SDL_gfx

[DavidRosen]

Thank you for making this package!!

I'm doing an informal speed comparison of Python with Julia for graphics, and Python is "winning" because it can use the SDL_gfx add-on library for SDL. I'm finding that SDL_gfx can draw a rectangle around 4 times as fast as plain SDL.

Any chance of adding SDL_gfx?

Cheers and thanks again.

[jonathanBieler]

Hey, I think it wouldn't be very complicated to add it (on mac OS at least), see this for a similar request:

https://github.com/jonathanBieler/SimpleDirectMediaLayer.jl/issues/29

Basically I can help you with it if you are willing to test it out.

[DavidRosen]

Okay sure, I can test it out. I use Windows 10.

[jonathanBieler]

Alright, I'll try to do it this week.

Edit, actually there's no binaries available for windows (as far as I can tell), so that would be complicated. The solution is to build and distribute the binaries ourself (using BinaryBuilder.jl) but that's probably a bit of work (I never did it). Mac OS and linux would be fine though.

[DavidRosen]

Short of using SDL_gfx, is it possible that I might gain some performance by using FillRect() instead of RenderFillRect()?

I couldn't figure out how to invoke FillRect() correctly. This is what I tried: win = SDL2.CreateWindow("bench", Int32(16), Int32(16), Int32(size), Int32(size) , SDL2.WINDOW_SHOWN) pix_fmt=SDL2.GetWindowPixelFormat(win) color=SDL2.MapRGB(pix_fmt,UInt8(0),UInt8(255),UInt8(0)) .... rec=SDL2.Rect(y,x,widthcell-1,widthcell-1) SDL2.FillRect(renderer,Ref(rec),color)

[jonathanBieler]

It seems like FillRect is a SDL function (as opposed to SDL2), which can still be used but you have to manage texture, surface and renderer, which I don't fully understand, see:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21890627/drawing-a-rectangle-with-sdl2

To get the pix_format as an object (instead of UInt32) I think you have to do:

px_format = SDL2.AllocFormat(SDL2.GetWindowPixelFormat(win))

[aviks]

The binaries for SDL_gfx have now been built for all platforms https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General/pull/8487

Once someone builds the wrappers, this can be integrated.