The functions SDL_SetRenderDrawBlendMode and SDL_SetTextureBlendMode accept the SDL_BlendMode returned by
this function if the renderer supports it.
A blend mode controls how the pixels from a drawing operation (source) get combined with the pixels from
the render target (destination). First, the components of the source and destination pixels get
multiplied with their blend factors. Then, the blend operation takes the two products and calculates the
result that will get stored in the render target.
Expressed in pseudocode, it would look like this:
dstRGB = colorOperation(srcRGB * srcColorFactor, dstRGB * dstColorFactor);
dstA = alphaOperation(srcA * srcAlphaFactor, dstA * dstAlphaFactor);
Where the functions colorOperation(src,dst) and alphaOperation(src,dst) can return one of the
following:
• src+dst
• src-dst
• dst-src
• min(src,dst)
• max(src,dst)
The red, green, and blue components are always multiplied with the first, second, and third components of
the SDL_BlendFactor, respectively. The fourth component is not used.
The alpha component is always multiplied with the fourth component of the SDL_BlendFactor. The other
components are not used in the alpha calculation.
Support for these blend modes varies for each renderer. To check if a specific SDL_BlendMode is
supported, create a renderer and pass it to either SDL_SetRenderDrawBlendMode or SDL_SetTextureBlendMode.
They will return with an error if the blend mode is not supported.
This list describes the support of custom blend modes for each renderer. All renderers support the four
blend modes listed in the SDL_BlendMode enumeration.
• direct3d: Supports all operations with all factors. However, some factors produce unexpected results
with SDL_BLENDOPERATION_MINIMUM and SDL_BLENDOPERATION_MAXIMUM.
• direct3d11: Same as Direct3D 9.
• opengl: Supports the SDL_BLENDOPERATION_ADD operation with all factors. OpenGL versions 1.1, 1.2, and
1.3 do not work correctly here.
• opengles2: Supports the SDL_BLENDOPERATION_ADD, SDL_BLENDOPERATION_SUBTRACT,
SDL_BLENDOPERATION_REV_SUBTRACT operations with all factors.
• psp: No custom blend mode support.
• software: No custom blend mode support.
Some renderers do not provide an alpha component for the default render target. The
SDL_BLENDFACTOR_DST_ALPHA and SDL_BLENDFACTOR_ONE_MINUS_DST_ALPHA factors do not have an effect in this
case.