External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

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fxm
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External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by fxm »

The external graphics file formats supported by rtlib through Bload and Bsave

In order to be able one day (I hope soon) to fill in this last page of the Programmer's Guide, I would like all users who have knowledge on this subject (and only these) to pass it to us via informal drafts posted here-below.

Thank you in advance.
paul doe
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by paul doe »

And what's this page supposed to contain? The bload documentation page says:
BLoad can load 3 different types of files:
  • Old QB-like data files, saved with BSAVE from QB code, containing "raw" data preceded by a 7-byte header, beginning with &HFD, up to 64 KiB in size
  • New FB-like data files, saved with BSave from FB code, containing "raw" data preceded by a 5-byte header, beginning with &HFE. There is no 64 KiB limit with this format
  • BMP image files, supports a subset of valid ("Windows") .BMP files, beginning with "BM", saved from FB code with BSave, or created / saved in a compatible format using a graphics editor / converter.
That's it. Those are the only 'external graphics file formats' supported by the rtlib. What more there is to say?
fxm
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by fxm »

When I asked @coderJeff the question, I only got this answer:
coderJeff wrote:For external graphics file formats topic: what is supported by BLOAD & BSAVE. To be cross platform, the QB/BMP formats that can be loaded/saved are hard coded in the rtlib. So, this is will be a description of what is specifically supported by the rtlib.
MrSwiss
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by MrSwiss »

Well then, since both (coderJeff & paul doe) say essentially the "very same thing", there is "no more" to it, than that.
(everything else needs external libraries, dynamic or static like: e.g. FBImage or similar)
badidea
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by badidea »

Complete documentation is off course best, but 99% of the questions here are like "how do I display JPG or BMP?"
So a programmers's Guide on external graphics should at least include an example to load and save a 32-bit bmp-file, I think.
And a mention that for other file types (JPG, PNG) external libraries or additional code is needed.
jj2007
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by jj2007 »

badidea wrote:99% of the questions here are like "how do I display JPG?"
Nobody uses BMP. Under Windows, displaying a JPG with GdiPlus is relatively simple, but I can't speak for Linux, of course.
marcov
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by marcov »

jj2007 wrote:
badidea wrote:99% of the questions here are like "how do I display JPG?"
Nobody uses BMP. Under Windows, displaying a JPG with GdiPlus is relatively simple, but I can't speak for Linux, of course.
BMP is used a lot in machine vision and as an intermediate format in general, as it is basically just a header + the pixels, and compression (usually to lossless PNG) is only done when storing to disc. JPG is worthless here, since most popular forms are inherently lossy.

That said, it might be worth specifying what exactly is the "BMP subset". (no RLE? Not all BPP?)
coderJeff
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by coderJeff »

marcov wrote:That said, it might be worth specifying what exactly is the "BMP subset". (no RLE? Not all BPP?)
You nailed it there. Plus there is some support for reading in gfx files originally saved by QB's BSAVE itself.
Code is run time library implemented and doesn't use any win32 api calls so can be used on linux / dos, etc.

fxm, it's kind of been on my todo list to read the C code implementation and figure it out, but I also secretly hoped if asked enough times, there would be some nice community member that would want to help out too. :)
fxm
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by fxm »

I see that there is still no volunteer to fill this page (External Graphics File Formats), or at least provide text for doing it.
However, it seems to me that there is no shortage of talent in this area.
coderJeff
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by coderJeff »

Here is a rough starting point, though many bits still to add in...

Files used with BLOAD/BSAVE

First byte of file:

Code: Select all

&hFD  QB BSAVED BLOCK 
&hFE  FB BSAVED BLOCK
&h42  Windows Bitmap (&h42 = ASC("B"))
For the QB/FB saved block, &hFD and &hFE identify the file as a QB/FB format and the next bytes determine the SIZE of the data contained in the file, followed by DATA and optionally PALETTE.

For the Windows Bitmap, should be binary compatible with standard Windows BMP files. When loading, &h42 only identifies the file as possibly a windows bitmap and other checks on the header may cause it to fail loading.

QB BSAVED BLOCK

Code: Select all

OFS  LEN  DESCRIPTION
0    1     QB BSAVED BLOCK Identifier (&hFD)
1    4     Ignored
5    2     unsigned 16 bit SIZE, little endian order
7   ...    DATA (expected to be SIZE bytes long) 
?   ...    PALETTE COLORS
FB BSAVED BLOCK

Code: Select all

OFS  LEN  DESCRIPTION
0    1    FB BSAVED BLOCK Identifier (&hFE)
1    4    unsigned 32 bit SIZE, little endian order
5   ...   DATA (expected to be SIZE bytes long)
?   ...   PALETTE COLORS
BSAVE and QB/FB Save Block
BSAVE( filename, source [,[ size ][,{ pal | pal, bitsperpixel }]] )

BSAVE always writes using the FB format (&hFE)
DATA bytes written is the smaller of the SIZE parameter and screen * pitch
PALETTE is written either from pal parameter or from current screen's palette

BLOAD and QB/FB Save Block
BLOAD filename [, dest [, [pal]

If 'dest' is not given, then DATA is loaded directly to screen memory byte for byte. If SIZE exceeds the current screen * pitch, then DATA is truncated to fit the size of the current graphics mode.

if 'dest' is given, then DATA is loaded directly to the memory location pointed to by 'dest'.

BLOAD/BSAVE and Windows bitmap
BLOAD - if first byte is &H42 then file is attempted to be loaded as a bitmap
BSAVE - if filename has '.bmp' extension, then is saved as bitmap
marcov
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by marcov »

coderJeff wrote: Jun 05, 2021 20:43
marcov wrote:That said, it might be worth specifying what exactly is the "BMP subset". (no RLE? Not all BPP?)
You nailed it there. Plus there is some support for reading in gfx files originally saved by QB's BSAVE itself.
Code is run time library implemented and doesn't use any win32 api calls so can be used on linux / dos, etc.
So top down images (with negative height) ARE supported ? :D
coderJeff
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by coderJeff »

marcov wrote: Feb 25, 2024 19:37 So top down images (with negative height) ARE supported ? :D
ha, I did not know. Turns out yes, negative height flips the image. (I really was hoping for someone to dig through this. I don't even know what is common or normal with this format)

RLE not supported though. So only uncompressed formats.
marcov
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Re: External Graphics File Formats (page to fill in Programmer's Guide)

Post by marcov »

coderJeff wrote: Feb 27, 2024 0:01
marcov wrote: Feb 25, 2024 19:37 So top down images (with negative height) ARE supported ? :D
ha, I did not know. Turns out yes, negative height flips the image. (I really was hoping for someone to dig through this. I don't even know what is common or normal with this format)

RLE not supported though. So only uncompressed formats.
(just for archival purposes in case sb searches for BMP status in the future, there are other weirdnesses like 2-bit WinCE BMPs (very rare). Another rare one, but with PNG, is that Microsoft supports PNG with deflate streams without ZLIB headers)
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