How to use LoadImage and DeleteObject properly? - c++

I am working on a windows application with C++. I load a bmp file to a DC using LoadImage, and it shows up properly. However, when I call DeleteObject, the memory doesn't seem to be freed. (I use windows task manager to track the memory usage)
In the WM_INITDIALOG part I do this:
static HBITMAP hBitmap = 0;
char* tempPath = "tabView.bmp";
hBitmap = (HBITMAP)LoadImage(NULL,
tempPath, // file containing bitmap
IMAGE_BITMAP, // type = bitmap
0, 0, // original size
LR_LOADFROMFILE); // get image from a file
if(hBitmap)
{
SendMessage(GetDlgItem(hwndDlg, IDC_PICTURE),
STM_SETIMAGE, // message to send
(WPARAM)IMAGE_BITMAP, // bitmap type
(LPARAM)hBitmap); // bitmap handle
}
So the picture shows up in the DC, and memory increases. And in a button I do:
int result = DeleteObject(hBitmap);
When I press the button, I checked the result and it's a non-zero value, which is success. But IDC_PICTURE will still show the picture, and memory stays the same. I am wondering if the SendMessage() may increase the ref count on the hBitmap...
So my question is: What is the proper way to clean up?

You didn't mentioned what version of Windows you are using. Anyway, if you read "Important" part of STM_SETIMAGE, you will see next:
With Windows XP, if the bitmap passed in the STM_SETIMAGE message contains pixels with nonzero alpha, the static control takes a copy of the bitmap. This copied bitmap is returned by the next STM_SETIMAGE message. The client code may independently track the bitmaps passed to the static control, but if it does not check and release the bitmaps returned from STM_SETIMAGE messages, the bitmaps are leaked.
Maybe this applies not only for Windows XP, but for later version of Windows. Hope this will help you.

Related

LoadBitmap fails after multiple calls

In this function, after about 90 calls (it's called in a loop and the idea is to load in a separate image each time, but I have kept it to one image for simplicity).The global variables now changed to local ones.
void CDLP_Printer_ControlDlg::DisplayBMPfromSVG(CString& strDsiplayFile)
{
HBITMAP hbmp_temp = (HBITMAP)::LoadImage(0, strDsiplayFile, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE);
if (!hbmp_temp)
{
//hbmp_temp = ::LoadBitmap(AfxGetInstanceHandle(), MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_BITMAP1));
ActionList.AddString(L"Bitmap Load Failure: GetBMPromSVG");
ActionList.UpdateWindow();
if (!hbmp_temp)
return;
}
CBitmap bmp_temp;
bmp_temp.Attach(hbmp_temp);
mProjectorWindow.m_picControl.ModifyStyle(0xF, SS_BITMAP, SWP_NOSIZE);
mProjectorWindow.m_picControl.SetBitmap(bmp_temp);
return;
}
I hope someone can come up with an Idea whats wrong. GetLastError returns "8" which means nothing to me.
Detach will destroy the previous handle.
Note that if you call Detach after calling SetBitmap, the picture control's bitmap is destroyed. The result is that the picture control is painted once, but it won't be repainted. For example picture control goes blank if dialog is resized.
EDIT
To destroy the old bitmap, call Detach followed by DestroyObject. Example
HGDIOBJ hbitmap_detach = m_bitmap.Detach();
if (hbitmap_detach)
DeleteObject(hbitmap_detach);
m_bitmap.Attach(hbitmap);
If it's a temporary CBitmap then DeleteObject is not necessary, because DeleteObject is called automatically when CBitmap goes out of scope.
Note that if you destroy the bitmap after calling SetBitmap, the picture control's bitmap is destroyed. The result is that the picture control is painted once, but it won't be repainted. For example picture control goes blank if dialog is resized.
It's the same problem if you declare a temporary CBitmap on stack and attach the bitmap handle. That bitmap handle will be destroyed and picture control can't repaint itself.
In addition, Windows XP sometimes makes duplicate bitmap which needs to be destroyed as well. SetBitmap returns a handle to previous bitmap. In Vista+ the returned bitmap is the same one which was save in m_bitmap, we already destroy that with Detach. But in XP we need to destroy this copy if it is a different handle.
void CMyDialog::foo()
{
HBITMAP save = m_bitmap;
HBITMAP hbitmap = (HBITMAP)::LoadImage(0, filename,
IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE);
if (hbitmap)
{
HGDIOBJ hbitmap_detach = m_bitmap.Detach();
//Edit ****************************************
//Delete old handle, otherwise program crashes after 10,000 calls
if (hbitmap_detach)
DeleteObject(hbitmap_detach);
//*********************************************
m_bitmap.Attach(hbitmap);
HBITMAP oldbmp = m_picControl.SetBitmap(m_bitmap);
//for Windows XP special case where there might be 2 copies:
if (oldbmp && (oldbmp != save))
DeleteObject(oldbmp);
}
}
Also, SetBitmap takes HBITMAP parameter and returns HBITMAP, so you can avoid using CBitmap altogether. The following example works in Vista+
void foo()
{
HBITMAP temp = (HBITMAP)::LoadImage(0,filename,IMAGE_BITMAP,0,0,LR_LOADFROMFILE);
if (temp)
{
HBITMAP oldbmp = m_picControl.SetBitmap(temp);
if (oldbmp)
DeleteObject(oldbmp);
DeleteObject(temp);
}
}
Your code has several issues, some minor, others are fatal (and the implementation really only appears to work, because the OS is prepared to deal with those common bugs). Here is an annotated listing of the original code:
void CDLP_Printer_ControlDlg::DisplayBMPfromSVG(CString& strDsiplayFile) {
// ^ should be const CString&
HBITMAP hbmp_temp = (HBITMAP)::LoadImage(0, strDsiplayFile, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0,
LR_LOADFROMFILE);
if (!hbmp_temp) {
//hbmp_temp = ::LoadBitmap(AfxGetInstanceHandle(), MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_BITMAP1));
ActionList.AddString(L"Bitmap Load Failure: GetBMPromSVG");
ActionList.UpdateWindow();
if (!hbmp_temp)
// You already know, that the condition is true (unless your commented out code
// is supposed to run).
return;
}
CBitmap bmp_temp;
bmp_temp.Attach(hbmp_temp);
// ^ This should immediately follow the LoadImage call, to benefit from automatic
// resource management. (What's the point of using MFC when you decide to implement
// manual resource management on top of it?)
mProjectorWindow.m_picControl.ModifyStyle(0xF, SS_BITMAP, SWP_NOSIZE);
// ^ Use named constants. No one is going to
// look up the documentation just to find
// out, what you are trying to do.
mProjectorWindow.m_picControl.SetBitmap(bmp_temp);
// The GDI object (hbmp_temp) now has two owners, the CBitmap instance bmp_temp, and
// the picture control. At the same time, you are throwing away the handle previously
// owned by the control. This is your GDI resource leak.
return;
// ^ Superfluous. This is merely confusing readers. Remove it.
}
// This is where things go fatal: The bmp_temp d'tor runs, destroying the GDI resource
// hbmp_temp, that's also owned by the control. This should really blow up in your face
// but the OS knows that developers cannot be trusted anymore, and covers your ass.
The two major issues are:
Failure to delete GDI resources owned by your code (the return value of SetBitmap). This eventually causes any attempt to create additional GDI resources to fail.
The dangling pointer (HBITMAP) caused by assigning two owners to the same resource (hbmp_temp).
There's really another issue here as well. Since you assigned two owners to the bitmap resource, this would lead to a double-delete. It doesn't, because you opted against resource cleanup. (The fact that you don't know what you're doing saved you here. Keep that in mind the next time you celebrate your "can do" attitude.)
Following is a version with fixed-up resource management. This won't make any sense to you, since you don't know MFC (or C++ for that matter) well enough to understand, how either one aids in automatic resource management. Anyhow:
void CDLP_Printer_ControlDlg::DisplayBMPfromSVG(CString& strDsiplayFile) {
HBITMAP hbmp_temp = (HBITMAP)::LoadImage(0, strDsiplayFile, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0,
LR_LOADFROMFILE);
// Immediately attach a C++ object, so that resources will get cleaned up
// regardless how the function is exited.
CBitmap bmp_temp;
if (!bmp_temp.Attach(hbmp_temp)) {
// Log error/load placeholder image
return;
}
mProjectorWindow.m_picControl.ModifyStyle(0xF, SS_BITMAP, SWP_NOSIZE);
// Swap the owned resource of bmp_temp with that of the control:
bmp_temp.Attach(mProjectorWindow.m_picControl.SetBitmap(bmp_temp.Detach()));
}
The last line is the critical part. It implements the canonical way to swap raw Windows API resources with resource management wrappers. This is the sequence of operations:
bmp_temp.Detach() releases ownership of the GDI resource.
SetBitmap() passes ownership of the GDI resource to the control, and returns the previous GDI object (if any).
bmp_temp.Attach() acquires ownership of the returned GDI resource. This ensures that the previous resource gets cleaned up, when bmp_temp goes out of scope (at the end of the function).

C++: Avoid flickering using WM_ERASEBKGND-Message in MFC-Application

in the OnDraw()-Method i create a Bitmap and blit it to the output every time the window size changes:
void CmbmView::OnDraw(CDC* pDC)
{
CRect WindowSize;
HDC hdc;
BITMAPINFO pbmi;
HBITMAP hbm;
CBitmap *pBitmap;
CDC MemDC;
void* ppvBits;
GetClientRect(WindowSize);
hdc = CreateDC (TEXT ("DISPLAY"), NULL, NULL, NULL) ;
memset(&pbmi, 0, sizeof(BITMAPINFO));
pbmi.bmiHeader.biSize = sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER);
pbmi.bmiHeader.biWidth = WindowSize.Width();
pbmi.bmiHeader.biHeight = -WindowSize.Height(); // top down
pbmi.bmiHeader.biPlanes = 1;
pbmi.bmiHeader.biBitCount = 32;
pbmi.bmiHeader.biCompression = BI_RGB;
hbm = CreateDIBSection(hdc, &pbmi, DIB_RGB_COLORS, &ppvBits, NULL, NULL);
pBitmap = CBitmap::FromHandle(hbm);
MemDC.CreateCompatibleDC(pDC);
MemDC.SelectObject(pBitmap);
// "Draw" into ppvBits
GetDocument()->DrawApple(pDC, ppvBits, WindowSize.Width(), WindowSize.Height(), m_MaxIter, m_MaxBetragQuadrat, m_BW);
// Blit it to the output
pDC->BitBlt(0, 0, WindowSize.Width(), WindowSize.Height(), &MemDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY);
}
But every time the application needs to recreate the bitmap in OnDraw(), the Screen gets white until it blits the bitmap to the screen. How can i use the WM_ERASEBKGND-Message to avoid this flickering?
I don't know with MFC but with the native Windows API you have to process the WM_ERASEBKGND message and simply return TRUE;. This tells the default window procedure that the message is processed hence the window background is erased. As a result the flickering disappears.
Additionally if you're using function InvalidateRect(..) be sure to set parameter bErase to FALSE. Note that the parameter is TRUE by default if not explicitly given.
In an application where rendering the window content took nontrivial amounts of time I took the following steps:
when the screen needs a redraw, blit its content from a bitmap
if the underlying data changes, kick off a thread to render that data into a new bitmap (if that thread is already running, just set a flag)
when the rendering thread finishes, exchange the stored bitmap with the thread result and invalidate the window (if the according flag is set, restart rendering right away)
when the window is resized trigger rendering and stretch-blit the bitmap to the window
when the view is scrolled, blit those parts that are available and trigger rendering
The important benefit is not just that you don't have flickering, but also that the application remains responsive while a thread in it is busy rendering the data into a graphic. In the implementation, apart from the usual multithreading issues, there are a few important things:
Don't run multiple threads in the background at once, as that can degrade performance. If you just stretch the window with the mouse you can easily generate tens of resize messages and you neither want to waste the time nor the amount of memory for that.
Only render the visible parts, as with virtual sizes of a scrollview the bitmap can become really large. In order to make scrolling easier you can add a frame (e.g. 1/5th of the width/height) to keep some additional data available while preparing a new bitmap in the background.

Copy contents of one DeviceContext to another DeviceContext

I've never done any GDI programming and despite taking several shots in the dark and searching the documentation I haven't found the correct way to do copy the contents of one DC to another DC.
The code I have at the moment is below. I don't understand why it's not working (the window remains just remains blank after creation).
SIZE srcSize;
// ... Get size of source DC
HDC destDC = ...; // from GetDC(myWindow), myWindow was
// sized before this to properly contain source
HDC sourceDC = ...;
HBITMAP buffer = CreateCompatibleBitmap(sourceDC, srcSize.cx, srcSize.cy);
HGDIOBJ oldObj = SelectObject(destDC, buffer);
BitBlt(destDC, 0, 0, srcSize.cx, srcSize.cy, sourceDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY);
SelectObject(destDC, oldObj);
DeleteObject(buffer);
//... ReleaseDC()s here
What's the proper way this is done?
The only thing necessary to copy from one DC to another is a BitBlt. Code that works is below.
SIZE srcSize;
// ... Get size of source DC
HDC destDC = ...; // from GetDC(myWindow), myWindow was
// sized before this to properly contain source
HDC sourceDC = ...;
BitBlt(destDC, 0, 0, srcSize.cx, srcSize.cy, sourceDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY);
//... ReleaseDC()s here
It's not very clear to me what you are trying to do. First off, why create the new bitmap and select it into the window (sorry, "client area") DC? All you want is paint/draw the window, isn't it? This is not needed then. The destDC is exactly the window's client area surface.
Does sourceDC really contain anything? For example, does it have a bitmap slected into it?
And of course, you SHOULD process WM_PAINT. If you process this message the window is validated, and you are not required to validate it explicitly. Using GetDC()/ReleaseDC() is called "drawing", as opposed to "painting". In an application I made in the past I had to use both methods, painting (processing WM_PAINT) for responding to resizing, exiting from minimized state and bringing the window to foreground (if previously obscured by another) and drawing, for making certain changes immediately visible (instead of invalidating the window and waiting for the application to nearly enter the idle state first - pls note that WM_PAINT is a low-priority message).
Hope this helps

C++ Win32, easiest way to show a window with a bitmap

It's only for 'debugging' purposes, so I don't want to spend a lot of time with this, nor it is very important. The program exports the data as a png, jpg, svg, etc... -so it's not a big deal, though it could be good to see the image while it is being generated. Also, the program is going to be used in a Linux server; but I'll limit this 'feature' to the Win version.
I also don't want to use a library, except if it is very, very lightweight (I used CImg for a while, but I wasn't very happy with its speed, so I ended up writing the important functions myself and just using libjpeg and libpng directly).
I have the image in an ARGB format (32bpp), though converting the format won't be a problem at all. I would like to use Win32, creating a window from a function deep inside the code (no known hInstance, etc), and writing the bitmap. Fast and easy, hopefully.
But I don't know the win32api enough. I've seen that the only option to draw (GDI) is trough a HBITMAP object... Any code snippet or example I can rely on? Any consideration I might not overlook? Or maybe -considering my time constrains- should I just forget it?
Thanks!
The biggest piece of work here is actually registering the window class and writing a minimal window procedure. But if this is debug only code, you can actually skip that part. (I'll come back to that later).
If you have an HBITMAP, then you would use BitBlt or StretchBlt to draw it, but if you don't already have the image as an HBITMAP, then StretchDIBits is probably a better choice since you can use it if you only have a pointer to the bitmap data. You have to pass it a source and destination rectangle, a BITMAPINFOHEADER and a pointer to the raw bitmap data. Something like this
SIZE sBmp = { 100, 200 };
LPBITMAPINFOHEADER pbi; // the bitmap header from the file, etc.
LPVOID pvBits; // the raw bitmap bits
StretchDIBits (hdc, 0, 0, sBmp.cx, sBmp.cy,
0, 0, sBmp.cx, sBmp.cy,
pvBits, pbi,
DIB_RGB_COLORS,
SRCCOPY);
So the next part is how do I get a HDC to draw in? Well for Debug code, I often draw directly to the screen. HDC hdc = GetDC(NULL) will get a DC that can draw to the screen, but there are security issues and it doesnt' work the same with Aero in Windows Vista, so the other way is to draw onto a window. If you have a window that you can just draw over, then HDC hdc = GetDC(hwnd) will work.
The advantage of doing it this way is that you don't have to create and show a window, so it's less disruptive of code flow, It's helpful for debugging a specific problem, but not the sort of thing you can leave turned on all of the time.
For a longer term solution, You could create a dialog box and put your bitmap drawing call in the WM_PAINT or WM_ERASEBKGND message handler for the dialog box. But I don't recommend that you show a dialog box from deep inside code that isn't supposed to be doing UI. Showing a window, especially a dialog window will interfere with normal message flow in your application. If you want to use a dialog box for this bitmap viewer, then you want that dialog window to be something that the User shows, and that you just draw onto if it's there.
If you don't have access to an HINSTANCE, it's still possible to show a dialog box, it's just more work. That's sort of a different question.
About all you need is a handle to a device context (HDC). To display your data on it:
CreateDibSection to create a DIBSection.
Copy your data to the memory block returned by CreateDibSection.
create a DC compatible with the target DC.
Select the DIBSection into your newly created DC.
BitBlt (or StretchBlt) from your DC to the target DC.

How to draw on given bitmap handle (C++ / Win32)?

I'm writing an unmanaged Win32 C++ function that gets a handle to a bitmap, and I need to draw on it.
My problem is that to draw I need to get a device context, but when I do GetDC (NULL), it gives me a device context for the WINDOW! The parameter for GetDC () is a window handle (HWND), but I don't have a window; just a bitmap handle.
How can I draw on this bitmap? Thanks!
In addition to Pavel's answer, the "compatible with the screen" always bugged me too, but, since CreateCompatibleDC(NULL) is universally used for that purpose, I assume it is correct.
I think that the "compatible" thing is related just to DDB (the DC is set up to write on the correct DDB type for the current screen), but does not affect read/writes on DIBs.
So, to be safe, always use DIBs and not DDBs if you need to work on bitmaps that doesn't just have to go temporarily onscreen, nowadays the difference in performance is negligible. See here for more info about DIBs and DDBs.
CreateCompatibleDC() and SelectObject() your bitmap into it.
However, not every bitmap can be selected into any DC.
You might have to play with mapping mode and other options of memory DCs.
The basic win32 paradigm for drawing on a bitmap is that you select the bitmap onto a device context, after which, all drawing operations on that device context are stored in the bitmap. You then use one of the various 'blit' operations (e.g. StretchBlt) to transfer this to a display surface, which is just the device context of a window client area.
Others have provided better detail, this is just the high-level view.
Well, this is a bit outside the box.. I guess.. But I do know that Graphics can return a HDC, and Graphics take a Bitmap as an argument to its ctor . A Bitmap in turn can be created from a HBITMAP and a HPALETTE. The only problem here is that I do not know if the HPALETTE argument can be NULL.
Graphics* g;
Bitmap* bitmap;
HBITMAP _bitmap; // <- this one is yours
bitmap = Bitmap::FromHBITMAP(_bitmap, NULL);
g = new Graphics(bitmap);
HDC hdc = g->GetHDC();
// when done, call g->ReleaseHDC(hdc);
However, I would urge you to receive the HDC as an argument to your function as well.. I do not think that anyone will have a BITMAP and NOT have the DC to it.
If you're having these issues with finding a HDC to a HBITMAP, so will everyone else.