Re: [AD] loss of videoBitmap after set_gfx_mode()

[Robert Ohannessian <ohannessian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Gillius wrote:

> No.  That's right.  At least for Windows.  Video bitmaps are stored in 
> the
> video card/DirectX.  When you switch graphics modes, you are essentially
> restarting DirectX, so anything that you had going related to DirectX is
> lost.


Yes - I completely agree. However, this does not mean that Allegro 
should *crash* because the surfaces were lost. Allegro already keeps 
track of video bitmaps (at least, it does on DOS and Windows). Couldn't 
it safely destroy them on each call to set_gfx_mode?

Also, I don't beleive this feature is documented anywhere.

I guess right now it's a debate in between making Allegro 
crash-resistent/user-proof (as much as possible), versus leaving it up 
to the coder to RTFM.

Maybe we can somehow signal this in the debug build instead? That way, 
the release build is unaffected, and the debug build gets to warn the 
coder about bad behavior...