Quote Originally Posted by EricLang
in "Window API" mode my dirty pixels scheme is needed, otherwise i even can't make the needed speed in some cases!
When it comes to hardware acceleration, you see all textures are stored in 3D card memory. Loading them in is slow process, especially if you have destructible large map that does it all the time, even every frame. In my game experiments it really slow it down.

But it is possible for even OpenGL with certain optimizations:
- Split map into smaller pieces, like 64x64
- Store pieces in raw data format that are in directly loadable into graphics card (RGBA bytes for example)
- Keep track on which piece needs updating and skip rest
- Have update delay, maybe every 3rd frame
(These things helped me to have destructible maps of very large size, even 3000x3000)

But because of this complexity i'd still suggest unDelphiX or other 2D engine for task they are made to Hardware acceleration really shines in 3D, blending effects, rotating etc.