request_video_bitmap(3)

✨ request_video_bitmap ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the Allegro manual, page request_video_bitmap(3) 💖 this one's from the Allegro game programming library and it is lowkey the plug for triple buffering, so buckle up 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

request_video_bitmap — the triple buffering page flip request 💅 she asks, she does not wait. iconic behaviour honestly.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <allegro.h>

int request_video_bitmap(BITMAP *bitmap);

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so the tea is this: request_video_bitmap is your girl for triple buffering 🌈 she requests a page flip to show off the video bitmap object you hand her — but she returns immediately instead of standing around waiting for a retrace. no waiting, no queuing, we are busy 💅

the flip itself will then happen during the next vertical retrace, and while that's cooking you can just… keep running other code?? yes bestie, multitask, main character energy ✨ and when you wanna know if the flip actually went down, you hit up the poll_scroll() routine and she'll tell you 🫶

real talk though: triple buffering is only possible on certain hardware 🔥 don't come for me if your rig says no. go read the comments about request_scroll() for the details, iykyk 💀

example time, and yes it's the whole thing, no crumbs left behind 🍓

int current_page;
BITMAP *video_page[3];
...
/* Create pages for page flipping */
video_page[0] = create_video_bitmap(SCREEN_W, SCREEN_H);
video_page[1] = create_video_bitmap(SCREEN_W, SCREEN_H);
video_page[2] = create_video_bitmap(SCREEN_W, SCREEN_H);
current_page = 0;
...
/* draw the screen and flip pages */
draw_screen(video_page[current_page]);
do {
} while (poll_scroll());
request_video_bitmap(video_page[current_page]);
current_page = (current_page+1)%3;
...

like. look at her cycle through those pages. (current_page+1)%3. absolute queen behaviour 👑

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💖 RETURN VALUE 💖

returns zero on success and non-zero on failure 🌸 so like, zero is the good one here, don't let the numbers gaslight you 😭

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

• poll_scroll(3)
• request_scroll(3)
• gfx_capabilities(3)
• create_video_bitmap(3)
• scroll_screen(3)
• ex3buf(3)
• exupdate(3)

go read those too, they're all part of the same friend group 🫶✨

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and that's the page!! this was Allegro version 4.4.3, request_video_bitmap(3), and yeah that's the whole vibe 💜 stay flipping bestie, no cap 🧚