everyone and included as part of the core product." In January 2019, Corona Labs announced that Corona 2D will be open sourced under the GNU GPLv3 license, while offering the option of a commercial license upon agreement with Corona Labs. In April 2020, the engine was renamed from Corona SDK to Solar2D. This was done in response to the closure of Corona Labs, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Corona Labs also stopped offering commercial licenses and changed its open source license from GPLv3 to the more permissive MIT License.

Major features

Solar2D's API suite features API calls for audio and graphics, cryptography, networking and device information such as accelerometer information, GPS, and user input as well as widgets, particle effects, and more.

Bibliography

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References

External links

Solar2d's official website
{{Lua programming language 2009 software Android (operating system) development software Formerly proprietary software Integrated development environments IPhone video game engines Lua (programming language)-scriptable game engines MacOS programming tools Mobile software Mobile software programming tools Video game development software Software development kits Software using the MIT license