[SDL] Animated Effects: method recommendations?

[Ryan C. Gordon]

> I was thinking that a video format might be the best option (video of
> the effect over alpha), Or do you think I should stick with normal
> animations from a software surface. Would this YUV overlay stuff benefit
> me in this situation? The documentation doesn't really say much about
> what it is exactly. I don't want my fps murdered by multiple effects
> either I want my game to be playable on lower spec computers.

I don't think you want a YUV overlay in this case.

However, you COULD encode the effects as some video format, decode it 
frame-by-frame and blit it to a portion of the screen surface, just like 
you currently do for your sprites that only have a few frames of 
animation...the only difference is where you get the animation frames 
from in the first place.

--ryan.