Does SDL currently directly access video memory when running under linux? I’ve
been experencing performance slowdowns when only drawing inside of a 640x480
16bit window on the screen. I do lots of Blitting as of right now but I only
alpha blend the cursor b/c having SDL draw the cursor causes odd flickering for
some reason.
I’m working on the cursor flicker. I’m also removing color cursor support,
so if you want a sprite cursor, you should keep your current cursor code
(and not use alpha-blending - it’s slow!)
SDL does currently access video memory, but you need to run as root and
specify the SDL_FULLSCREEN|SDL_HWSURFACE flags when setting the video mode.
Also make sure the X server is running at the same depth as your window.
You can let SDL use the X server depth by passing 0 depth to SDL_SetVideoMode()
-Sam Lantinga (slouken at devolution.com)
Lead Programmer, Loki Entertainment Software–
“Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature”
– Rich Kulawiec