I have a huge external dependency to support lot of image formats, like jpg, png, bmp, but also other weird stuff, like paint shop pro and doom textures. This dependency has been discontinued from 2018, it has lot of other external dependencies (most of them are obsolete as well), the API is old and the build system is tricky to maintain. The library has LGPL license, so I can only dynamically link the dll file. Recently, I tried DWorkSim on a fresh installation of Windows 10 Pro and it didn't work because DevIL had issues with the missing CRT files. To fix the issue, I should install the old visual studio redistributables or rebuild the dependency. I don't like it.

To facilitate things, I decided to drop the DevIL libraries for integrating built-in dependency-free image libraries in the framework, like stb from nothings.org, which is compact, functional, well proven and public domain. Of couse I won't have anymore support for lot of weird (and abandoned) image formats, but who cares. I will keep basic support for loading (and writing) bmp, png, tga, jpg, gif, pic, pgm, hdr in my picture module. Additionally, more image formats will be supported through external plugin modules with smaller and sustainable external dependencies, like turbo-jpeg, open-jpeg and libavif. This will facilitate alot the build process and the porting into other operating systems. I already implemented the image import/export part with stb and it works like a charm. Soon I will drop DevIL definitely, so the build will be lighter and it will cover more systems without drawbacks or additional stuff to install.

Lighter is better!