HW image version of this little stupid thing

[SMcNeill]

Can_SETALPHA work on hardware images (I get invalid handle error)?  Or are hardware images just different animals altogether and cant be used like that?  

I don't fully understand hardware images yet.

- Dav

It's because hardware images are the simplest things in the world.  Here's what you can do with them:

1) Display them.
2) Free them.


You have to create a hardware image, and then it's a static image forever more.  You can't write to it, alter it, do anything with it except _PUTIMAGE and _MAPTRIANGLE it onto the display.  That's it -- and that's why it's so much faster than software images.  If you need a hardware image with a different alpha level, then you'll need to create it with that alpha level to begin with.  Do all the necessary changes which you need to make to the screen (print on it, change alpha, draw pictures on it, PSET, LINE, CIRCLE it...), and then _COPYIMAGE that finished software image to make it a hardware image.  Once it's created, all you can do with it is _FREEIMAGE it or display it via _PUTIMAGE and _MAPTRIANGLE.