PySDL2 for Pygamers

Care to move to a newer SDL with your Pygame knowledge? Then you should know one thing or two about PySDL2 before hacking code, since it is completely different from Pygame. Do not let that fact scare you away, the basics with graphics and sound are still the same (as they are fundamental), but you will not find many similarities to the Pygame API within PySDL2.

Todo

More details, examples, etc.

Conceptual differences

TODO

Technical differences

Pygame is implemented as a mixture of Python, C and Assembler code, wrapping 3rd party libraries with CPython API interfaces. PySDL2 in contrast is written in pure Python, using ctypes to interface with the C interfaces of 3rd party libraries.

API differences

pygame

pygame sdl2
init() sdl2.init() where appropriate
quit() sdl2.quit() where appropriate
error No equivalent
get_error() sdl2.get_error()
set_error() sdl2.set_error()
get_sdl_version() sdl2.version.get_version()
get_sdl_byteorder() sdl2.endian.SDL_BYTEORDER
register_quit() No equivalent planned
encode_string() Encoding and decoding strings is done implicitly, where necessary
encode_file_path() Encoding and decoding strings is done implicitly, where necessary

pygame.cdrom

PySDL2 does not feature any CD-ROM related interfaces. They were removed in SDL2 and mule does not provide its own facilities.

pygame.Color

You can find a similar class in sdl2.ext.color.Color. It does not feature a set_length() or correct_gamma() method, though.

pygame.cursors

PySDL2 does not feature any pre-defined cursor settings at the moment.

pygame.display

pygame.display sdl2
init() sdl2.ext.init()
quit() sdl2.ext.quit()
get_init() sdl2.SDL_WasInit()
set_mode() mule.video.window.Window
get_surface() mule.video.window.Window.get_surface()
flip() mule.video.window.Window.refresh()
update() mule.sdl2.video.update_window_surface_rects()
get_driver() mule.sdl2.video.get_current_video_driver()
Info No equivalent yet
get_wm_info() mule.sdl2.syswm.get_window_wm_info()
list_modes() mule.sdl2.video.get_num_display_modes()
mode_ok() mule.sdl2.video.get_closest_display_mode()
gl_get_attribute() mule.sdl2.video.gl_get_attribute()
gl_set_attribute() mule.sdl2.video.gl_set_attribute()
get_active() No equivalent yet
iconify() mule.video.window.Window.minimize()
toggle_fullscreen() mule.sdl2.video.set_window_fullscreen()
set_gamma() mule.sdl2.video.set_window_brightness()
set_gamma_ramp() mule.sdl2.video.set_window_gamma_ramp()
set_icon() mule.sdl2.video.set_window_icon()
set_caption() mule.video.window.Window.title
get_caption() mule.video.window.Window.title
set_palette() mule.sdl2.surface.set_surface_palette()

pygame.draw

pygame.draw mule
rect() mule.sdl2.render.render_draw_rect(), mule.video.draw.fill()
polygon() No equivalent yet
circle() No equivalent yet
ellipse() No equivalent yet
arc() No equivalent yet
lines() mule.sdl2.render.render_draw_lines(), mule.video.draw.line()
aaline() No equivalent yet
aalines() No equivalent yet

pygame.event

pygame.event mule
pump() mule.sdl2.events.pump_events()
get() mule.sdl2.events.poll_event()
poll() mule.sdl2.events.poll_event()
wait() mule.sdl2.events.wait_event()
peek() mule.sdl2.events.peep_events()
clear() mule.sdl2.events.flush_events()
event_name() No equivalent planned
set_blocked() mule.sdl2.events.event_state()
get_blocked() mule.sdl2.events.event_state()
set_allowed() mule.sdl2.events.event_state()
set_grab() mule.sdl2.video.set_window_grab()
get_grab() mule.sdl2.video.get_window_grab()
post() mule.sdl2.events.peep_events()
Event mule.sdl2.events.SDL_Event

pygame.font

pygame.font mule
init() mule.sdlttf.init()
quit() mule.sdlttf.quit()
get_init() No equivalent planned
get_default_font() No equivalent planned
get_fonts() mule.font.get_fonts()
match_font() mule.font.get_font()
SysFont No equivalent planned
Font No equivalent yet

pygame.freetype

mule does not feature direct FreeType support at the moment.

pygame.gfxdraw

mule does not feature SDL_gfx support at the moment.

pygame.image

pygame.image mule
load() mule.sdlimage.load(), mule.video.image.load_image()
save() mule.sdl2.surface.save_bmp()
get_extended() mule.sdlimage.is_bmp() et al.
tostring() No equivalent yet
fromstring() No equivalent yet
frombuffer() No equivalent yet

pygame.joystick

pygame.joystick mule
init() mule.sdl2.init()
quit() mule.sdl2.quit()
get_init() mule.sdl2.was_init()
get_count() mule.sdl2.joystick.joystick_num_joysticks()
Joystick() mule.sdl2.joystick.SDL_Joystick and related functions

pygame.key

pygame.key mule
get_focused() mule.sdl2.keyboard.get_keyboard_focus()
get_pressed() mule.sdl2.keyboard.get_keyboard_state()
get_mods() mule.sdl2.keyboard.get_mod_state()
set_mods() mule.sdl2.keyboard.set_mod_state()
set_repeat() Based on the OS/WM settings, no equivalent
get_repeat() Based on the OS/WM settings, no equivalent
name() mule.sdl2.keyboard.get_key_name()

pygame.locals

Constants in mule are spread across the different packages and modules, depending on where they originate from.

pygame.mixer

SDL_mixer is currently not supported by mule. The focus is set on OpenAL usage through mule.openal and mule.audio.

pygame.mixer mule
init() No necessity to explicitly initialize
quit() No necessity to explicitly quit
get_init() No necessity to explicitly initialize
stop() mule.audio.SoundSource.request = SOURCE_STOP
pause() mule.audio.SoundSource.request = SOURCE_PAUSE
unpause() mule.audio.SoundSource.request = SOURCE_PLAY
fadeout() No equivalent yet
set_num_channels() Depends on the mule.audio.SoundSink device and bound mule.audio.SoundSource instances.
get_num_channels() Depends on the mule.audio.SoundSink device and bound mule.audio.SoundSource instances.
set_reserved() Depends on the mule.audio.SoundSink device and bound mule.audio.SoundSource instances.
find_channel() No equivalent planned
get_busy() No equivalent yet
Sound mule.audio.SoundData for the buffer, mule.audio.SoundSource for the volume settings and playback
Channel mule.audio.SoundSource

pygame.mixer.music

See pygame.mixer.

pygame.mouse

pygame.mouse mule
get_pressed() mule.sdl2.mouse.get_mouse_state()
get_pos() mule.sdl2.mouse.get_mouse_state()
get_rel() mule.sdl2.mouse.get_relative_mouse_state()
set_pos() mule.sdl2.mouse.warp_mouse_in_window()
set_visible() mule.sdl2.mouse.show_cursor()
get_focused() mule.sdl2.mouse.get_mouse_focus()
set_cursor() mule.sdl2.mouse.set_cursor()
get_cursor() mule.sdl2.mouse.get_cursor()

pygame.movie

No such module is planned for mule.

pygame.Overlay

You can work with YUV overlays by using the mule.sdl2.render with mule.sdl2.render.SDL_Texture objects.

pygame.PixelArray

You can access pixel data of sprites and surfaces directly via the mule.video.pixelaccess.PixelView class. It does not feature comparision or extractions methods.

pygame.Rect

No such functionality is available for mule. Rectangles are represented via mule.sdl2.rect.SDL_Rect for low-level SDL2 wrappers or 4-value tuples.

pygame.scrap

mule offers basic text-based clipboard access via the mule.sdl2.clipboard module. A feature-rich clipboard API as for Pygame does not exist yet.

pygame.sndarray

No such module is available for mule yet.

pygame.sprite

mule uses a different approach of rendering and managing sprite objects via a component-based system and the mule.video.sprite.Sprite class. A sprite module as for Pygame is not planned.

pygame.Surface

pygame.Surface mule
blit() mule.video.sprite.SpriteRenderer.render(), mule.sdl2.surface.blit_surface()
convert() mule.sdl2.surface.convert_surface()
convert_alpha() mule.sdl2.surface.convert_surface()
copy() mule.sdl2.surface.convert_surface()
fill() mule.video.draw.fill(), mule.sdl2.surface.fill_rect(), mule.sdl2.surface.fill_rects()
scroll() No equivalent yet
set_colorkey() mule.sdl2.surface.set_color_key()
get_colorkey() mule.sdl2.surface.get_color_key()
set_alpha() mule.sdl2.surface.set_surface_alpha_mod()
get_alpha() mule.sdl2.surface.get_surface_alpha_mod()
lock() mule.sdl2.surface.lock_surface()
unlock() mule.sdl2.surface.unlock_surface()
mustlock() mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_MUSTLOCK()
get_locked() mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.locked
get_locks() No equivalent planned
get_at() Direct access to the pixels for surfaces can be achieved via the mule.video.pixelaccess.PixelView class
set_at() Direct access to the pixels for surfaces can be achieved via the mule.video.pixelaccess.PixelView class
get_at_mapped() No equivalent planned
get_palette() via mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.format and the mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_PixelFormat.palette attribute.
get_palette_at() mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_Palette.colors[offset]
set_palette() mule.sdl2.surface.set_surface_palette()
set_palette_at() mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_Palette.colors[offset]
map_rgb() mule.sdl2.pixels.map_rgb()
unmap_rgb() mule.sdl2.pixels.get_rgb()
set_clip() mule.sdl2.surface.set_clip_rect()
get_clip() mule.sdl2.surface.get_clip_rect()
subsurface No equivalent yet
get_parent() As for subsurface
get_abs_parent() As for subsurface
get_offset() As for subsurface
get_abs_offset() As for subsurface
get_size() mule.video.sprite.Sprite.size, mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.size
get_width() mule.video.sprite.Sprite.size[0], mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.size[0]
get_height() mule.video.sprite.Sprite.size[1], mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.size[1]
get_rect() mule.video.sprite.Sprite.area
get_bitsize() mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_PixelFormat.BitsPerPixel
get_bytesize() mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_PixelFormat.BytesPerPixel
get_flags() mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.flags
get_pitch() mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.pitch
get_masks() mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_PixelFormat.Rmask, ...
get_shifts() mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_PixelFormat.Rshift, ...
get_losses() mule.sdl2.pixels.SDL_PixelFormat.Rloss, ...
get_bounding_rect() No equivalent yet
get_view() mule.video.pixelaccess.PixelView
get_buffer() mule.video.pixelaccess.PixelView or mule.sdl2.surface.SDL_Surface.pixels

pygame.surfarray

2D and 3D pixel access can be achieved via the mule.video.pixelaccess.PixelView class in environments without numpy. Simplified numpy-array creation with direct pixel access (similar to pygame.surfarray.pixels2d() and pygame.surfarray.pixels3d()) is available via mule.video.pixelaccess.pixels2d() and mule.video.pixelaccess.pixels3d().

pygame.time

pygame.time mule
get_ticks() mule.sdl2.timer.get_ticks()
wait() mule.sdl2.timer.delay()
delay() mule.sdl2.timer.delay()
Clock No equivalent yet

pygame.transform

The are no transformation helpers in mule at moment. Those might be implemented later on via numpy helpers, the Python Imaging Library or other 3rd party packages.

pygame.version

pygame.version mule
ver mule.__version__
vernum mule.version_info