Mason Wheeler to sdl I updated SDL, and suddenly my SDL frames stopped working. They'd "initialize" full of gibberish, and I couldn't render anything to them. After a bit of digging, I found a problem: the renderer initialization routine in my SDL frame code wasn't getting called anymore. procedure TSdlFrame.Paint; begin if SDL_SelectRenderer(FWindowID) = -1 then CreateRenderer; SDL_RenderPresent; end; function TSdlFrame.CreateRenderer: boolean; const pf: tagPIXELFORMATDESCRIPTOR = (nSize: sizeof(pf); nVersion: 1; dwFlags: PFD_DRAW_TO_WINDOW or PFD_SUPPORT_OPENGL or PFD_DOUBLEBUFFER; iPixelType: PFD_TYPE_RGBA; cColorBits: 24; cAlphaBits: 8; iLayerType: PFD_MAIN_PLANE); RENDERERS: array[TRendererType] of AnsiString = ('software', 'gdi', 'opengl', 'd3d'); var pFormat: integer; begin if (SDL_SelectRenderer(FWindowID) = 0) then begin result := true; Exit; end; if FRendererType = rtOpenGL then begin pFormat := ChoosePixelFormat(canvas.Handle, @pf); if not SetPixelFormat(canvas.Handle, pFormat, @pf) then outputDebugString(PChar(SysErrorMessage(GetLastError))); if wglCreateContext(canvas.Handle) = 0 then outputDebugString(PChar(SysErrorMessage(GetLastError))); end; if (SDL_CreateRenderer(FWindowID, SDL_RendererIndex(RENDERERS[FRendererType]), [sdlrPresentFlip3, sdlrAccelerated]) = 0) then begin SDL_ShowWindow(FWindowID); assert(SDL_SetRenderDrawColor(0, 0, 0, 255) = 0); FFlags := SDL_GetWindowFlags(FWindowID); if assigned(FOnAvailable) then FOnAvailable(self); end else outputDebugString(pChar(format('SDL_CreateRenderer failed: %s', [sdl_GetError]))); result := SDL_SelectRenderer(FWindowID) = 0; end; This is a critical issue. The Paint method gets called when the control receives a WM_PAINT message from Windows. I can't create the renderer before then, or it will fail and cause trouble. And when I do create it, it needs to be created with certain parameters. So imagine my surprise when I started debugging into the DLL and found that SDL_SelectRenderer was trying to be "helpful" by creating the renderer for me if it didn't already exist! Now not only does my initialization code not get called, I end up with the wrong renderer and so things don't render as expected when I try to use the window.

/*
    SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer
    Copyright (C) 1997-2009 Sam Lantinga

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
    License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
    version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

    This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
    Lesser General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
    License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA

    Sam Lantinga
    slouken@libsdl.org
*/

#ifndef _SDL_DirectFB_dyn_h
#define _SDL_DirectFB_dyn_h

#define DFB_SYMS \
	DFB_SYM(DFBResult, DirectFBError, (const char *msg, DFBResult result), (msg, result), return) \
	DFB_SYM(DFBResult, DirectFBErrorFatal, (const char *msg, DFBResult result), (msg, result), return) \
	DFB_SYM(const char *, DirectFBErrorString, (DFBResult result), (result), return) \
	DFB_SYM(const char *, DirectFBUsageString, ( void ), (), return) \
	DFB_SYM(DFBResult, DirectFBInit, (int *argc, char *(*argv[]) ), (argc, argv), return) \
	DFB_SYM(DFBResult, DirectFBSetOption, (const char *name, const char *value), (name, value), return) \
	DFB_SYM(DFBResult, DirectFBCreate, (IDirectFB **interface), (interface), return) \
	DFB_SYM(const char *, DirectFBCheckVersion, (unsigned int required_major, unsigned int required_minor, unsigned int required_micro), \
				(required_major, required_minor, required_micro), return)
// #define SDL_VIDEO_DRIVER_DIRECTFB_DYNAMIC "/usr/lib/libdirectfb-1.2.so.0"

int SDL_DirectFB_LoadLibrary(void);
void SDL_DirectFB_UnLoadLibrary(void);

#endif