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

SDL_VideoInit

Initialize the video subsystem, optionally specifying a video driver.

Header File

Syntax

int SDL_VideoInit(const char *driver_name);

Function Parameters

const char *

driver_name

the name of a video driver to initialize, or NULL for the default driver.

Return Value

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

Remarks

This function initializes the video subsystem, setting up a connection to the window manager, etc, and determines the available display modes and pixel formats, but does not initialize a window or graphics mode.

If you use this function and you haven't used the SDL_INIT_VIDEO flag with either SDL_Init() or SDL_InitSubSystem(), you should call SDL_VideoQuit() before calling SDL_Quit().

It is safe to call this function multiple times. SDL_VideoInit() will call SDL_VideoQuit() itself if the video subsystem has already been initialized.

You can use SDL_GetNumVideoDrivers() and SDL_GetVideoDriver() to find a specific driver_name.

Version

This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.