vs [CIContext drawImage:…] - cocoa

What is the difference between the last two lines?
CIImage *outputImage = [compositingFilter valueForKey:#"outputImage"];
[[[NSGraphicsContext currentContext] CIContext] drawImage:outputImage atPoint:point fromRect:fromRect];
[outputImage drawAtPoint:point fromRect:fromRect operation:op fraction:delta];
The last one produces a distorted image with a rect that is smaller than [outputImage extent];
The drawImage: line crashes on some occasions.

From the docs on -drawAtPoint:…
The image content is drawn at its current resolution and is not scaled unless the CTM of the current coordinate system itself contains a scaling factor. The image is otherwise positioned and oriented using the current coordinate system.
fromRect should be the entire size of the image if you're wanting the whole thing drawn. Also in many cases flippedness is handled differently between different drawing methods.
Lastly, the docs on -drawImage:… somewhat cryptically only state:
You can call this method to force evaluation of the result after you apply a filter using one of the methods of the CIFilter class, such as apply:, apply:arguments:options:, and apply:k…
Hope this helps.

Related

Object 3D rotation using png's

I want to achieve an object 3D rotation in Xcode that instead of using openGL uses a set of prerendered pngs. This would allow for much more complex 3D animations in terms of polygons and light effects. So far I have achieved to build subclass of UIView that contains a UIScrollView and in the scrollViewDidScroll delegate method it scrubs through 360 png images depending on the content offset of the UIScrollView. This does exactly what I want to achieve except a few major problems.
I've tried three different methods to swap the images.
Method 1:
When the View is being initialized I put all UIImages in UIImageViews and those on screen with alpha = 0 and then set the respective imageView's alpha to 1 on scrollViewDidScroll
Method 2:
When the View is being initialized I put all UIImages in an array and put a single UIImageView on screen. In scrollViewDidScroll I set the respective image from the array as the image of the UIImageView
Method 3:
When the View is being initialized I save all imageNames in an Array and put a sing UIImageView on the screen. In scrollViewDidScroll I create a UIImage with the name from the array for the respective index and set this as the image for my UIImageView
All three are very memory consuming and will eventually cause memory warnings or crashes. While method three is slightly less memory expensive it's also a lot laggier.
Is there any method to do this memory efficient and fast without having to use openGL??
Edit: Theodore Gray achieved this in his Elements app in an awesome way and I can't find out how. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHiEqf5wb3g&feature=player_embedded

Drawing on CATiledLayer or CALayer with pdf in iOS

i have a scrollview which contains a pdfpage rendered with CATiledLayer, i want to draw stuff onto the pdf page so i created a overlay layer, i need the graphic to look vectorized so i decided to use CATiledlayer for the overlay layer. Only problem is that it is very slow to draw (I'm using beizerpath to draw), then i tried to optimize it by creating the overlay layer with the visible height and width when zooming in and out, so i don't need to create the overlay for the whole content bound. But still no luck , i want to try CALayer but the draw path just becomes blurry and pixelated, so i'm not sure how i can improve on this. I also tried drawinrect but for some reason it doesn't seem to work.
I suggest not using bezierpath to draw annotations since it requires you to redraw the whole path every time the pen moves. It would be better if you draw only the current line segment using CGContextAddQuadCurveToPoint.
At touchMoved, get the current point and 2 prev points
Using those points, get the area where the line should be drawn
draw at that area in drawRect using setNeedsDisplayAtRect
inside drawRect, go to the end of your path and add your new line using CGContextAddQuadCurveToPoint

Creating pattern on-the-fly?

Is there a way to create a colored fill pattern dynamically in Cocoa?
In particular instead of using a fixed pattern from an image file via
NSColor *fillPattern = [NSColor colorWithPatternImage:patternImage];
I'd like to create a pattern by dynamically choosing the appropriate colors at runtime.
Background is highlighting a colored object by rendering stripes or squares in the ''opposite'' color on top of it - whatever opposite might mean in this context, but that's a different story..
Being applied to potentially hundreds of objects in a drawing app it needs to be a rather fast method so I suppose just swapping colors in patternImage won't be good enough.
(It did work just fine back in QuickDraw..!)
Why not just draw to an in-memory image and use that for your pattern?
NSImage* patternImage = [[NSImage alloc] initWithSize:someSize];
[patternImage lockFocus];
//draw your pattern
[patternImage unlockFocus];
NSColor* patternColor = [NSColor colorWithPatternImage:patternImage];
//do something with the pattern color
//remember to release patternImage if you're not using ARC
Performance-wise, you generally should be looking at optimising drawing by paying attention to the rect passed in to drawRect: and making sure you only draw what is necessary. If you do that then I can't see the pattern drawing performance being a major problem.
Background is highlighting a colored object by rendering stripes or squares in the ''opposite'' color on top of it - whatever opposite might mean in this context, but that's a different story..
You'll want to use one of Quartz's blend modes (most of them are present in Photoshop, Pixelmator, and Opacity, so you can experiment in one of those apps to determine which one you need).
You should then be able to fill with a static image—or a dynamic pattern, if it's really necessary—and Quartz will blend it in appropriately.
There's no way to do this in AppKit alone; you'll need to get a CGContext from the current NSGraphicsContext and do it in Quartz.

Change bounds origin + cropping an image

I am a newbie to Cocoa, I have a few doubts regarding NSImage.
Question1:
Changing the bounds origin of an image doesn't seem to have any effect. I expected the image to be drawn from the newly set origin but that doesn't seem to the case. Am I missing something ?
code:
NSImage* carImage = [NSImage imageNamed:#"car"];
[self.imageView setImage:carImage];
//Following line has no effect:
self.imageView.bounds = CGRectMake(self.imageView.bounds.origin.x + 100, self.imageView.bounds.origin.y, self.imageView.bounds.size.width,self.imageView.bounds.size.height);
Note: imageView is an IBOutlet
Question2:
I was trying to crop an image, but it doesn't seem to be cropping the image, I can see the complete image. What is that I am missing ?
code:
NSRect sourceRect = CGRectMake(150, 25, 100, 50);
NSRect destRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, 100, 50);
NSImage* carImage = [NSImage imageNamed:#"car"];
[carImage drawInRect:destRect fromRect:sourceRect operation:NSCompositeSourceOver fraction:1.0];
[self.imageView setImage:carImage];
Thanks
Changing the bounds origin of an image doesn't seem to have any effect. …
//Following line has no effect:
self.imageView.bounds = CGRectMake(self.imageView.bounds.origin.x + 100, self.imageView.bounds.origin.y, self.imageView.bounds.size.width,self.imageView.bounds.size.height);
That's an image view, not an image.
The effect of changing the bounds of a view depends on what the view does to draw. Effectively, this means you shouldn't change the bounds of a view that isn't an instance of a view class you created, since you can't predict exactly how an NSImageView will draw its image (presumably, since it's a control, it involves its cell, but more than that, I wouldn't rely on).
More generally, it's pretty rare to change a view's bounds origin. I don't remember having ever done it, and I can't think of a reason off the top of my head to do it. Changing its bounds size will scale, not crop.
I was trying to crop an image, but it doesn't seem to be cropping the image, I can see the complete image. What is that I am missing ?
[carImage drawInRect:destRect fromRect:sourceRect operation:NSCompositeSourceOver fraction:1.0];
[self.imageView setImage:carImage];
Telling an image to draw does not change anything about the image. It will not “crop the image” such that the image will thereafter be smaller or larger. You are telling it to draw, nothing more.
Consequently, the statement after that sets the image view's image to the whole image, exactly as if you hadn't told the image to draw, because telling it to draw made no difference.
What telling an image to draw does is exactly that: It tells the image to draw. There are only two correct places to do that:
In between lockFocus and unlockFocus messages to a view or image (or after setting the current NSGraphicsContext).
Within a view's drawRect: method.
Anywhere else, you should not tell any Cocoa object to draw.
One correct way to crop an image is to create a new image of the desired/adjusted size, lock focus on it, draw the desired portion of the original image into it, and unlock focus on the new image. You will then have both the original and a cropped version.
Another correct way would be to create your own custom image view that has two properties: One owning an image to draw, and the other holding a rectangle. When told to draw, this custom view would tell the image to draw the given rectangle into the view's bounds. You would then always hold the original image and simply draw only the desired section.

Alpha Detection in Layer OK on Simulator, not iPhone

First, check out this very handy extension to CALayer from elsewhere on SO. It helps you determine if a point in a layer's contents-assigned CGImageRef is or isn't transparent.
n.b.: There is no guarantee about a layer's contents being representable or responding as if it was a CGImageRef. (This can have implications for broader use of the extension referenced above, granted.) In my case, however, I know that the layers I'm testing have contents that were assigned a CGImageRef. (Hopefully this can't change out from under me after assignment! Plus I notice that contents is retained.)
OK, back to the problem at hand. Here's how I'm using the extension. For starters, I've changed the selector from containsPoint: to containsNonTransparentPoint: (I need to keep the original method around.)
Now, I have a UIImageView subclass that uses seven CALayer objects. These are used for opacity-based animations (pulsing/glowing effects and on/off states). Each of those seven layers has a known CGImageRef in its contents that effectively "covers" (air quotes) one part of the entire view with its own swath of color. The rest of each image in its respective layer is transparent.
In the subclass, I register for single tap gestures. When one arrives, I walk through my layers to see which one was effectively tapped (that is, which one has a non-transparent point where I tapped, first one found wins) and then I can do whatever needs doing.
Here's how I handle the gesture:
- (IBAction)handleSingleTap:(UIGestureRecognizer *)sender {
CGPoint tapPoint = [sender locationInView:sender.view];
// Flip y so 0,0 is at lower left. (Required by layer method below.)
tapPoint.y = sender.view.bounds.size.height - tapPoint.y;
// Figure out which layer was effectively tapped. First match wins.
for (CALayer *layer in myLayers) {
if ([layer containsNonTransparentPoint:tapPoint]) {
NSLog(#"%# tapped at (%.0f, %.0f)", layer.name, tapPoint.x, tapPoint.y);
// We got our layer! Do something useful with it.
return;
}
}
}
The good news? All of this works beautifully on the iPhone Simulator with iOS 4.3.2. (FWIW, I'm on Lion running Xcode 4.1.)
However, on my iPhone 4 (with iOS 4.3.3), it doesn't even come close! None of my taps seem to match up with any of the layers I'd expect them to.
Even if I try the suggestion to use CGContextSetBlendMode when drawing into the 1x1 pixel context, no dice.
I am hoping it's pilot error, but I have yet to figure out what the disparity is. The taps do have a pattern but not a discernible one.
Perhaps there's a data boundary issue. Perhaps I have to do something other than flip the y coordinate to the lower-left of the image. Just not sure yet.
If anyone can please shed some light on what might be amiss, I would be most appreciative!
UPDATE, 22 September 2011: First ah-ha moment acquired! The problem isn't Simulator-vs-iPhone.
It's Retina vs. Non-Retina! The same symptoms occur in the Simulator
when using the Retina version. Perhaps the solution centers around scaling (CTM?) in some way/shape/form. The Quartz 2D Programming Guide also advises that "iOS applications should use UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions." I feel like I'm very close to the solution here!
OK! First, the problem wasn't Simulator-vs-iPhone. Rather, it was Retina vs. Non-Retina. The same symptoms occur in the Simulator when using the Retina version. Right away, one starts to think the solution has to do with scaling.
A very helpful post over on the Apple Dev Quartz 2D forum (along similar "be mindful of scaling" lines) steered me toward a solution. Now, I'm the first to admit, this solution is NOT pretty, but it does work for Retina and Non-Retina cases.
With that, here's the revised code for the aforementioned CALayer extension:
//
// Checks image at a point (and at a particular scale factor) for transparency.
// Point must be with origin at lower-left.
//
BOOL ImagePointIsTransparent(CGImageRef image, CGFloat scale, CGPoint point) {
unsigned char pixel[1] = {0};
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(pixel, 1, 1, 8, 1,
NULL, kCGImageAlphaOnly);
CGContextSetBlendMode(context, kCGBlendModeCopy);
CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(-point.x, -point.y,
CGImageGetWidth(image)/scale, CGImageGetHeight(image)/scale), image);
CGContextRelease(context);
CGFloat alpha = pixel[0]/255.0;
return (alpha < 0.01);
}
#implementation CALayer (Extensions)
- (BOOL)containsNonTransparentPoint:(CGPoint)point scale:(CGFloat)scale {
if (CGRectContainsPoint(self.bounds, point)) {
if (!ImagePointIsTransparent((CGImageRef)self.contents, scale, point))
return YES;
}
return NO;
}
#end
In short, we need to know about the scale. If we divide the image width and height by that scale, ta-dah, the hit test now works on Retina and Non-Retina devices!
What I don't like about this is the mess I've had to make of that poor selector, now called containsNonTransparentPoint:Scale:. As mentioned in the question, there is never any guarantee what a layer's contents will contain. In my case I am taking care to only use this on layers with a CGImageRef in there, but this won't fly in a more general/reusable case.
All this makes me wonder if CALayer is not the best place for this particular extension after all, at least in this new incarnation. Perhaps CGImage, with some layer smarts thrown in, would be cleaner. Imagine doing a hit test on a CGImage but returning the name of the first layer that had non-transparent content at that point. There's still the problem of not knowing which layers have CGImageRefs in them, so some hinting might be required. (Left as an exercise for yours truly and the reader!)
UPDATE: After some discussion with a developer at Apple, messing with layers in this fashion is in fact ill-advised. Contrary to what I previously learned (incorrectly?), multiple UIImageViews encapsulated within a UIView are the way to go here. (I always remember learning that you want to keep your views to a minimum. Perhaps in this case it isn't as big a deal.) Nevertheless, I'll keep this answer here for now, but will not mark it as correct. Once I try out and verify the other technique, I will share that here!

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