% Graphics

# Colors

## API: ALLEGRO_COLOR

An ALLEGRO_COLOR structure describes a color in a device
independant way. Use [al_map_rgb] et al. and [al_unmap_rgb] et al. to
translate from and to various color representations.

## API: al_map_rgb

Convert r, g, b (ranging from 0-255) into an ALLEGRO_COLOR,
using 255 for alpha.

See also: [al_map_rgba], [al_map_rgba_f], [al_map_rgb_f]

## API: al_map_rgb_f

Convert r, g, b, (ranging from 0.0f-1.0f) into an ALLEGRO_COLOR,
using 1.0f for alpha.

See also: [al_map_rgba], [al_map_rgb], [al_map_rgba_f]

## API: al_map_rgba

Convert r, g, b, a  (ranging from 0-255) into an ALLEGRO_COLOR.

See also: [al_map_rgb], [al_map_rgba_f], [al_map_rgb_f]

## API: al_map_rgba_f

Convert r, g, b, a (ranging from 0.0f-1.0f) into an ALLEGRO_COLOR.

See also: [al_map_rgba], [al_map_rgb], [al_map_rgb_f]

## API: al_unmap_rgb

Retrieves components of an ALLEGRO_COLOR, ignoring alpha
Components will range from 0-255.

See also: [al_unmap_rgba], [al_unmap_rgba_f], [al_unmap_rgb_f]

## API: al_unmap_rgb_f

Retrieves components of an ALLEGRO_COLOR, ignoring alpha.
Components will range from 0.0f-1.0f.

See also: [al_unmap_rgba], [al_unmap_rgb], [al_unmap_rgba_f]

## API: al_unmap_rgba

Retrieves components of an ALLEGRO_COLOR.
Components will range from 0-255.

See also: [al_unmap_rgb], [al_unmap_rgba_f], [al_unmap_rgb_f]

## API: al_unmap_rgba_f

Retrieves components of an ALLEGRO_COLOR.
Components will range from 0.0f-1.0f.

See also: [al_unmap_rgba], [al_unmap_rgb], [al_unmap_rgb_f]



# Locking and pixel formats

## API: ALLEGRO_LOCKED_REGION

Users who wish to manually edit or read from a bitmap
are required to lock it first. The ALLEGRO_LOCKED_REGION
structure represents the locked region of the bitmap. This
call will work with any bitmap, including memory bitmaps.

    typedef struct ALLEGRO_LOCKED_REGION {
            void *data; // the bitmap data
            int format; // the pixel format of the data
            int pitch;  // the size in bytes of a single line
                        // pitch may be greater than pixel_size*bitmap->w
                        // i.e. padded with extra bytes
    }

## API: ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT

Pixel formats. Each pixel format specifies the exact size and bit
layout of a pixel in memory. Components are specified from high bits
to low bits, so for example a fully opaque red pixel in ARGB_8888 format
is 0xFFFF0000.

Note:

The pixel format is independent of endianness. That is, in the above
example you can always get the red component with

 (pixel & 0x00ff0000) >> 16

But you can *not* rely on this code:

 *(pixel + 2)

It will return the red component on little endian systems, but the
green component on big endian systems.

Also note that Allegro's naming is different from OpenGL naming here,
where a format of GL_RGBA8 merely defines the component order and the
exact layout including endianness treatment is specified separately.
Usually GL_RGBA8 will correspond to ALLEGRO_PIXEL_ABGR_8888 though on
little endian systems, so care must be taken (note the reversal of
RGBA <-> ABGR).

The only exception to this ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ABGR_8888_LE which will always
have the components as 4 bytes corresponding to red, green, blue and alpha,
in this order, independent of the endianness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Format                     Notes
-------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY               Let the driver choose a format. This is
                                       the default format at program start.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_NO_ALPHA      Let the driver choose a format without
                                       alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_WITH_ALPHA    Let the driver choose a format with
                                       alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_15_NO_ALPHA   Let the driver choose a 15 bit format
                                       without alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_15_WITH_ALPHA Let the driver choose a 15 bit format
                                       with alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_16_NO_ALPHA   Let the driver choose a 16 bit format
                                       without alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_16_WITH_ALPHA Let the driver choose a 16 bit
                                       format with alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_24_NO_ALPHA   Let the driver choose a 24 bit format
                                       without alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_24_WITH_ALPHA Let the driver choose a 24 bit
                                       format with alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_32_NO_ALPHA   Let the driver choose a 32 bit format
                                       without alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY_32_WITH_ALPHA Let the driver choose a 32 bit
                                       format with alpha.

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ARGB_8888         32 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_RGBA_8888         32 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ARGB_4444         16 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_RGB_888           24 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_RGB_565           16 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_RGB_555           15 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_RGBA_5551         16 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ARGB_1555         16 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ABGR_8888         32 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_XBGR_8888         32 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_BGR_888           24 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_BGR_565           16 bit 

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_BGR_555           15 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_RGBX_8888         32 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_XRGB_8888         32 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ABGR_F32          128 bit

ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ABGR_8888_LE      Like the version without _LE, but the
                                       component order is guaranteed to be
                                       red, green, blue, alpha. This only makes
                                       a difference on big endian systems, on
                                       little endian it is just an alias.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

## API: al_get_pixel_size

## API: al_get_pixel_format_bits

## API: al_lock_bitmap

Lock an entire bitmap for reading or writing. If the bitmap is a
display bitmap it will be updated from system memory after the bitmap
is unlocked (unless locked read only). Returns NULL if the bitmap cannot
be locked, e.g. the bitmap was locked previously and not unlocked.

Flags are:

* ALLEGRO_LOCK_READONLY - The locked region will not be written to. This can
be faster if the bitmap is a video texture, as it can be discarded after
the lock instead of uploaded back to the card.
    
* ALLEGRO_LOCK_WRITEONLY - The locked region will not be read from. This can
be faster if the bitmap is a video texture, as no data need to be read
from the video card. You are required to fill in all pixels before
unlocking the bitmap again, so be careful when using this flag.

'format' indicates the pixel format that the returned buffer will be in.
To lock in the same format as the bitmap stores it's data internally,
call with `al_get_bitmap_format(bitmap)` as the format or use
ALLEGRO_FORMAT_ANY. Locking in the native format will usually be faster.

Note:

While a bitmap is locked, you can not use any drawing operations on
it (with the sole exception of [al_put_pixel] and [al_draw_pixel]).

## API: al_lock_bitmap_region

Like [al_lock_bitmap], but only locks a specific area of the bitmap.
If the bitmap is a display bitmap, only that area of the texture will
be updated when it is unlocked. Locking only the region you indend to
modify will be faster than locking the whole bitmap.

See Also: [al_lock_bitmap]

## API: al_unlock_bitmap

Unlock a previously locked bitmap or bitmap region. If the bitmap
is a display bitmap, the texture will be updated to match the system
memory copy (unless it was locked read only).



# Bitmap creation

## API: al_clone_bitmap

Clone a bitmap "exactly", formats can be different.

## API: al_create_bitmap

Creates a new bitmap using the bitmap format and flags for the current
thread. Blitting between bitmaps of differing formats, or blitting
between memory bitmaps and display bitmaps may be slow.

Unless you set the ALLEGRO_MEMORY_BITMAP flag, the bitmap is created
for the current display. Blitting to another display may be slow.

If a display bitmap is created, there may be limitations on the
allowed dimensions. For example a DirectX or OpenGL backend usually
has a maximum allowed texture size - so if bitmap creation fails
for very large dimensions, you may want to re-try with a smaller
bitmap.

See Also: [al_set_new_bitmap_format], [al_set_new_bitmap_flags]

## API: al_create_sub_bitmap

Creates a sub-bitmap of the parent, at the specified coordinates and of the
specified size. A sub-bitmap is a bitmap that shares drawing memory with a
pre-existing (parent) bitmap, but possibly with a different size and
clipping settings.

If the sub-bitmap does not lie completely inside the parent bitmap, then
it is automatically clipped so that it does.

The parent bitmap's clipping rectangles are ignored.

If a sub-bitmap was not or cannot be created then NULL is returned.

Note that destroying parents of sub-bitmaps will not destroy the
sub-bitmaps; instead the sub-bitmaps become invalid and should no
longer be used.

## API: al_destroy_bitmap

Destroys the given bitmap, freeing all resources used by it.
Does nothing if given the null pointer.

## API: al_get_new_bitmap_flags

Returns the flags used for newly created bitmaps.

## API: al_get_new_bitmap_format

Returns the format used for newly created bitmaps.

## API: al_load_bitmap

Load a bitmap from a file using the bitmap format and flags of
the current thread.

See Also: [al_set_new_bitmap_format], [al_set_new_bitmap_flags]

## API: al_set_new_bitmap_flags

Sets the flags to use for newly created bitmaps.
Valid flags are:

* ALLEGRO_MEMORY_BITMAP - The bitmap will use a format most closely resembling
the format used in the bitmap file and al_create_memory_bitmap will be used
to create it. If this flag is not specified, al_create_bitmap will be used
instead and the display driver will determine the format.

XXX al_create_memory_bitmap doesn't exist any more

* ALLEGRO_KEEP_BITMAP_FORMAT - Only used when loading bitmaps from disk files,
forces the resulting ALLEGRO_BITMAP to use the same format as the file.

* ALLEGRO_FORCE_LOCKING - When drawing to a bitmap with this flag set, always
use pixel locking and draw to it using Allegro's software drawing primitives.
This should never be used if you plan to draw to the bitmap using Allegro's
graphics primitives as it would cause severe performance penalties. However if
you know that the bitmap will only ever be accessed by locking it, no unneeded
FBOs will be created for it in the OpenGL drivers.

* ALLEGRO_NO_PRESERVE_TEXTURE - Normally, every effort is taken to preserve
the contents of bitmaps since some drivers may forget them. This can take
extra time. If you know it doesn't matter if a bitmap keeps it's image,
for example a temporary buffer, use this flag to tell Allegro no to attempt
to preserve the contents of bitmaps created after this flag is set. This
can lead to speed improvements in your program.

## API: al_set_new_bitmap_format

Sets the pixel format for newly created bitmaps.
The default format is 0 and means the display driver will choose
the best format.




# Bitmap properties

## API: al_get_bitmap_flags

Return the flags user to create the bitmap.

## API: al_get_bitmap_format

Returns the pixel format of a bitmap.

## API: al_get_bitmap_height

Returns the height of a bitmap in pixels.

## API: al_get_bitmap_width

Returns the width of a bitmap in pixels.

## API: al_get_pixel

Get a pixel's color value from the specified bitmap.

## API: al_is_bitmap_locked

Returns whether or not a bitmap is already locked.

## API: al_is_compatible_bitmap

D3D and OpenGL allow sharing a texture in a way so it can be used for
multiple windows. Each ALLEGRO_BITMAP created with [al_create_bitmap]
however is usually tied to a single ALLEGRO_DISPLAY. This function can
be used to know if the bitmap is compatible with the current display,
even if it is another display than the one it was created with. It
returns true if the bitmap is compatible (things like a cached texture
version can be used) and false otherwise (blitting in the current
display will be slow).

The only time this function is useful is if you
are using multiple windows and need accelerated blitting of the same
bitmaps to both. 

## API: al_is_sub_bitmap

Returns true if the specified bitmap is a sub-bitmap, false otherwise.



# Drawing operations

All drawing operations draw to the current "target bitmap" of the
current thread. Initially, the target bitmap will be the backbuffer of
the last display created in a thread.

## API: al_clear_to_color

Clear the complete target bitmap, but confined by the clipping rectangle.

## API: al_draw_bitmap

Draws an unscaled, unrotated bitmap at the given position
to the current target bitmap (see [al_set_target_bitmap]).
flags can be a combination of:

* ALLEGRO_FLIP_HORIZONTAL - flip the bitmap about the y-axis
* ALLEGRO_FLIP_VERTICAL - flip the bitmap about the x-axis

## API: al_draw_bitmap_region

Draws a region of the given bitmap to the target bitmap.

* sx - source x
* sy - source y
* sw - source width (width of region to blit)
* sh - source height (height of region to blit)
* dx - destination x
* dy - destination y
* flags - same as for [al_draw_bitmap]

## API: al_draw_pixel

Draws a single pixel at x, y. This function, unlike
al_put_pixel, does blending.

* x - destination x
* y - destination y
* color - color of the pixel

## API: al_draw_rotated_bitmap

Draws a rotated version of the given bitmap to the target bitmap.
The bitmap is rotated by 'angle' radians counter clockwise.

The point at cx/cy inside the bitmap will be drawn at dx/dy and the
bitmap is rotated around this point.

* cx - center x
* cy - center y
* dx - destination x
* dy - destination y
* angle - angle by which to rotate
* flags - same as for [al_draw_bitmap]

## API: al_draw_rotated_scaled_bitmap

Like [al_draw_rotated_bitmap], but can also scale the bitmap.

The point at cx/cy in the bitmap will be drawn at dx/dy and the bitmap is
rotated and scaled around this point.

* cx - center x
* cy - center y
* dx - destination x
* dy - destination y
* xscale - how much to scale on the x-axis (e.g. 2 for twice the size)
* yscale - how much to scale on the y-axis
* angle - angle by which to rotate
* flags - same as for [al_draw_bitmap]

## API: al_draw_scaled_bitmap

Draws a scaled version of the given bitmap to the target bitmap.

* sx - source x
* sy - source y
* sw - source width
* sh - source height
* dx - destination x
* dy - destination y
* dw - destination width
* dh - destination height
* flags - same as for [al_draw_bitmap]

## API: al_get_target_bitmap

Return the target bitmap of the current display.

## API: al_put_pixel

Draw a single pixel on the target bitmap.

## API: al_set_target_bitmap

Select the bitmap to which all subsequent drawing operations in the calling
thread will draw. 



# Blending modes

## API: al_get_blender

Returns the active blender for the current thread. You can pass
NULL for values you are not interested in.

## API: al_get_separate_blender

Returns the active blender for the current thread. You can pass
NULL for values you are not interested in.

## API: al_set_blender

Sets the function to use for blending for the current thread.

Blending means, the source and destination colors are combined in
drawing operations.

Assume, the source color (e.g. color of a rectangle to draw, or pixel
of a bitmap to draw), is given as its red/green/blue/alpha
components (if the bitmap has no alpha, it always is assumed to be
fully opaque, so 255 for 8-bit or 1.0 for floating point):
*sr, sg, sb, sa*.
And this color is drawn to a destination, which already has a color:
*dr, dg, db, da*.

Blending formula:
The conceptional formula used by Allegro to draw any pixel then is

    r = dr * dst + sr * src
    g = dg * dst + sg * src
    b = db * dst + sb * src
    a = da * dst + sa * src

Blending functions:
Valid values for <src> and <dst> passed to this function are

* ALLEGRO_ZERO - src, dst = 0
* ALLEGRO_ONE - src, dst = 1
* ALLEGRO_ALPHA - src, dst = sa
* ALLEGRO_INVERSE_ALPHA - src, dst = 1 - sa

The color parameter specified the blend color, it is multipled with
the source color before the above blending operation.

Blending examples:
So for example, to restore the default of using alpha blending, you
would use (pseudo code)

    al_set_blender(ALLEGRO_ALPHA, ALLEGRO_INVERSE_ALPHA, {1, 1, 1, 1})

If in addition you want to draw half transparently

    al_set_blender(ALLEGRO_ALPHA, ALLEGRO_INVERSE_ALPHA, {1, 1, 1, 0.5})

Additive blending would be achieved with

    al_set_blender(ALLEGRO_ONE, ALLEGRO_ONE, {1, 1, 1, 1})

Copying the source to the destination (including alpha) unmodified

    al_set_blender(ALLEGRO_ONE, ALLEGRO_ZERO, {1, 1, 1, 1})

## API: al_set_separate_blender

Like [al_set_blender], but allows specifying a separate blending
operation for the alpha channel.



# Clipping

## API: al_get_clipping_rectangle

Gets the clipping rectangle of the target bitmap.

## API: al_set_clipping_rectangle

Set the region of the target bitmap or display that
pixels get clipped to. The default is to clip pixels
to the entire bitmap.




# Miscellaneous

## API: al_convert_mask_to_alpha

Convert the given mask color to an alpha channel in the bitmap.
Can be used to convert older 4.2-style bitmaps with magic pink
to alpha-ready bitmaps.
