SDL_CreateWindow

Create a window with the specified dimensions and flags.

Header File

Defined in <SDL3/SDL_video.h>

Syntax

SDL_Window * SDL_CreateWindow(const char *title, int w, int h, SDL_WindowFlags flags);

Function Parameters

const char * title the title of the window, in UTF-8 encoding.
int w the width of the window.
int h the height of the window.
SDL_WindowFlags flags 0, or one or more SDL_WindowFlags OR'd together.

Return Value

(SDL_Window *) Returns the window that was created or NULL on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Remarks

The window size is a request and may be different than expected based on the desktop layout and window manager policies. Your application should be prepared to handle a window of any size.

flags may be any of the following OR'd together:

The SDL_Window is implicitly shown if SDL_WINDOW_HIDDEN is not set.

On Apple's macOS, you must set the NSHighResolutionCapable Info.plist property to YES, otherwise you will not receive a High-DPI OpenGL canvas.

The window pixel size may differ from its window coordinate size if the window is on a high pixel density display. Use SDL_GetWindowSize() to query the client area's size in window coordinates, and SDL_GetWindowSizeInPixels() or SDL_GetRenderOutputSize() to query the drawable size in pixels. Note that the drawable size can vary after the window is created and should be queried again if you get an SDL_EVENT_WINDOW_PIXEL_SIZE_CHANGED event.

If the window is created with any of the SDL_WINDOW_OPENGL or SDL_WINDOW_VULKAN flags, then the corresponding LoadLibrary function (SDL_GL_LoadLibrary or SDL_Vulkan_LoadLibrary) is called and the corresponding UnloadLibrary function is called by SDL_DestroyWindow().

If SDL_WINDOW_VULKAN is specified and there isn't a working Vulkan driver, SDL_CreateWindow() will fail, because SDL_Vulkan_LoadLibrary() will fail.

If SDL_WINDOW_METAL is specified on an OS that does not support Metal, SDL_CreateWindow() will fail.

If you intend to use this window with an SDL_Renderer, you should use SDL_CreateWindowAndRenderer() instead of this function, to avoid window flicker.

On non-Apple devices, SDL requires you to either not link to the Vulkan loader or link to a dynamic library version. This limitation may be removed in a future version of SDL.

Thread Safety

This function should only be called on the main thread.

Version

This function is available since SDL 3.2.0.

Code Examples

// Example program:
// Using SDL3 to create an application window

#include <SDL3/SDL.h>
#include <SDL3/SDL_main.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {

    SDL_Window *window;                    // Declare a pointer
    bool done = false;

    SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);              // Initialize SDL3

    // Create an application window with the following settings:
    window = SDL_CreateWindow(
        "An SDL3 window",                  // window title
        640,                               // width, in pixels
        480,                               // height, in pixels
        SDL_WINDOW_OPENGL                  // flags - see below
    );

    // Check that the window was successfully created
    if (window == NULL) {
        // In the case that the window could not be made...
        SDL_LogError(SDL_LOG_CATEGORY_ERROR, "Could not create window: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
        return 1;
    }

    while (!done) {
        SDL_Event event;

        while (SDL_PollEvent(&event)) {
            if (event.type == SDL_EVENT_QUIT) {
                done = true;
            }
        }

        // Do game logic, present a frame, etc.
    }

    // Close and destroy the window
    SDL_DestroyWindow(window);

    // Clean up
    SDL_Quit();
    return 0;
}

See Also

CategoryAPI, CategoryAPIFunction, CategoryVideo