vsee
asked on
How to wrap an existing memory buffer as a DC for GDI
Hi
I have a memory buffer corresponding to my screen resolution (1280x800 at 24-bits-per-pixel) that contains my screen contents at 24bpp. I want to convert this to 8-bpp (ie. Halftone color palette in Windows).
I currently do this:
1. Use CreateDIBSection to allocate a new 1280x800 24-bpp buffer and access it as a DC, as well as a plain memory buffer
2. Use memcpy to copy from my original buffer to this new buffer from step 1
3. Use BitBlt to let GDI perform the color conversion
I want to avoid the extra memcpy of step 2. To do this, I can think of two approaches:
a. Wrap my original mem buf in a DC to perform BitBlt directly from it
b. Write my own 24-bpp to 8-bpp color conversion. I can't find any info on how Windows implements this halftone color conversion. Besides even if I find out, I won't be using the accelerated features of GDI that BitBlt has access to.
So how do I do either (a) or (b)?
thanks!
I have a memory buffer corresponding to my screen resolution (1280x800 at 24-bits-per-pixel) that contains my screen contents at 24bpp. I want to convert this to 8-bpp (ie. Halftone color palette in Windows).
I currently do this:
1. Use CreateDIBSection to allocate a new 1280x800 24-bpp buffer and access it as a DC, as well as a plain memory buffer
2. Use memcpy to copy from my original buffer to this new buffer from step 1
3. Use BitBlt to let GDI perform the color conversion
I want to avoid the extra memcpy of step 2. To do this, I can think of two approaches:
a. Wrap my original mem buf in a DC to perform BitBlt directly from it
b. Write my own 24-bpp to 8-bpp color conversion. I can't find any info on how Windows implements this halftone color conversion. Besides even if I find out, I won't be using the accelerated features of GDI that BitBlt has access to.
So how do I do either (a) or (b)?
thanks!
ASKER
Hi itsme...
Thanks for your reply!
I didn't mean to imply CreateDIBSection is slow in general, it's certainly faster than GetDIBits/SetDIBits.
But for my purpose, as mentioned in original posting, there is an extra memcpy I'm seeking to avoid.
Could you give details of how to use CreateDIBSection with CreateFileMapping/MapViewO
thanks again!
Thanks for your reply!
I didn't mean to imply CreateDIBSection is slow in general, it's certainly faster than GetDIBits/SetDIBits.
But for my purpose, as mentioned in original posting, there is an extra memcpy I'm seeking to avoid.
Could you give details of how to use CreateDIBSection with CreateFileMapping/MapViewO
thanks again!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Here is an excerpt from MSDN regarding your issue
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Managing Graphics
Whenever possible be sure to use PolyTextOut, PolyPolyline, PolylineTo, PolyDraw, PolyBezier, and PolyBezierTo functions. These functions exploit the fact that many drawing calls use identical attributes, and so multiple items can be drawn in a single call once the brushes, pens, colors, and fonts have been selected. For example, the console window uses PolyTextOut. This change reduced scrolling time in a console window by 30% when it was implemented during the development of Windows NT.
If you are writing an application that draws on the display, then theCreateDIBSection function can improve performance. This function allows you to share a memory section directly with the system, and thus avoid having it copied from your process to the system each time there is a change. Previously, a common practice was to call theGetDIBits function, make the required changes, then call theSetDIBits function. These steps were often repeated on different scan lines of the bitmap before the image was ready for updating. Using CreateDIBSection is much simpler.
One word of caution if you decide to use CreateDIBSection. You need to be sure that any calls that might affect your bitmap have completed before you start to draw in it. This is because the batching of GDI calls may cause their delayed execution. For example, suppose you make aPatBlt call to clear your bitmap, then you start to change the bits in your DIB section. If the PatBlt call was batched, it might not actually execute until after you start to make the bitmap changes. So, before you make changes to your DIB section, be sure to callGdiFlush if you have made changes to the bitmap with earlier GDI calls.
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You see the CreateDIBSection is to make it faster (not slower as your question seem to imply). You could make the CreateDIBSection not allocating new memory by passing a handle to 'shared memory' allocated by CreateFileMapping. You actually wouldn't need a 'file' for this function but could create memory only (you get a pointer to that memory by calling MapViewOfFile).
>>>> I can't find any info on how Windows implements this halftone color conversion.
Hmm. Any 8bpp color conversion was using a color palette. So, you could use 256 colors (8bit) out of 24-bit (16 millions) colors. But I don't know whether these colors are sufficient for that you want to do.