(This is the legacy documentation for SDL2, the previous stable version; SDL3 is the current stable version.)

SDL_UpdateTexture

Update the given texture rectangle with new pixel data.

Header File

Syntax

int 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

(int) Returns 0 on success or a negative error code on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Remarks

The pixel data must be in the pixel format of the texture. Use SDL_QueryTexture() to query the pixel format of the texture.

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.

Version

This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.