Set the pixel format AND create texture from surface in SDL

Question

I am currently trying some things using pixel manipulation and I would like to set the pixel format of a SDL_Surface. The problem here is that I am loading up an image with the SDL_image.h. So I have to create a texture from a surface like this:

surface = IMG_Load(filePath);
texture = SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(renderer, surface);

So I can't use the following function, which I would like to, or can I?:

texture = SDL_CreateTexture(renderer, SDL_PIXELFORMAT_ARGB8888, SDL_TEXTUREACCESS_STATIC, 640, 480);

The thing is, that I want to set the SDL_PixelFormat to be able to mess around with the pixels. How can I both do this and create the texture based on a surface?

Answer 1

The SDL2 API provides the function SDL_ConvertSurface :

SDL_Surface* SDL_ConvertSurface(SDL_Surface*           src,
                                const SDL_PixelFormat* fmt,
                                Uint32                 flags)

You should be able to do

surface = IMG_Load(filePath);
// Call SDL_ConvertSurface to set the pixel format of the surface you have created.
texture = SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(renderer, surface);

Reference: https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL_ConvertSurface