(This is the documentation for SDL3, which is the current stable version. SDL2 was the previous version!)

SDL_UpdateTexture

Update the given texture rectangle with new pixel data.

Header File

Syntax

bool SDL_UpdateTexture(SDL_Texture *texture, const SDL_Rect *rect, const void *pixels, int pitch);

Function Parameters

SDL_Texture *	texture	the texture to update.
const SDL_Rect *	rect	an SDL_Rect structure representing the area to update, or NULL to update the entire texture.
const void *	pixels	the raw pixel data in the format of the texture.
int	pitch	the number of bytes in a row of pixel data, including padding between lines.

Return Value

(bool) Returns true on success or false on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Remarks

The pixel data must be in the pixel format of the texture, which can be queried using the SDL_PROP_TEXTURE_FORMAT_NUMBER property.

This is a fairly slow function, intended for use with static textures that do not change often.

If the texture is intended to be updated often, it is preferred to create the texture as streaming and use the locking functions referenced below. While this function will work with streaming textures, for optimization reasons you may not get the pixels back if you lock the texture afterward.

Thread Safety

This function should only be called on the main thread.

Version

This function is available since SDL 3.1.3.