diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 74bcc0a..af5b1f6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Notes:
   * cmake options are IMGUI_STATIC (compiling as static library), IMGUI_FREETYPE (for using Freetype2) and FREETYPE_PATH (Freetype2 cmake install location) (only if cimgui is generated with freetype option)
   * or as in https://github.com/sonoro1234/LuaJIT-ImGui/tree/master/build
   
-  For compiling with backends there is now an example with SDL2 and opengl3 in folder backend_test. It will generate a cimgui_sdl module and a test_sdl executable. You only need to provide SDL_PATH telling cmake where to look for SDL2 cmake installation.
+  For compiling with backends there is now an example with SDL2 and opengl3 in folder backend_test. It will generate a cimgui_sdl module and a test_sdl executable.
 
 # using generator
 
diff --git a/backend_test/CMakeLists.txt b/backend_test/CMakeLists.txt
index 60a9365..defe939 100644
--- a/backend_test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/backend_test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -66,7 +66,13 @@ endif(WIN32)
 list(APPEND IMGUI_SOURCES ${BAKENDS_FOLDER}imgui_impl_sdl.cpp)
 if(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
 	message(STATUS "SDL_PATH defined as " ${SDL_PATH})
-	FIND_PACKAGE(SDL2 REQUIRED PATHS ${SDL_PATH})
+	FIND_PACKAGE(SDL2 PATHS ${SDL_PATH})
+else(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
+	# If SDL_PATH is not set, fallback and attempt to find SDL cmake script at a default location
+	find_package(SDL2)
+endif(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
+
+if(SDL2_FOUND)
 	get_target_property(SDL_INCLUDE SDL2::SDL2 INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES)
 	message(STATUS "sdlinclude is " ${SDL_INCLUDE})
 	if ("${SDL_INCLUDE}" STREQUAL "" OR "${SDL_INCLUDE}" STREQUAL "SDL_INCLUDE-NOTFOUND") #if not found latest SDL2 cmake config use older
@@ -80,10 +86,13 @@ if(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
 		set(SDL_MAIN SDL2::SDL2main)
 		message(STATUS ${SDL_MAIN} ${IMGUI_SDL_LIBRARY})
 	endif()
-else(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
-	message(STATUS "SDL_PATH not defined")
-	set(IMGUI_SDL_LIBRARY SDL2)
-endif(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
+else(SDL2_FOUND)
+	if(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
+		message(FATAL_ERROR "Cannot find SDL at SDL_PATH")
+	else(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
+		message(FATAL_ERROR "Cannot find SDL. Maybe try specifying SDL_PATH?")
+	endif(DEFINED SDL_PATH)
+endif(SDL2_FOUND)
 
 add_library(cimgui_sdl SHARED ${IMGUI_SOURCES})
 target_link_libraries(cimgui_sdl ${IMGUI_LIBRARIES} ${IMGUI_SDL_LIBRARY})