NAME

       exsprite - Datafiles access and sprite animation. Allegro game programming library.

SYNOPSIS

       #include <allegro.h>

       Example exsprite

DESCRIPTION

       This  example  demonstrates  how  to  use  datafiles,  various sprite drawing routines and
       flicker-free animation.

       Why is the animate() routine coded in that way?  As you probably know, VIDEO RAM  is  much
       slower  than  "normal"  RAM, so it's advisable to reduce VRAM blits to a minimum.  Drawing
       sprite on the screen (meaning in VRAM) and then clearing a background for it is  not  very
       fast.  This  example  uses a different method which is much faster, but require a bit more
       memory.

       First the buffer is cleared (it's a normal BITMAP), then the sprite is drawn  on  it,  and
       when  the  drawing  is  finished  this buffer is copied directly to the screen. So the end
       result is that there is a single VRAM blit instead of blitting/clearing the background and
       drawing  a sprite on it.  It's a good method even when you have to restore the background.
       And of course, it completely removes any flickering effect.

       When one uses a big (ie. 800x600 background) and draws something on it, it's wise to use a
       copy  of  background  somewhere  in  memory  and  restore  background  using this "virtual
       background". When blitting from VRAM in SVGA modes, it's probably, that  drawing  routines
       have to switch banks on video card. I think, I don't have to remind how slow is it.

       Note  that  on  modern systems, the above isn't true anymore, and you usually get the best
       performance by caching all your animations in video ram and doing only  VRAM->VRAM  blits,
       so there is no more RAM->VRAM transfer at all anymore. And usually, such transfers can run
       in parallel on the graphics card's processor as well, costing virtually no main  cpu  time
       at all.  See the exaccel example for an example of this.

SEE ALSO

       BITMAP(3alleg4),    DATAFILE(3alleg4),   END_OF_FUNCTION(3alleg4),   END_OF_MAIN(3alleg4),
       LOCK_FUNCTION(3alleg4),  LOCK_VARIABLE(3alleg4),   SCREEN_H(3alleg4),   SCREEN_W(3alleg4),
       allegro_error(3alleg4),  allegro_init(3alleg4),  allegro_message(3alleg4),  blit(3alleg4),
       circle(3alleg4),  clear_bitmap(3alleg4),  clear_keybuf(3alleg4),   create_bitmap(3alleg4),
       destroy_bitmap(3alleg4),         draw_sprite(3alleg4),        draw_sprite_h_flip(3alleg4),
       draw_sprite_v_flip(3alleg4), draw_sprite_vh_flip(3alleg4), fixed(3alleg4),  font(3alleg4),
       hline(3alleg4),             install_int_ex(3alleg4),            install_keyboard(3alleg4),
       install_sound(3alleg4),     install_timer(3alleg4),     itofix(3alleg4),     key(3alleg4),
       keypressed(3alleg4),   load_datafile(3alleg4),  makecol(3alleg4),  palette_color(3alleg4),
       pivot_sprite(3alleg4),         pivot_sprite_v_flip(3alleg4),         play_sample(3alleg4),
       rectfill(3alleg4),      replace_filename(3alleg4),     rest(3alleg4),     screen(3alleg4),
       set_gfx_mode(3alleg4),             set_palette(3alleg4),             text_height(3alleg4),
       textout_centre_ex(3alleg4), unload_datafile(3alleg4), vsync(3alleg4)