bitmap_color_depth(3)

✨ bitmap_color_depth — the Allegro manual, but make it cute ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to bitmap_color_depth(3) 💖 this one lives in the Allegro manual, and it's genuinely one of the most lowkey useful little functions in the whole game programming library. no cap.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

bitmap_color_depth — returns the color depth of the specified bitmap 🎀 and yeah, it's part of the Allegro game programming library, in case the allegro.h wasn't a dead giveaway.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <allegro.h>

int bitmap_color_depth(BITMAP *bmp);

like, that's it. one include, one function, one BITMAP * argument. iconic behavior honestly 💅

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so what does it actually do? it returns the color depth of the bitmap you hand it — and the possible values are literally just 8, 15, 16, 24, or 32. that's the whole vibe check. 🫶

and why do you care?? because different depths want different code paths, bestie. here's the example from the page, verbatim:

switch (bitmap_color_depth(screen)) {
   case 8:
      /* Access screen using optimized 8-bit code. */
      break;
   default:
      /* Use generic slow functions. */
      break;
}

see what's happening? if the depth is 8, you get to use the optimized 8-bit code ✨. anything else falls into the default branch and you're stuck with the generic slow functions 😭. it's giving "know your depth or suffer the framerate".

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read these too, they're all in the same friend group:

• set_color_depth(3)
• bitmap_mask_color(3)
• ex3d(3)
• exlights(3)
• exscn3d(3)
• exswitch(3)
• extrans(3)
• exupdate(3)
• exzbuf(3)

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reminder bestie: every single one of those references is real and worth your time. go click around the manual, it's a whole vibe. 🌈

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and that's the page!! this was Allegro, version 4.4.3, and yes, bitmap_color_depth(3) really did eat 💅 mwah, love u, go check your color depth before you write any rendering code 🎀💖✨