Re: [Pysdl-devel] Getting video modes?

[David C. <si...@te...>]

Jan Ekholm writes:
 > 
 > Hah, this was exactly what I needed. As I'm new to both SDL and pysdl
 > there is a lot to learn about how to do things in sdl. For instance the
 > update_rects() should be better than always updating the entire display.

Most of the time, this is true. At a certain point, you have so many
rects that just doing the whole screen at once is quicker.

 > Is there a real benefit from converting surfaces to the native format with
 > convert_display()? I assume there is, as otherwise the normal SDL would
 > not have included it. I'm not working on a fps game, but slowpaced
 > strategic game, but the amounts of gfx that may need updating every now
 > and then can be very large (scrolling around the map etc). And yes, if
 > anyone likes those kinds of games I'm interested in discussing methods for
 > making them look and play good using pysdl.

In my experience, calling convert_display() is always a big win. It
creates a very short delay when loading graphics from disk, but
increases blit speeds by (in my case) about 50%.

My current project is a turn-based, hexmap-based naval warfare
game. I'd be pleased to discuss techniques for writing strategic games
off-list.

In the meantime, might I suggest the following resources:

Amit's Game Programming Information (excellent):
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html

Tile Based Games:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/6774/TileBased.html

Graphics Programming:
http://nondot.org/sabre/graphpro/

Game Programming with Direct X:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2018/djdirectxtut.html

Computer Graphics Topics:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/multimedia/nsfmmedia/cware/graphics/toc.html

The comp.graphics.algorithms FAQ:
http://www.bookcase.com/library/faq/archive/graphics/algorithms-faq.html

-- 
David Clark
si...@te...
Preliminary pySDL Documentation:
http://www3.telus.net/futility/futility/docs/pysdl/index.html