Do SDL surfaces get reused?

Question

In SDL, lets say I'm rendering text to a surface. Then I blit it with the scene's main surface to form a composite image to flip.

I get the text surface into a class-level member called 'messageSurface':

messageSurface = TTF_RenderText_Solid( ..... );

So, do I have to call

SDL_FreeSurface(messageSurface);

on every loop to prevent memory leaks? Or will SDL "reuse" the old surface the next time around?

Whether it's class-level or not makes no difference. TTF_RenderText_Solid creates a new object and returns a pointer to it, and assignment in C++ overwrites the old value, so you no longer have a reference to the previous surface, meaning it will leak. — Kylotan, Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 10:30

Jari Komppa · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-17 07:00:53Z

1

According to documentation here:

the pointer returned is to a new surface. So yes, you need to free the surface to avoid memory leaks.

Offhand, that seems a rather odd API design. Instead, I would have expected you to pass an allocated surface to the function.

answered Aug 17, 2012 at 7:00

Jari Komppa

7,8933 gold badges30 silver badges62 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ It's impractical to know what size surface you'd have to pass in. \$\endgroup\$
– Kylotan
Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 10:28
\$\begingroup\$ More impractical than reallocating bunch of surfaces each frame? I do get your point, though. I would have given several options. \$\endgroup\$
– Jari Komppa
Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 12:21
\$\begingroup\$ If the text doesn't change, just use the same surface. \$\endgroup\$
– Kylotan
Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 13:32

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1