Re: [AD] [WIN] DirectDraw surfaces restoring

["Gillius" <gillius@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 9 Sep 2002 at 18:00, Eric Botcazou wrote:
> However I understand that the opposite viewpoint has the consistency on its
> side.
> 
> What do other developers think ? Should we definitely make a call now or
> wait until the patch proves to work ?

Hmm well I believe Allegro has an option to suspend the program when 
swtiched out?

This might be a bad thing from my point of view, and having switched 
in/outs might be the answer.

If I make a multiplayer game, or a network-aware application of some sort, 
I may want to keep my game paused while still communicating to the 
server... but then again in most MP games you can't pause it, so if you 
leave, the action continues, thus your game will be running fully even when 
switched out.

Regardless, I thought it was at least implied that the switch callbacks 
would be paired properly.  A note should be made in the docs if not already 
there ( I don't see it there in my Allegro 4.0.1 docs ). 

If the callbacks should not be paired, then it might be worthwhile to 
provide a function to determine the current state of the window -- is it 
visible or not visible, and if it is focused or not focused.  Even when not 
switching out and in, if the window is entirely concealed (behind) another 
window, that info may still be useful so that you don't waste time drawing 
graphics.  This could improve Allegro's support in the area of non-
fullscreen apps, as Allegro is useful than more than just games.

These are just thoughts though, I don't know if I'd use any of them.  For 
the time being, for my games using dirty rects, they just set a "total 
redraw" flag when the switch in callback is activated, and so far that's 
been good enough for me.

Gillius