Texture pixels

Pixels

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* 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

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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

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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 performance

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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.