SDL_HINT_VIDEO_DOUBLE_BUFFER(3)

💖 SDL_HINT_VIDEO_DOUBLE_BUFFER 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the SDL3 FUNCTIONS section of the manual, and today's main character is a lil hint called SDL_HINT_VIDEO_DOUBLE_BUFFER. she's small, she's powerful, she controls your frames. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

SDL_HINT_VIDEO_DOUBLE_BUFFER — tell the video driver that we only want a double buffer. no more, no less, she said what she said 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <SDL3/SDL_hints.h>

#define SDL_HINT_VIDEO_DOUBLE_BUFFER "SDL_VIDEO_DOUBLE_BUFFER"

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so here's the tea, fr fr. by default, most lowlevel 2D APIs will use a triple buffer scheme. what does that mean? it means they waste no CPU time on waiting for vsync after issuing a flip. iconic, efficient, no waiting around like a loser. BUT 😭 — and this is the plot twist — it introduces a frame of latency.

on the other hand (and you knew there was another hand), using a double buffer scheme instead is recommended for cases where low latency is an important factor, because we save a whole frame of latency. yes bestie, a WHOLE frame. that's not a small deal, that's a big deal 👑

and how do we do this magical thing? we do so by waiting for vsync immediately after issuing a flip, usually just after eglSwapBuffers call in the backend's *_SwapWindow function. the way that we just... wait. on purpose. for the vibes. and for the latency 🫶

this hint is currently supported on the following drivers:

• Raspberry Pi (raspberrypi)
• Wayland (wayland)

⚠️ this hint should be set before SDL is initialized. do not pass go, do not collect $200, set it early or it's giving nothing 💀

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⭐ AVAILABILITY ⭐

this hint is available since SDL 3.2.0. she's not ancient, she's not brand new, she's just right 🌈

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! go forth and double buffer responsibly 🧚💜

this has been your girl from Simple Directmedia Layer, reporting live from SDL 3.4.18, signing off on SDL_HINT_VIDEO_DOUBLE_BUFFER(3) — mwah, periodt 💅✨