Fast 2D Raster Rendering with GUI

[dave]

First I want to say thank you all for your timely replies. This is all
good food for thought. I've been programming more many years, but fast
graphics rendering is new territory for me.

I'm hoping to fine something like a buffer_blit, where I can set all
the pixels to change using basic operators, blit them all at once to a
pixel buffer, then swap the visible buffer. Ideally it will only
change the region of the pixel buffer that needs changing.

Because I want layers, I would like to take advantage wherever
possible of the available hardware features. I.E. ideally I am hoping
that the layers can be textures in memory that get composited in
hardware onto the screen. Maybe this is wishful thinking though?

I'm also thinking that maybe I can reduce the number of active layers
from N down to 3 - the active layer, the layers below it, and the
layers above it. Obviously only the active layer needs any sort of
sprite-like animations and it on this layer than response time is most
important. Having to layer the top layers ontop of it may also play a
factor but, as I suggested, I can merge them all together in one time
and then use the merged result to layer on top of the active layer.

I'm a little nervous about going the C/C++ route. It's been a few
years since I used them, I'm new to Python, and jumping into coding
Python extensions with C/C++ is not particularly palatable (though
I'll do it if I have to.)

> Any GUI toolkit will work if you find the low-level access
> to their image memory buffers.

That's another new step for me. Any ideas where to start? Thanks!