Allegro 5 & C++ - Creating a fullscreen console? - c++

Question

All right, here's my main goal: get a fullscreen, non-windowed console program (that looks like the DOS operating system when you open it). I've defined ALLEGRO_USE_CONSOLE and all that stuff. Here's my full code to look at:
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0500
#define ALLEGRO_USE_CONSOLE
#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string>
#include <time.h>
#include "include/allegro.h"
using namespace std;
void SetColor(unsigned short hColor) {
SetConsoleTextAttribute(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), hColor);
}
void Dots() {
int i = 1;
while (i <= 3) {
cout << ".";
Sleep(750);
i++;
}
}
void ClearConsoleScreen() {
HANDLE hStdOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbi;
DWORD count;
DWORD cellCount;
COORD homeCoords = { 0, 0 };
if (hStdOut == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) return;
/* Get the number of cells in the current buffer */
if (!GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo( hStdOut, &csbi )) return;
cellCount = csbi.dwSize.X *csbi.dwSize.Y;
/* Fill the entire buffer with spaces */
if (!FillConsoleOutputCharacter(
hStdOut,
(TCHAR) ' ',
cellCount,
homeCoords,
&count
)
) return;
/* Fill the entire buffer with the current colors and attributes */
if (!FillConsoleOutputAttribute(
hStdOut,
csbi.wAttributes,
cellCount,
homeCoords,
&count
)
) return;
/* Move the cursor home */
SetConsoleCursorPosition( hStdOut, homeCoords );
}
int main() {
ALLEGRO_DISPLAY *display = NULL;
ALLEGRO_DISPLAY_MODE disp_data;
al_init(); // I'm not checking the return value for simplicity.
al_get_display_mode(al_get_num_display_modes() - 1, &disp_data);
al_set_new_display_flags(ALLEGRO_FULLSCREEN);
display = al_create_display(disp_data.width, disp_data.height);
al_rest(3);
al_destroy_display(display);
}
So what exactly do I need to do to be able to make the console full screen (non-windowed & borderless) AND be able to use cout and such? I'm running Win7 as well.

Answer 1

ALLEGRO_USE_CONSOLE just tells Allegro that you're planning on running the program with with a console window; you still have to set the subsystem to "console" in your linker options. Allegro has nothing to do with creating the console window.
Now, if you just want to make the console fullscreen on windows, there's SetConsoleDisplayMode but that has nothing to do with Allegro. You can't use Allegro's drawing API because there's no Direct3D or OpenGL context to use.
Edit: It seems the above function no longer works on modern versions of windows...
Using a console is extremely platform specific, which is part of the reason why allegro_native_dialog exists. But there's no way to put that into a fullscreen mode.
If you want cross-platform functionality, you could create your own emulated console using Allegro's drawing API, but it would be a large undertaking.
Generally people who want a console application don't care exactly how it looks, only that the right data comes out for the data that you put in.