Newb question: SDL_OPENGLBLIT flag

SDL Development
1

In the documentation in the doc project, I noticed it
says that new applications shouldn’t use the
SDL_OPENGLBLIT flag in setting video modes.

I was wondering what the reasoning behind this is, and
more importantly, what would be a better alternative?

I can live without it, but was curious. I know you can
use OpenGL to render to textures/memory, so a
possibility would be to set the video mode without a
GL flag, render in memory, then blit that to the
screen… but that seems wasteful, and I’m not sure if
hardware acceleration would work then? (I’m using X11
with DRI).

Answers much appreciated :).__________________________________
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2

In the documentation in the doc project, I noticed it
says that new applications shouldn’t use the
SDL_OPENGLBLIT flag in setting video modes.

I was wondering what the reasoning behind this is

It’s slow to continually update the texture memory from system memory.

and more importantly, what would be a better alternative?

Preload your textures so they are video memory.

If you look at the testgl example in the test subdirectory of the SDL
source archive, you’ll see an example of drawing 2D images to the screen
in OpenGL mode using both methods.

See ya,
-Sam Lantinga, Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment