Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 17:06:20 +0100 From: Per Inge Mathisen Subject: [SDL] Fullscreen refresh on win32 Windows has a terrible default for fullscreen 3D apps of 60mhz refresh rate. This can be fixed by the user by going into his driver's control panel and forcing the refresh rate higher. However, this not a very user friendly way about it, and in any case SDL contains no code that could figure out this that condition has afflicted the user. So the question is, could SDL fix this for the user? It is possible under Windows to request a higher refresh rate. The danger is of course that if the user has an old monitor, and you request a too high refresh rate, the monitor could be damaged. However, I believe there might be a way around that: Check before switching what refresh rate the user's desktop runs in, and if our fullscreen dimensions are equal or less than those of the desktop, use the higher refresh rate of 60 and the desktop rate. Since most users run their desktops in the same or higher resolution something sane, this should fix this problem for most users. Thoughts? An alternative is to add an SDL_GL_GetAttribute(SDL_GL_REFRESH_RATE) option so that programs can bitch at their users at their own convenience. - Per

Wish list for the 1.3 development branch:

 * Use /etc/fb.modes, if available, like GGI does
 * Add mousewheel events (new unified event architecture?)
 * DirectInput joystick support needs to be implemented
 * Be able to enumerate and select available audio and video drivers
 * Fullscreen video mode support for MacOS X
 * Explicit vertical retrace wait (maybe separate from SDL_Flip?)
 * Shaped windows, windows without borders
 * Multiple windows, multiple display support
 * SDL_INIT_EVENTTHREAD on Windows and MacOS?
 * Add a timestamp to events
 * Use RDTSC for timer resolution on x86 hardware
 * Add audio input API
 * Add hardware accelerated scaled blit
 * Add hardware accelerated alpha blits
 * Redesign blitting architecture to allow blit plugins

In the jump from 1.2 to 1.3, we should change the SDL_Rect members to
int and evaluate all the rest of the datatypes.  This is the only place
we should do it though, since the 1.2 series should not break binary
compatibility in this way.

Requests:
 * PCM and CDROM volume control (deprecated, but possible)