Low-level rendering

Besides the high-level convenience classes sf::Sprite, sf::Text and sf::Shape, SFML provides a low-level graphics API which is more complicated to use, but allows more flexibility. In the next section, we are going to look behind the scenes of rendering and discuss corresponding techniques as they are implemented in SFML.

OpenGL and graphics cards

The graphics card architecture consists of many components. Notable are the graphics processing unit (GPU), which performs computations on the graphics card, and the video memory, which stores data such as textures. In contrast to their counterparts CPU and RAM, graphics cards' components are highly optimized to process 2D and 3D graphics.

SFML is built on top of the Open Graphics Library ...

Get SFML Game Development now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.