Texture pixels
Pixels
* MTA refers to the raw information that a texture contains as 'pixels'.
* Pixels can be retrieved from any texture type including render targets and screen sources by using the function dxGetTexturePixels.
* Pixels are just a string to Lua, so they can be saved to a file or even sent over the 'internet'.
Pixels properties
Pixels have two properties:
- dimensions (width and height) which is retrieved by using the function dxGetPixelsSize
- format (plain,jpeg,png) which is retrieved by using the function dxGetPixelsFormat
- plain - Fastest and simplest - It's the format of the pixels returned by dxGetTexturePixels and the only one that can be used with dxSetTexturePixels, dxGetPixelColor and dxSetPixelColor. But it also uses a lot of bytes, so internet transfers will be longer. Also can't be read by Photoshop or browsers etc.
- png - A few less bytes, still quite big for net transfers. Can be saved to a file and read by Photoshop and browsers etc.
- jpeg - A lot less bytes, so best for net transfers. Can be saved to a file and read by Photoshop and browsers etc.
To convert between the 3 different formats, use the function dxConvertPixels
Pixels more
Pixels can also be loaded from any png/jpeg file just like this:
fh = fileOpen( "hello.jpg" ) pixels = fileRead(fh,fileGetSize ( fh )) fileClose(fh)
Pixels can be used to create textures just like this:
myNewTexture = dxCreateTexture(pixels)
Pixels can be used to save textures just like this:
pixels = dxGetTexturePixels(myRenderTarget) pixels = dxConvertPixels(pixels, 'jpeg') fh = fileCreate( "piccy.jpg" ) fileWrite(fh, pixels) fileClose(fh)
Pixels performance
Getting/setting pixels from textures is not quick and not something you want to be doing every frame (in onClientRender for example). Setting pixels to a render target is especially slow. Pixels are ideal however for transferring composite images built on a render target into a normal texture for later use. For example, making a custom radar map.
