How to load JPG/PNG Textures in an SDL/OpenGL App under OSX

SDL 2 SDL_image minimal runnable example

main.c

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <SDL2/SDL.h>
#include <SDL2/SDL_image.h>

int main(void) {
    SDL_Event event;
    SDL_Renderer *renderer = NULL;
    SDL_Texture *texture = NULL;
    SDL_Window *window = NULL;

    SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_TIMER | SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
    SDL_CreateWindowAndRenderer(
        500, 500,
        0, &window, &renderer
    );
    IMG_Init(IMG_INIT_PNG);
    texture = IMG_LoadTexture(renderer, "flower.png");
    while (1) {
        SDL_RenderCopy(renderer, texture, NULL, NULL);
        SDL_RenderPresent(renderer);
        if (SDL_PollEvent(&event) && event.type == SDL_QUIT)
            break;
    }
    SDL_DestroyTexture(texture);
    IMG_Quit();
    SDL_DestroyRenderer(renderer);
    SDL_DestroyWindow(window);
    SDL_Quit();
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

GitHub upstream.

Compile and run:

sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev
gcc -std=c99 -o main -Wall -Wextra -pedantic main.c -lSDL2 -lSDL2_image
./main

Outcome:

Tested on Ubuntu 16.04, GCC 6.4.0, SDL 2.0.4, SDL Image 2.0.1.

Have a look at the SDL_image library. It offers functions like IMG_LoadPNG that load your picture "as an" SDL_Surface. Since you already work with SDL this should fit quite well in your program.

Sample taken from the SDL_image documentation:

// Load sample.png into image
SDL_Surface* image = IMG_Load("sample.png");
if (image == nullptr) {
    std::cout << "IMG_Load: " << IMG_GetError() << "\n";
}