The key feature introduced in Lumia Imaging SDK 3.0 is support for GPU based image processing through Direct2D. For most applications, this leads to significant performance improvement compared to the same application implemented with an earlier CPU-only version of the SDK. Where possible, exact implementation details of GPU support have been abstracted away from the API so that majority of the developers don’t need to be aware of what’s happening under the hood.
Another focus area in the 3.0 release is interoperability with other Windows 10 APIs: rendering to SwapChainPanel is supported, and Direct3DSurface, SoftwareBitmap and WriteableBitmap can be used both as image sources as well as rendering targets. With its high abstraction level and wide range of features, Lumia Imaging SDK 3.0 complements other Windows imaging APIs like Win2D and Windows Imaging Component (WIC).
As a concrete example of API interoperability, here’s how output from Lumia Imaging SDK 3.0 can be directed to a UI element using SwapChainPanel in just few lines of code. First, we define a XAML page with SwapChainPanel element named “m_targetSwapChainPanel”:
[code lang=”xml”]
<Page
x:Class="WindowsBlogSample.MainPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:WindowsBlogSample"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d">
<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
<StackPanel Margin="5,5,5,5">
<SwapChainPanel Width="800" Height="600" Name="m_targetSwapChainPanel"/>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Page>
[/code]
With the SwapChainPanel UI element defined, we can now render directly to it by attaching a SwapChainPanelRenderer and calling RenderAsync:
[code lang=”csharp”]
var imageStorageFile = await KnownFolders.PicturesLibrary.GetFileAsync("Sample.jpg");
using (var source = new StorageFileImageSource(imageStorageFile))
using (var contrastEffect = new ContrastEffect(source) { Level = 0.6})
using (var sharpnessEffect = new SharpnessEffect(contrastEffect) {Level = 0.2})
using (var renderer = new SwapChainPanelRenderer(sharpnessEffect, m_targetSwapChainPanel))
{
await renderer.RenderAsync();
}
[/code]
Image pair below shows the original image and processed result:
To get started with Lumia Imaging SDK 3.0 development for Windows 10, install the SDK using NuGet Package Manager straight in Visual Studio or download the package from nuget.org. Remember to also check out SDK repository on GitHub for sample projects and snippets of useful open source code! SDK documentation is available online at MSDN.
Have fun with the SDK!