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I am trying to write some graphics code using the web-development tool Adobe ActionScript (version 3). AS3 has many sophisticated graphics capabilities, but what it does not have apparently, is any sort of BitBlt capability with raster operation (ROP) codes. This may have something to do with it being based on 'Sprites' which from my brief persual of some wikipedia info, is a different philosophy altogether from BitBlt.
I was trying to emulate BitBlt from scratch in ActionScript, by merely dumping three bitmaps into arrays, and then going through them pixel by pixel doing the logical ops on each pixel. As could probably be expected, this is way too slow. It was taking a full second to do ROP bitmap combinations that BitBlt would do instantaneously. (This has nothing to do with any inherent limitation in Actionscript, which does plenty of things graphical instantaneously.)
So I need to find out the algorithms that BitBlt is employing to do what it does and if its possible for me to emulate that (assuming that BitBlt isn't relying primarily on graphics hardware that can't be accessed from a web application.)
Important point:
There is only one ROP code I need to use, so possibly it could be optimized on that basis. (Its one of the more complex ROP codes involving XOR and AND of three different bitmaps).
-- modified at 14:44 Thursday 15th November, 2007
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Hi, image operations in professional packages are implemented using highly optimized code,
typically a combination of C and assembly code; where possible SIMD techniques are applied
(that's MMX/SSE on Intel Pentium). It is the result of extensive research, so you won't
match its performance easily.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
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"Hi, image operations in professional packages are implemented using highly optimized code, typically a combination of C and assembly code; where possible SIMD techniques are applied (that's MMX/SSE on Intel Pentium). It is the result of extensive research, so you won'tmatch its performance easily."
If it were documented anywhere, of course I would be able to emulate it (w/ exception of hardware capabilities). There's no apparent performance hit merely from using ActionScript either, which does some things much faster (e.g. antialiasing) than can be done with Windows code, although I have no idea how its done.
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Windows apps can call on the built-in BitBlt functions[^].
Google (BilBlt, rasterop, theory, internals, ...) will lead you to some junk and some
code snippets; there must be some C/C++/Java implementations around. But again, performance
wise none of those will match specialized products.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
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Luc Pattyn wrote: Windows apps can call on the built-in BitBlt functions[^].
The Windows BitBlt was the one I was referring to, and I am familiar with the documented interface for it.
Luc Pattyn wrote: Google (BilBlt, rasterop, theory, internals, ...) will lead you to some junk and some
code snippets; there must be some C/C++/Java implementations around. But again, performance
wise none of those will match specialized products
You could save yourself some typing by just responding to every post with "Google it". (Incidentally why does this forum even exist when a link to google is all that's needed.)
There are several people in this forum with "Microsoft MVP" in their signature. Don't know if that's literal or some code unique to this forum, but maybe I was thinking someone like that might run across this thread.
As far as my problem, I have three bitmaps - two of them never change position in relation to the client area, and the third scrolls up and down. With each scroll the BitBlt w/ ROP code has to be done. I'm thinking now since the first two bitmaps don't move, I can precalclulate values for them and store them in another table maybe 10-15 megs in size. So, part of the ROP calculation could be replaced by an indexed table look-up, though given the ROP code, I don't know how to do this yet, and furthermore don't know if there's any time saving with this method.
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Most of the people active on this forum use Windows; when they would need BitBlt, they
would call the function, without worrying too much how it is implemented (that was
Microsoft's job).
If you want to implement your own BitBlt function, you will run into performance issues;
the general lines to maximize performance on pixel operations are: avoid testing
and branching, avoid function calls, avoid unnecessary moves, and try to handle as
many pixels as possible in a single operation. The details of all this are way beyond the
scope of a forum such as this, as I already indicated.
With the partial description you provided, I would judge your table look-up is unlikely
to provide any speed-up unless it replaces two of the three images, which probably it isn't.
A Pentium-class CPU is better at reading a couple of pixel streams (which is a very
predictable process, and a prefetch can be organized), than at looking up tables;
and it is unlikely the table replaces more than a couple of (fast) instructions anyway.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
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<blockquote class="FQ"><div class="FQA">Luc Pattyn wrote:</div>With the partial description you provided, I would judge your table look-up is unlikely
to provide any speed-up unless it replaces two of the three images, which probably it isn't.</blockquote>
Something just occurred to me:
BYTE and[256][256]
BYTE or[256][256]
BYTE not[256];
That's less than 150K.
The question is, could and[x][y] be retrieved quicker than x&y is calculated. I suppose some table like this might already be used behind the scenes if it is actually quicker though.
------
Sorry, that was stupid.
But here's what I might try:
BYTE ROP[256][256][256];
This would store every possible byte value for the Raster Op I'm doing. I think one table look up would be quicker than three bitwise logical ops. But how much quicker, and is it worth a 16MB table. Guess I'll find out.
-- modified at 17:21 Thursday 15th November, 2007
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Hi,
The optimization of image processing code is handled at the cycle level, that is why
C/assembly/MMX/SSE are required here. If you want to explain an approach in a higher level,
that is fine to express the concept, but for performance you must visualize the basic CPU
operations that will correspond.
if BYTE ROP[x][y][z] contains a random value, of course you need a table look-up.
At best, these are the basic operations that would occur (assume x,y,z in CPU registers):
copy x, shift it by 8 positions, add y to it, shift it by 8 positions, add z to it,
add the address of ROP[0][0][0] to it, do an indirect load; so that amounts to 6 simple
arithmetic operations and a load.
as long as the value of BYTE ROP[x][y][z] can be expressed as a function of x,y,z containing
less than say 6 logical operators the direct code would be faster, since it does not need
the load at all.
So what I am saying is this: on modern CPUs (Pentium class, RISC, and many others)
u= x&y | x^z | !y&z would be faster than u=ROP[x][y][z]
without any doubt, (say by a factor of 1.33 to 2)
From what you have shown so far, I can only conclude that you are a novice in
optimization stuff.
If you want to continue in this field, I recommend you study some code outside
the .NET Framework, and look at assemly code generated (a) by compilers, (b) by
manual optimization (e.g. look at the disassembled code of the strlen function, you
will find over 100 lines for something that most people would do, somewhat slower,
in less than 10 lines! The difference is not much, but that's mainly because strlen
is hard to parallellize, although there are MMX versions of it too).
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
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Luc Pattyn wrote: From what you have shown so far, I can only conclude that you are a novice in
optimization stuff.
For the record, I've had two courses in digital logic at the graduate level, (pursuant to my master's degree) but that type of optimization isn't really an option for me here, is it? I certainly know assembler as well. Remember my original problem, however: I am trying to emulate BitBlt with in the actionscript/flash environment which doesn't have it. My goal is to eak out as much speed for the operation in that environment, and see what I come up with. In my previous post I was thinking out loud, essentially in an attempt to get some meaningful feedback for my desired goal, which BTW, I have yet to recieve. Essentially what you're implying is that there is NO WAY to achieve a faster emulation of BitBlt in a flash environment other than a pixel by pixel operation. I appreciate your explanation as to why a table lookup would not be faster than the bitwise logical operation, but once again how have you helped me towards solving my original problem at all?
Respectfully,
Force Code
----------------------------
"if BYTE ROP[x][y][z] contains a random value, of course you need a table look-up. At best, these are the basic operations that would occur (assume x,y,z in CPU registers): copy x, shift it by 8 positions, add y to it, shift it by 8 positions, add z to it,
add the address of ROP[0][0][0] to it, do an indirect load; so that amounts to 6 simplearithmetic operations and a load."
I am not at all convinced that all that copying and shifting and adding you describe is in fact the operations involved in a table lookup:
My thinking first of all that a compiler would convert x,y,z into a single value and store it in one register and use it as an offset from a base address - there go your litany of copies and such.
(But you said it with such authority - I almost assumed for a minute you knew what you were talking about.)
-- modified at 19:39 Thursday 15th November, 2007
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Force Code wrote: I am not at all convinced that all that copying and shifting and adding you describe is in fact the operations involved in a table lookup
well that too proves my point. how do you think a CPU gets to an element of a three-
dimensional array?
Force Code wrote: that there is NO WAY to achieve a faster emulation of BitBlt in a flash environment other than a pixel by pixel operation
that's not what I said; to the contrary, I told you looking for parallellism
is a major way to speed up image processing. To what degree it is possible in your case
I can't tell.
I am not going to spend the time and solve your problem, I don't even plan on
investigating it any further. I have told you how complex your goal may be and what
is important to image processing performance.
I think you are looking at a major undertaking and probably will be disappointed by
the results that you will obtain, but hey don't let anyone discourage you...
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
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Force Code wrote: There are several people in this forum with "Microsoft MVP" in their signature. Don't know if that's literal or some code unique to this forum, but maybe I was thinking someone like that might run across this thread.
It's an award handed out by MS to people who are exceptionally helpful on software forums. It uses peer nomination (other users have to submit someones name to be considered), and MS then looks over the nominees to see if they're upto their standards. MVPs aren't MS employees, nor do they have access to the MS codebase.
--
Help Stamp Out and Abolish Redundancy
The preceding is courtesy of the Department of Unnecessarily Redundant Repetition Department.
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This was unnecessarily harsh. Luc was being very professional and trying to help.
From reading the rest of the discourse, it is very obvious to me who knows what he is talking about, and who does not.
David
---------
Empirical studies indicate that 20% of the people drink 80% of the beer. With C++ developers, the rule is that 80% of the developers understand at most 20% of the language. It is not the same 20% for different people, so don't count on them to understand each other's code.
http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/picture.html#fqa-6.6
---------
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Luc Pattyn wrote: So what I am saying is this: on modern CPUs (Pentium class, RISC, and many others)
u= x&y | x^z | !y&z would be faster than u=ROP[x][y][z]
without any doubt, (say by a factor of 1.33 to 2)
#include < iostream >
#include < windows.h >
using namespace std;
BYTE ROP[256][256][256];
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
DWORD time = GetCurrentTime();
for (int x=0; x<256; x++)
for (int y=0; y<256; y++)
for (int z=0; z<256; z++)
ROP[x][y][z] = (x&y) | (x^z) | (!y&z);
cout << "test 1: " << GetCurrentTime()-time << endl;
BYTE n;
time = GetCurrentTime();
for (int x=0; x<256; x++)
for (int y=0; y<256; y++)
for (int z=0; z<256; z++)
n = ROP[x][y][z];
cout << "test 2: " << GetCurrentTime()-time << endl;
}
And the results:
C:\dev-cpp\examples\test>test
test 1: 240
test 2: 60
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Force Code wrote: test 1: 240
test 2: 60
and a release build gives:
test 1: 125
test 2: 0
proving the test program is worth zilch. 
My final statement to you is: try to figure what the corresponding assembly code is.
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What are you trying to prove with that benchmark? You are completely comparing apples to oranges here. The first is measuring how long it takes to WRITE some COMPUTED value to some COMPUTED OFFSET. The second is measuring how long it takes to READ some STORED value from the same COMPUTED OFFSET. In addition, the compiler may be moving x, y, or z out of the register space to allow for the arithmetic in the first example, so you may have additional memory reading/writing going on (not to mention that reads are far faster than writes). I bet if you store the result of the first loop to a single int variable, the first will be faster. If this was an attempt to prove that table lookups are faster than actual computing, then you must know that I am ABSOLUTELY not convinced.
As far as your imaging is concerned, if you are using c#, then you should use either int or long pointers to the data, and perform your operations on the pointer to a linear array. I just did some image processing stuff, and this proved to be the most efficient in c# that I found.
Jeff
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OK, it looks like maybe I was mistaken:
#include < iostream >
#include < windows.h >
using namespace std;
BYTE ROP[256][256][256];
BYTE ROP2[256][256][256];
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
DWORD time = GetCurrentTime();
for (int x=0; x<256; x++)
for (int y=0; y<256; y++)
for (int z=0; z<256; z++)
ROP[x][y][z] = (x&y) | (x^z) | (!y&z);
cout << "test 1: " << GetCurrentTime()-time << endl;
time = GetCurrentTime();
for (int x=0; x<256; x++)
for (int y=0; y<256; y++)
for (int z=0; z<256; z++)
ROP2[x][y][z] = ROP[x][y][z];
cout << "test 2: " << GetCurrentTime()-time << endl;
time = GetCurrentTime();
memcpy((void*)ROP2,(void*)ROP,16777216);
cout << "test 3: " << GetCurrentTime()-time << endl;
}
and the results:
C:\dev-cpp\examples\test>test
test 1: 191
test 2: 310
test 3: 250
But the really strange thing is, in the third case, its just a block transfer of data from ROP to ROP2, but even that's slower than iterating through the entire array and calculating each value one at a time. I'll admit that makes no sense to me.
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memcpy is not /that/ fast in most implementations (you can almost always use mmx/sse2 to write a faster one if you want)
consider for one thing that the details of the copy are passed as parameters, it must at least do some work to use them, this is a waste if you already know what they are (the for loop tells the compiler for you)
also when operating on memory some instructions do not need an additional mov, which means they can be as fast, or faster, than a memory copy, others force you to do two movs (mul and div for instance)
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I noticed several optimizations that may speed up your algorithm:
1. In the innermost loop, you're recomputing (x&y) even though they don't change for different z values. If you assign (x&y) to a temporary variable before the z loop, it will save time.
2. Computing the address for ROP[x][y][z] every iteration wastes time. If you set a pointer to the first element (ROP[0][0][0]), it can be incremented in one instruction to point to the next element to store your result. This is faster than the several arithmetic operations needed to access an element in a 3D array.
Your second case does this 3D-element-address calculation twice each iteration, and takes the most time.
3. You might try making z a register variable.
4. It's been claimed that ++x is faster than x++ because the pre-incremented value isn't needed.
5. The slow performance in the third case is surprising. One thing you could try to bypass memcpy is the #asm directive to include in-line assembly language to copy the memory block.
Hope this helps...
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IIRC ActionScript is basically JavaScript, and like any interpreted language, its very slow. Sure, if you call an inbuilt antialiasing function or drawline routine, they will execute fast - but they are not written in ActionScript, just made avaliable to ActionScript.
There would be no hope of matching a native code implementation with pure ActionScript.
I would start looking for a workaround - does AS provide say a copy-paste between canvas, for example?
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Mark Churchill wrote: There would be no hope of matching a native code implementation with pure ActionScript.
I would start looking for a workaround - does AS provide say a copy-paste between canvas, for example?
Mark Churchill
Director
Dunn & Churchill
They do have a CopyPixels function, which is like BitBlt without ROP codes. AS also offers a number of different things like BlendModes and filters and merges and so on, of bitmaps. What they don't offer is a straightforward bitwise logical combinations, so if you have something very specific you need to do that doesn't match up with their esoteric sounding functions you're evidently out of luck. For example with BlendMode.Add you have "Adds the values of the constituent colors of the display object to the colors of its background, applying a ceiling of 0xFF. This setting is commonly used for animating a lightening dissolve between two objects." In addition you have things like BlendMode.Multiply BlendMode.Screen, etc. There's even a BlendMode.Invert which is a bitwise NOT, but no AND or OR, for some reason - maybe Microsoft holds a copyright on two of the three logical operators, who knows. I'm sure all these operations are plenty fast as well, judging from my experience with other things in AS (Flex actually). With filters, you have things like convolution filters, displacement filters that look somewhat promising if you're able to decipher what they actually do. There's many other things as well - matrices, alpha, etc.
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IIRC, it's implemented by the specific device driver (and the real work probably happens on the device hardware itself).
and, there's no way you're going to even approach the speed of something like BitBlt in a scripting language.
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Force Code wrote: So I need to find out the algorithms that BitBlt is employing to do what it does and if its possible for me to emulate that (assuming that BitBlt isn't relying primarily on graphics hardware that can't be accessed from a web application.)
did you try googling bitblt.c? Although the current version has gone through some changes over the years, the code is as old as I am. BitBlt operations were done before accelerated graphics cards for memory manipulaton. It was these routines that were used over and over again that became part of hardware operations on the graphics card (2D acceleration), and eventually part of multimedia and extended instruction sets of the CPU itself.
When you find it, you will discover why it was done in hardware to speed it up. I am with the others, you are not going to be happy with the performance. Hardware operations of BitBlt will be nice and smooth, you can achieve the same on a fast processor, but you are wasting a LOT of processor cycles that could be more effectively used on something more important than reinventing the wheel.
_________________________
Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau.
Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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