SDL_UnlockTexture(3)

💖 SDL_UnlockTexture 💖

okay bestie, welcome to SDL3 FUNCTIONS — today we're talking about SDL_UnlockTexture(3) and honestly? she's the closing half of a two-part saga. no cap.

✨ NAME ✨

SDL_UnlockTexture — unlock a texture, uploading the changes to video memory, if needed. that's the whole vibe. lock it, do ur little pixel art, unlock it, and the GPU gets the memo 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_render.h>

void SDL_UnlockTexture(SDL_Texture *texture);

look at her. returns nothing. takes one pointer. lowkey iconic in her simplicity 💅

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Warning: Please note that SDL_LockTexture() is intended to be write-only; it will not guarantee the previous contents of the texture will be provided. You must fully initialize any area of a texture that you lock before unlocking it, as the pixels might otherwise be uninitialized memory.

read that again, fr fr. like, SDL_LockTexture() is giving write-only energy — she does NOT promise to hand you back whatever was in there before. so if you lock a region, you gotta fill in every single pixel of that region before you unlock it. otherwise you're unlocking a bunch of uninitialized memory and the renderer is just gonna do whatever with it 😭

which is to say: locking and immediately unlocking a texture can result in corrupted textures, depending on the renderer in use. like, yes, just flipping the lock on and off with zero pixels written in between? that's the cursed move. do not do that. different renderers will react differently and none of them are gonna be cute about it 💀

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🧚 FUNCTION PARAMETERS 🧚

• texture — a texture locked by SDL_LockTexture(). like, she has to already be locked. you can't unlock something that was never locked, that's not the plot bestie 🙈

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🔥 THREAD SAFETY 🔥

This function should only be called on the main thread. main character energy only. don't be sneaking her onto a worker thread, she does not want that ✋

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🌈 AVAILABILITY 🌈

This function is available since SDL 3.2.0. so if you're on something older, no she isn't, and you're gonna have a bad time 🫶

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• SDL_LockTexture(3) — the other half of the duo, the before to this after. go read her too, they're a package deal ⭐

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and that's the page, bestie!! slay 💖 this was brought to you by Simple Directmedia Layer, version SDL 3.4.18, dated the same as SDL_UnlockTexture(3) — mwah, go initialize ur pixels properly, ily, bye 🎀✨