Is there a way from code or settings to disable video/hardware acceleration by default? It looks like you can do it from the launcher, but I'd like to not give the option and just disable it for my game by default if possible. Thanks!
Unfortunately no. But I am working on the memory leak issue (https://github.com/christopho/solarus/issues/933).
If you have a way of reproducing the bug easily and quickly, it can help.
I haven't found a way yet, except to play for an extended period of time (usually a half hour is enough) with hardware acceleration on and on a map with a blended overlay being drawn (such as at night). Theoretically I guess a test map could be made in my game with it always being night and the crash may happen faster.
I was just planning on releasing the game very soon, and was hoping to have a workaround.
Try this snapshot: http://www.solarus-games.org/downloads/solarus/win32/solarus-1.5.1-snapshot-20160822-win32.zip
The bug should be fixed now.
Chris, about the memory leak you mentioned: I wonder if it affects tileset size. You did say that tilesets can be of any size and dimension, but I noticed a loading time on Windows XP. maps take between 8-10 seconds to load using my large overworld tileset, while underground maps that use my smaller dungeon tilesets load much faster. Could this be due to the memory leak, or is this simply a windows XP /32-bit issue?
10 seconds to load a map are really not normal. I don't know if the problem is related to the previous discussion. Can you open an issue?
Alright an issue has been opened :)