I was hoping that when we have video_screen = 0 and thus all the video rendering turned off that we could still output diag() statements to the screen.

It is easier to diagnose an application if we can see the diag statements on the screen even if the video rendering is off.

diag() _does_ output to the window, or at least is supposed to.

Do you have problems with diag() messages on the engine window?

If video_screen is set to zero, diag() does not output to the window.
While I understand that this prevents the video device from opening, I was curious if there is any way to "just" get text up there for there is a lot more going on than just video that we'd like to see in real time.

Hence my suggestion to output text (ie: diag()) to the window even if video_screen = 0.

Yes, you're right. I've just tested it and also found that it does not work. This will be fixed.

Thanks!