Is there a similar library to PixTools for MAC? - macos

Is there a similar library to PixTools for capturing images, images from a scanner and then treat them with image recognition for OSX operating systems?
PixTools / Scan developers programmatic Gives Control of the Entire scanning process and every scanner feature
I am programming a system in MAC that use a scanner,i am programming in swift.
I require is a library that allows me to manipulate the images and perform OCR as pixtools for .Net

Yes; what you're looking for are the ImageKit and ImageCaptureCore frameworks.
Note that ImageKit is a bit more general than PixTools; it handles transferring images from cameras as well as running scanners. However, it does not support some of the more complex image enhancement and recognition features supported by PixTools.

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Direct3D 11 issues in Windows 10(D3DX11_IMAGE_LOAD_INFO is removed)

As i catch it structure D3DX11_IMAGE_LOAD_INFO is deprecated in DX 11 for Windows 8.1 and up, what kind of structure can i use for replacement for this structure.
D3DX11_IMAGE_LOAD_INFO is part of the D3DX11 utility library from the DirectX SDK.
D3DX9, D3DX10, and D3DX11 are all deprecated along with the legacy DirectX SDK. See MSDN for the full details here.
Depending on what exactly you were wanting to do with D3DX11 here, there are a number of different options (all of which are open source under the MIT license).
The DirectXTex library provides the functionality in D3DX for loading bitmaps, resizing and converting them, generating mipmaps, compressing, and then writing them out as .DDS files. This is usually overkill for most applications to do at run-time, and not a particularly good use of end-user's time anyhow, but it's great for writing custom content tool pipelines for texture processing. The DirectXTex package includes a 'sample' which is the venerable texconv command-line tool written to use DirectXTex instead of D3DX.
The DDSTextureLoader module is intended to handle efficient loading of .DDS files and creating Direct3D 11 resources from them. It does not perform any runtime conversions, so some legacy files with pixel formats that do not directly map to a DXGI format will fail to load and in some cases the DXGI format of the file is not supported by the device and will also fail to load. For these cases, you will want to use DirectXTex to convert them offline to something that you can rely on being able to load on your target machine. This code supports the full range of Direct3D 11 resources including 1D, 2D, 3D, cubemaps, and texture arrays with mipmaps. The DDSTextureLoader module is included in both the DirectXTK library and in the DirectXTex package.
For very simple cases, there is also a WICTextureLoader module which can load standard bitmap files, does some runtime conversions and resizing, and then creates a Direct3D 11 texture 2D from it. It can optionally enable the 'auto-gen mipmaps' feature of Direct3D 11 to provide some basic mipmap support as well (standard bitmap files can't store mipmaps with the base image the way a .DDS file can). This makes use of the Windows Imaging Component (WIC), but is much more 'heavyweight' than DDSTextureLoader. This gives you less control over the quality of the filtering (particularly mipmaps), and does not support complex textures like volume maps, cubemaps, or texture arrays. The WICTextureLoader module is also included in both the DirectXTK library and in the DirectXTex package.
The ScreenGrab module is intended as a light-weight texture saver for creating 'screen shot' bitmap files from render target textures. The ScreenGrab module is included in the DirectXTK library and DirectXTex package.
-- excerpt from this post
For a complete catalog of replacements for legacy D3DX, see this post. There are similar posts for samples, tools, and the DirectX components.
Since you've marked this question with the VS 2013 tag, I'm assuming you are using Visual Studio 2013. You should read about the Windows 8.1 SDK that comes with it. There's a NuGet package for DirectX Tool Kit that works with VS 2013 Update 5, as well as a "Direct3D Game" template package for VS 2013 that you might want to check out.

Nevron Open VISION Evaluation

I was reviewing the NOV for Mac OS X development, in my way I found that they have Nevron Writer for Mac, which is built using their SDK (did any one find the Visio-like application for Mac?), and it seems there is a huge problem in performance and rendering. They mentioned that they are supporting native look and feel, but Writer UI rendering is for sure not native. Is it achieving portability by sacrificing native rendering?
Full Disclosure: I work for Nevron
The Nevron Draw product is about to be released in the next couple of weeks, but is currently not available for download although the version is already built. We are now updating the Nevron Office site (www.nevronoffice.com) and it will soon contain information and downloads for Nevron Draw.
Regarding performance and rendering. What machine are you running the program on? NOV UI for Mac is very fast and in many aspects I would even say faster than native Mac UI controls.
Regarding native look and feel. We do not use native controls in NOV – the look and feel is made to resemble Mac via CSS. We are going to release a new and updated Mac theme very soon. There are many reasons for which we do not use native controls, including:
Portability - native controls are not portable and we support a large set of integration platforms. Achieving 100% single code base for Windows, Mac and other platforms is impossible with AWT like toolkits that use native controls.
Common denominator problem – the more platforms that you support means that toolkits that use native controls will suffer features, as all controls are very different on each platform. NOV UI is on the other hand very feature rich and we provide identical functionality for all users on all platforms.

Flash without Adobe?

I have experience in developing in actionscript via Flash, FlashBuilder, and FlashDevelop.
Flash is the only tool with which I am familiar for creating the .swf graphic and animation assets to be accessed/used by the AS3 in FlashDevelop or elsewhere. I like to being able to use the free FlashDevelop and not rely on expensive Adobe products, but I don't know of a substitute for Flash.
Is there a free or opensource type tool for creating graphics and animations?
You can use the Eclipse IDE with the Flex SDK to develop swf file Flash applets.
Also, for really simple things there is Ming for PHP.
Apparently, swftools allow you to
make swfs out of pre-created assets including .wavs, .gifs, .jpgs, .pngs, etc.
get information from existing .swfs including strings, imgs, fonts, sounds, etc
insert other swfs into swfs
compile swfs
a few other things
Meanwhile, both Eclipse with the Flex SDK and Ming via PHP allows you to develop applications with Actionscript which compile to .swfs and which could be used to code the drawing of graphics and their animation.
Unfortunately, none of these seem to be anything like a replacement for the drawing/animation capabilities of the Flash IDE.
At present, I have to conclude that though the programming capabilities of Flash are easily handled by freeware tools such as FlashDevelop, Eclipse w/the Flex SDK, and possibly Ming w/PHP, there are no freeware tools that handle its drawing and animation capabilities.

2D Cross-Platform Game Development Engines [closed]

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I've worked for some time with Corona SDK and love how fast and easy I can create powerful apps using Lua. But it can only compile for iOS and Android, which feels like too little now.
My main interest is for it to be able to compile to Desktop AND Mobile. At least for the following:
Windows + Mac for desktop, as standalone applications.
iOS + Android for mobile.
I'd prefer it to lean more towards Lua type scripting instead of ActionScript, but please feel free to post anything that you have worked with and love.
I've found the following engines so far:
Marmalade Quick - After further looking into it, Marmalade Quick can only build for Mobile!
IwGame - Works on top of marmalade and says it can deploy to
desktop and mobile with Lua. Any info is greatly appreciated on this
sio2 - Says "SIO2 is an OpenGLES based cross-platform 2D and 3D
game engine for iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows" and "The engine also
allows you to port your game on the Mac Store and on Windows.", but
their forum and web title is "Game Engine for Mobile Devices". Can't
find any info on if it can deploy to desktop platforms, any info is
greatly appreciated again.
Loom Engine - Loom is similar to Haxe + OpenFL (attempts to attract Flash developers) in that it uses AS3-like of ECMAScript, but it doesn't build native code from it. However it uses Cocos2D for rendering so it should in theory be as fast as Cocos2D. -- Thanks to Bojan.
SDL - I've read in multiple places that SDL can deploy to nearly any platform or device and has a Lua binding. But i can't find how this works as it's not an engine. Any one who can explain how it works and if it's possible is once again, very much appreciated.
SFML - "Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and soon Android & iOS. " doesn't use Lua but can use other languages like Java and Python etc. Anyone have any information on this?
Torgue2D - "Torque 2D was developed with OS X, Windows, and iOS devices in mind and works equally well on all the platforms." uses TorgueScript and no Android =(
Sencha - Seems to compile to all platforms, uses Javascript too which I know. But even with V8 JS would this work well performance wise compared to other options?
GameMaker - own scripting language GML and I actually remember this one as a tool for non-programmers. Has it actually grown into a real engine, I mean for serious development?
Construct2 - Same question as gamemaker
Corona - Lua but mobile only (Android and iOS only as well)
Cocos2D - Seems like it has lots of options but not sure with the same language? Seems like you'd have to re-write your entire code. Any info if cocos2D can deploy to desktop + mobile with almost the same code would be greatly appreciated.
Angel2D - Says it can deploy to everything except Android and uses Lua, anyone ever used this one before?
libgdx --- I've only seen good things about this. Here is a benchmark test for libgdx and is where I saw it reaching 40k sprites at 60fps. http://www.sparkrift.com/2012/1/love2d-vs-allegro-vs-clanlib-vs-libgdx-vs-cocos2d-x-vs-monogame-vs-xna-vs-sfml . It seems libgdx barely goes over 30k actually. But still seems amazing. This is on the same level as Qt for me, almost perfect, except I'm not really worried about performance on it. libgdx can build for everything pretty much.
XNA + MonoGame --- MonoGame's performance seems only slightly lower than libgdx, can build to most platforms. However I don't know much about XNA and I heard it won't be receiving future updates, but is quite stable? More information is welcome.
Citrus --- Don't have much information on Citrus either. AS3 game engine that can build for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and more.
Haxe + OpenFL --- OpenFL (Haxe) builds to native on many platforms, not just to Flash. Windows, Mac, Linux and Android all get optional native deployment or OpenFL runtime called Neko which is in theory faster than Flash, and SDL 2.0 will enable iOS deployment soon(ish). -- Thanks to Bojan.
Qt-Project --- Just linking Qt project here, can build for everything and has a pretty big community with lots of third party libraries to help you even further.
Moai ---The only Lua engine that I know that can build for Desktop and Mobile. Only downside is the community isn't that big and documentation isn't the best. But if you can get passed those this is a great solution and the one I'm currently using.
Adobe --- Can't forget to add adobe here since it can build to everything that supports flash.
Unity3D --- Recently announced 2D integration looks very promising, should be released Q3-Q4 of 2013.
Cocos2d-x --- An open source engine. Supports JS, Lua, C++ and multiple platforms.
Html5 --- There seem to be a lot of emphasise on html5 mobile apps, here are just a few tools I found that can help port your html5 project to a platform:
Chromium embedded
Sencha
Phonegap
Appcelerator/Titanium
Icenium
So, I'd be happy if you could comment from your experiences with any engines and suggest which one you would recommend.
Thank you for your help!
EDIT: Since this topic is getting popular I'll be adding other options I've found over time. I suggest you choose what is most familiar to you and best for your project needs.
I would recommend V-Play (v-play.net) - it's a cross-platform game engine based on Qt for iOS, Android, Symbian, MeeGo, Blackberry10 and also can export for native desktop applications for Windows, Mac and Linux.
It's based on C++ but has a neat scripting support for QML & JavaScript. QML is a no-brainer to learn and can boost your productivity as less code is needed - just see the comparison with cocos2d-x(60% less Loc) or Corona(15% less LoC) for a comparison of the same games.
(Disclaimer: I'm one of the guys behind V-Play)
If you are into using Python, Kivy is a great solution these days. It compiles to all the platforms you ask for:
Kivy is running on Linux, Windows, MacOSX, Android and IOS. You can
run the same code on all supported platforms. It can use natively most
inputs protocols and devices like WM_Touch, WM_Pen, Mac OS X Trackpad
and Magic Mouse, Mtdev, Linux Kernel HID, TUIO. A multi-touch mouse
simulator is included.
Kivy uses lots of optimized code for graphics rendering (via Cython) so it is fast too.
Here is a speakerdeck that gives you some background and an overview (android specific).
How about HaxeFlixel? We have a great selection of demos, and of course support cross platform development via Haxe + OpenFL. This is an open source project hosted on GitHub. We support all major platforms (including iOS).
Here is my game framework Oxygine.
It is open source modern hardware accelerated 2D C++ framework for mobile and PC platforms.
Features: OpenGL(ES) 2, compressed textures, atlases, complex animations/tweens/sprites, scene graph, fonts, event handling, build tools, and others.
Can be built on top of SDL2 or Marmalade SDK.
In the basis of the engine there is a scene graph, that is similar to Flash one. To be short, You can call this as Flash for C++, but more comfortable and way faster. Initially it was developed for mobile platforms (iOS, Android), but can be also used for PC games.
No mention of App Game Kit (AGK) here so let me fill in the gap. It's a mainly 2D cross platform SDK allowing you to code once in either C++ or it's own "Basic" language. Version 2 just got over 400% funding on Kickstarter and will have full 3D support, Spine support (for 2D animated characters), bullet physics and whole bunch of other new features.
It already has Facebook, Twitter, a bunch of Ultrabook sensor commands, Box2D and more. I've been using it from the start and love it (can you tell?). No, I don't work for The Game Creators (the company that created it) although I admit I did do for a while making some apps.
One of the best features from my point of view is you can develop on Windows and broadcast from the IDE over Wi-Fi to any supported device, so while I'm coding I can (within seconds) test my code on iPad, Android, Windows, Mac or Blackberry Playbook.
If you have C# background. Have a look at Duality.
Duality is a flexible 2D game framework written entirely in C# –
and it’s here to make things a little easier for you. It provides both
an extensible game engine and a visual editor to match. There will be
no need for a level editor, testing environment or content manager
because Duality is all that by itself. And best of all: It’s free.
I'm just answering to give you some insights on how the SDL is used. As you said before it's not a game engine (it's just a library actually). Furthermore, it is not object oriented at all and you don't have some easy animation facilities (you have to code them by yourself).
How it works (I used the C version but I guess the Lua binding should be similar):
Include the headers needed to build the project on the platform you want.
Design your own game loop in which you will set up (at least) a whole event processing system, frame rate manager and a "screen cleaner (or updater)" (I'm insisting on the fact that you have to manually refresh your screen using the SDL_flip_screen routine which is something that is not one of your concerns at all with Corona).
Then, code your game using all the "mechanics" you made before.
The SDL is a low level library (don't expect to have an easy to use GUI framework or the storyboard framework of Corona for instance).
Finally, this library was used to port Civilization III to Linux, so yes it works but it will ask you a lot of energy to have something like you had with Corona ;)
PS: I am not a native English speaker, so please let me know if I wasn't clear :)
Gideros is a great Lua based 2d cross platforms engine, currently supporting both Android and IOS platforms, but more to come.
And it also has some great features as instant on device testing, auto scaling and auto image resolution to easily target various of screen sizes, as well as the option to extend each platform through native plugins.
You also have ShiVa3D, a serious competitor of Unity3D.
It uses Lua and supports many platforms from mobile to game consoles and web browsers.
Very intuitive to use and very nice UI to work with.

Rhomobile supports graphics?

Does the rhomobile support drawing with 2-d(3-d) graphics or is the graphic capabilities limited to static images?
Answered on the Rhomobile google group (http://groups.google.com/group/rhomobile). We don't support this now mostly for conserving space. Pointed you to instructions for adding libraries on the Rhomobile wiki. Its not a big deal to add and we would do so if it seemed required by majority of developers.

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