(This is the documentation for SDL3, which is under heavy development and the API is changing! SDL2 is the current stable version!)

SDL_RenderReadPixels

Read pixels from the current rendering target.

Header File

Defined in <SDL3/SDL_render.h>

Syntax

SDL_Surface * SDL_RenderReadPixels(SDL_Renderer *renderer, const SDL_Rect *rect);

Function Parameters

renderer the rendering context
rect an SDL_Rect structure representing the area in pixels relative to the to current viewport, or NULL for the entire viewport

Return Value

Returns a new SDL_Surface on success or NULL on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Remarks

The returned surface should be freed with SDL_DestroySurface()

WARNING: This is a very slow operation, and should not be used frequently. If you're using this on the main rendering target, it should be called after rendering and before SDL_RenderPresent().

Version

This function is available since SDL 3.0.0.

CategoryAPI, CategoryAPIFunction, CategoryRender