Anyone has a serious speed comparison about this? (On platforms not older than WinXP).

And yes revolution, I already checked your website but lots of .Net pages with not very well made benchmarks and lots of Command&Conquer links in some searches

I was using IDApro a little but it is somewhat hard to follow and seems that any call using integers parameters is forwarded to the float parameters version (in the case of DrawLineI it does DrawLineI>DrawLine(floats)>DrawLines>DrawPath>RenderPath).

It is somewhat easier to use than GDI (no more SelectObject/DeleteObject annoyance), but is it really faster even on video cards with hardware acceleration like GeForce?

I found that rolling my own animation routines and just sending a bitmap to the GDI engine produced much lower CPU usage

; Template for program using standard Win32 headers

format PE GUI 4.0
entry start

include 'win32ax.inc'
struct GdiplusStartupInput
  GdiplusVersion dd ?
  DebugEventCallback dd ?
  SuppressBackgroundThread dd ?
  SuppressExternalCodecs dd ?
ends

section '.data' data readable writeable

  _class TCHAR 'FASMWIN32',0
  _title TCHAR 'Win32 program template',0
  _error TCHAR 'Startup failed.',0

  wc WNDCLASS 0,WindowProc,0,0,NULL,NULL,NULL,COLOR_BTNFACE+1,NULL,_class

  msg MSG
  input GdiplusStartupInput 1 ; GdiplusVersion = 1
  token dd ?

section '.code' code readable executable

  start:

        invoke  GetModuleHandle,0
        mov     [wc.hInstance],eax
        invoke  LoadIcon,0,IDI_APPLICATION
        mov     [wc.hIcon],eax
        invoke  LoadCursor,0,IDC_ARROW
        mov     [wc.hCursor],eax
        invoke  RegisterClass,wc
        test    eax,eax
        jz      error

        invoke  GdiplusStartup, token, input, NULL
        test    eax, eax
        jnz     error

        invoke  CreateWindowEx,0,_class,_title,WS_VISIBLE+WS_DLGFRAME+WS_SYSMENU,128,128,256*3,192*3,NULL,NULL,[wc.hInstance],NULL
        test    eax,eax
        jz      error

  msg_loop:
        invoke  GetMessage,msg,NULL,0,0
        cmp     eax,1
        jb      end_loop
        jne     msg_loop
        invoke  TranslateMessage,msg
        invoke  DispatchMessage,msg
        jmp     msg_loop

  error:
        invoke  MessageBox,NULL,_error,NULL,MB_ICONERROR+MB_OK

  end_loop:
        invoke  GdiplusShutdown, [token]
        invoke  ExitProcess,[msg.wParam]

proc WindowProc hwnd,wmsg,wparam,lparam
local ps:PAINTSTRUCT

        push    ebx esi edi

        cmp     [wmsg],WM_DESTROY
        je      .wmdestroy

        cmp     [wmsg], WM_PAINT
        je      .wmpaint

  .defwndproc:
        invoke  DefWindowProc,[hwnd],[wmsg],[wparam],[lparam]
        jmp     .finish

  .wmpaint:
        invoke  BeginPaint, [hwnd], addr ps
        stdcall draw, eax
        invoke  EndPaint, [hwnd], addr ps
        jmp     .finish_ret_0

  .wmdestroy:
        invoke  PostQuitMessage,0

  .finish_ret_0:
        xor     eax,eax

  .finish:
        pop     edi esi ebx
        ret
endp

proc drawNode x, y, node

  ret
endp

proc draw hdc
local pGraphics:DWORD, pPen:DWORD

  invoke  GdipCreateFromHDC, [hdc], addr pGraphics
  invoke  GdipCreatePen1, $FF000000, 3.0, 0, addr pPen

  push    ebx
  mov     ebx, 10

  invoke  GdipSetSmoothingMode, [pGraphics], 2

.loop:
  invoke  GdipDrawLineI, [pGraphics], [pPen], addr 0+ebx*8, addr 100+ebx*8, addr 500+ebx*8, addr 200+ebx*8
  dec     ebx
  jns     .loop

  pop     ebx

  invoke  GdipDeleteGraphics, [pGraphics]
  invoke  GdipDeletePen, [pPen]
  ret
endp

section '.idata' import data readable writeable

  library gdi, 'GDI.DLL',\
          gdiplus, 'GDIPLUS.DLL',\
          kernel32,'KERNEL32.DLL',\
          user32,'USER32.DLL'

  include 'api\gdi32.inc'

  import  gdiplus,\
                  GdiplusShutdown, 'GdiplusShutdown',\
                  GdipCreateFromHDC, 'GdipCreateFromHDC',\
                  GdipCreatePen1, 'GdipCreatePen1',\
                  GdipDeleteGraphics, 'GdipDeleteGraphics',\
                  GdipDeletePen, 'GdipDeletePen',\
                  GdipDrawLineI, 'GdipDrawLineI',\
                  GdipSetSmoothingMode, 'GdipSetSmoothingMode',\
                  GdiplusStartup, 'GdiplusStartup'

  include 'api\kernel32.inc'
  include 'api\user32.inc'    

(y * SCREEN_WIDTH + x) << 2)    

bits[padding + 2] = red;
bits[padding + 1] = green;
bits[padding      ] = blue;