WIC I O Functions

DirectXTex

These functions use the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) to read or write an image file. There are built-in WIC codecs in Windows for .BMP, .PNG, .GIF, .TIFF, .JPEG, and JPEG-XR / HD Photo images. Some containers (.GIF and .TIFF) can contain multi-frame bitmaps files.

WIC is not supported on Linux or Windows Subsystem for Linux, so these functions are not supported for non-Win32 platforms. WIC2 is supported on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

GetMetadataFromWICMemory, GetMetadataFromWICFile

Returns the TexMetadata metadata from a WIC-supported bitmap file.

HRESULT GetMetadataFromWICMemory( const void* pSource, size_t size,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, TexMetadata& metadata,
    std::function<void(IWICMetadataQueryReader*)> getMQR = nullptr );

HRESULT GetMetadataFromWICFile( const wchar_t* szFile,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, TexMetadata& metadata,
    std::function<void(IWICMetadataQueryReader*)> getMQR = nullptr );

LoadFromWICMemory, LoadFromWICFile

Loads a WIC-supported bitmap file.

HRESULT LoadFromWICMemory( const void* pSource, size_t size,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, TexMetadata* metadata, ScratchImage& image,
    std::function<void(IWICMetadataQueryReader*)> getMQR = nullptr );

HRESULT LoadFromWICFile( const wchar_t* szFile,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, TexMetadata* metadata, ScratchImage& image,
    std::function<void(IWICMetadataQueryReader*)> getMQR = nullptr );

SaveToWICMemory, SaveToWICFile

Saves a single image or a set of images to a WIC-supported bitmap file. The caller provides the desired WIC container format to use via guidContainerFormat (see GetWICCodec for a helper). There is an optional targetFormat to specify a desired WIC pixel format (which will result in an E_FAIL if not supported by the WIC codec)

HRESULT SaveToWICMemory( const Image& image,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, REFGUID guidContainerFormat,
    Blob& blob, const GUID* targetFormat = nullptr,
    std::function<void(IPropertyBag2*)> setCustomProps = nullptr );

HRESULT SaveToWICMemory( const Image* images, size_t nimages,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, REFGUID guidContainerFormat,
    Blob& blob, const GUID* targetFormat = nullptr,
    std::function<void(IPropertyBag2*)> setCustomProps = nullptr );

HRESULT SaveToWICFile( const Image& image,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, REFGUID guidContainerFormat,
    const wchar_t* szFile, const GUID* targetFormat = nullptr,
    std::function<void(IPropertyBag2*)> setCustomProps = nullptr );

HRESULT SaveToWICFile( const Image* images, size_t nimages,
    WIC_FLAGS flags, REFGUID guidContainerFormat,
    const wchar_t* szFile, const GUID* targetFormat = nullptr,
    std::function<void(IPropertyBag2*)> setCustomProps = nullptr );

These functions can only write images using the subset of DXGI_FORMAT values that map directly to a WIC native pixel format.

DXGI_FORMAT	WIC Format
DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32A32_FLOAT	GUID_WICPixelFormat128bppRGBAFloat
DXGI_FORMAT_R16G16B16A16_FLOAT	GUID_WICPixelFormat64bppRGBAHalf
DXGI_FORMAT_R16G16B16A16_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat64bppRGBA
DXGI_FORMAT_R10G10B10_XR_BIAS_A2_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppRGBA1010102XR
DXGI_FORMAT_R10G10B10A2_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppRGBA1010102
DXGI_FORMAT_B5G5R5A1_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat16bppBGRA5551
DXGI_FORMAT_B5G6R5_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat16bppBGR565
DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT	GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppGrayFloat
DXGI_FORMAT_R16_FLOAT	GUID_WICPixelFormat16bppGrayHalf
DXGI_FORMAT_R16_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat16bppGray
DXGI_FORMAT_R8_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat8bppGray
DXGI_FORMAT_A8_UNORM	GUID_WICPixelFormat8bppAlpha
DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UNORM DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UNORM_SRGB	GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppRGBA
DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8A8_UNORM DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8A8_UNORM_SRGB	GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppBGRA
DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8X8_UNORM DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8X8_UNORM_SRGB	GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppBGR

Parameters

For the load functions, the metadata parameter can be nullptr as this information is also available in the returned ScratchImage.

For the metadata and loading functions, getMQR is an optional callback. If it is non-null and the WIC container codec supports a metadata query reader, then the callback is triggered. This allows an application to extract additional metadata from the file that is otherwise unused by DirectXTex.

For the saving functions, setCustomProps is an optional callback. If it is non-null, then the callback is triggered so it can set additional WIC properties such as compression methods.

Examples

This is a simple loading example. Since it only returns a single 2D image, the TexMetadata info is redundant information.

auto image = std::make_unique<ScratchImage>();
HRESULT hr = LoadFromWICFile( L"WINLOGO.BMP", WIC_FLAGS_NONE, nullptr, *image );
if ( FAILED(hr) )
    // error

This is a multi-image loading example which can load an array of 2D images.

TexMetadata info;
auto image = std::make_unique<ScratchImage>();
HRESULT hr = LoadFromWICFile( L"MULTIFRAME.TIF",
                 WIC_FLAGS_ALL_FRAMES, &info, *image );
if ( FAILED(hr) )
    // error

Here we provide an optional callback to check for the System.Photo.Orientation metadata query property:

TexMetadata info;
auto image = std::make_unique<ScratchImage>();
uint16_t orientation = 1;
HRESULT hr = LoadFromWICFile( L"Image.JPG", WIC_FLAGS_NONE, &info, *image,
  [&](IWICMetadataQueryReader* reader)
  {
      PROPVARIANT value;
      PropVariantInit( &value );

      if ( SUCCEEDED(reader->GetMetadataByName( L"System.Photo.Orientation", &value ) )
           && value.vt == VT_UI2 )
      {
          orientation = value.uiVal;
      }

      PropVariantClear( &value );
  } );
if ( FAILED(hr) )
    // error

This is saving a simple 2D image to a specific file container. You can either use the WIC GUID directly or make use of the GetWICCodec helper. Keep in mind that WIC may convert the pixel format in the final output image, so there is an optional additional parameter you can use to request a specific storage pixel format. In this case, we want the file's pixel format to be an 8-bit per channel RGB without an alpha channel.

const Image* img = image->GetImage(0,0,0);
assert( img );
HRESULT hr = SaveToWICFile( *img, WIC_FLAGS_NONE,
    GUID_ContainerFormatPng, L"NEW_IMAGE.PNG", &GUID_WICPixelFormat24bppBGR );
if ( FAILED(hr) )
    // error

You can also save data directly from memory without using the intermediate ScratchImage at all. This example assumes a single 2D image is being written out since a JPG file cannot contain an image array.

Image img;
img.width = /*<width of pixel data>*/;
img.height = /*<height of pixel data>*/;
img.format = /*<a DXGI format that maps directly to a WIC supported format>*/;
img.rowPitch = /*<number of bytes in a scanline of the source data>*/;
img.slicePitch = /*<number of bytes in the entire 2D image>*/;
img.pixels = /*<pointer to pixel data>*/;
HRESULT hr = SaveToWICFile( img, WIC_FLAGS_NONE, GetWICCodec(WIC_CODEC_JPEG),
                            L"NEW_IMAGE.PNG" );
if ( FAILED(hr) )
    // error

When writing WIC files, you can also provide a callback for setting specific encoding options.

const Image* img = image->GetImage(0,0,0);
assert( img );
HRESULT hr = SaveToWICFile( *img, WIC_FLAGS_NONE,
    GUID_ContainerFormatTiff, L"NEW_IMAGE.TIF", nullptr,
    [&](IPropertyBag2* props)
    {
        PROPBAG2 options[2] = { 0, 0 };
        options[0].pstrName = const_cast<wchar_t*>(L"CompressionQuality");
        options[1].pstrName = const_cast<wchar_t*>(L"TiffCompressionMethod");

        VARIANT varValues[2];
        varValues[0].vt = VT_R4;
        varValues[0].fltVal = 0.75f;

        varValues[1].vt = VT_UI1;
        varValues[1].bVal = WICTiffCompressionNone;

        (void)props->Write( 2, options, varValues );
    });
if ( FAILED(hr) )
    // error

Related Flags

• WIC_FLAGS_NONE Default flags.

• WIC_FLAGS_FORCE_RGB By default we map many BGR formats directly to DXGI 1.1 formats. Use of this flag forces the use of DXGI 1.0 RGB formats instead for improved Direct3D 10.0/Windows Vista RTM/WDDM 1.0 driver support.

• WIC_FLAGS_NO_X2_BIAS By default GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppRGBA1010102XR is loaded as R10G10B10_XR_BIAS_A2_UNORM. Use of this flag will force it to convert to R10G10B10A2_UNORM instead.

• WIC_FLAGS_NO_16BPP By default, 5:6:5 and 5:5:5:1 formats are returned as DXGI 1.2 formats. If this flag is used, the loader will expand these to R8G8B8A8 instead.

• WIC_FLAGS_ALLOW_MONO By default, monochrome data is converted to greyscale. By using this flag, this data is loaded as R1_UNORM which is not supported for rendering by Direct3D.

• WIC_FLAGS_ALL_FRAMES By default, only the first frame of a multi-frame file is loaded. If this flag is provided, all frames are loaded and resized to match the size of the first image to fit the DirectXTex requirements for a 2D array.

Color space

• WIC_FLAGS_IGNORE_SRGB While there is no explicit 'sRGB' pixel format defined for WIC, the load function will check for known metadata tags and may return DXGI_FORMAT_*_SRGB formats if there are equivalents of the same size and channel configuration available. If this flag is specified, any 'sRGB' metadata is ignored instead.

• WIC_FLAGS_DEFAULT_SRGB When there is no explicit colorspace information, the loader assumes it's a 'standard' type unless this flag is set to indicate it should use DXGI_FORMAT_*_SRGB formats if there are equivalents. In other words, unless this flag is set or the incoming color format is explicitly _SRGB, the reader does not set sRGB colorspace metadata. This flag is ignored if you use WIC_FLAGS_IGNORE_SRGB.

• WIC_FLAGS_FORCE_SRGB When writing a file, the DXGI_FORMAT_*_SRGB formats are used to indicate the need to write with 'sRGB' metadata. If this flag is specified, 'sRGB' metadata is always written even if the input format is not explicitly an DXGI_FORMAT_*_SRGB format.

• WIC_FLAGS_FORCE_LINEAR When writing a file, if the type is not a DXGI_FORMAT_*_SRGB format, then metadata for a gamma of 1.0 is written to indicate the file is in linear color space. If this flag is specified, 1.0 gamma metadata is always written even if the input format is a DXGI_FORMAT_*_SRGB format.

Note these flags apply to the JPEG, TIFF, and PNG container file formats.

Dithering

These flags control the use of dithering for image conversions. It defaults to 'no' dithering.

• WIC_FLAGS_DITHER WIC will use 4x4 ordered dithering.
• WIC_FLAGS_DITHER_DIFFUSION WIC will use error-diffusion (Floyd-Steinberg dithering).

Algorithm

These flags control the use of interpolation modes for image conversions/resizing--WIC containers support a limited number of pixel formats, so conversions are sometimes required to write out images. It defaults to "Fant"

• WIC_FLAGS_FILTER_POINT Nearest-neighbor
• WIC_FLAGS_FILTER_LINEAR - Bilinear interpolation
• WIC_FLAGS_FILTER_CUBIC - Bicubic interpolation
• WIC_FLAGS_FILTER_FANT - Fant which is equivalent to 'box' filteirng for down-scaling.

Note that WIC does not implement the Triangle filtering algorithm that is supported by DirectXTex's custom filtering paths.

Remarks

Note that when writing out screenshots captured from Direct3D render targets, you typically do not want to write out the alpha channel. In this case, you should specify a target format of GUID_WICPixelFormat24bppBGR, GUID_WICPixelFormat48bppBGR, GUID_WICPixelFormat16bppBGR555, or GUID_WICPixelFormat16bppBGR565. GUID_WICPixelFormat96bppRGBFloat is also an option when using WIC2 (see below).

Release Notes

• JPEG-XR / HD Photo supports nearly all WIC pixel formats including floating-point for both encoding and decoding.

• TIFF can contain floating-point data (128bpp or 96bpp), but the WIC built-in codec can only decode such images. It always converts floating-point data to unorm when encoding. Windows 7 incorrectly handles decoding 96bpp TIFF files, which is corrected with WIC2 by returning the new format GUID_WICPixelFormat96bppRGBFloat

• Windows WIC codec for .BMP files does not support alpha channels for 16-bit files. For 32-bit files, the alpha channel is ignored by Windows 7 or earlier. The WIC2 BMP codec can read 32-bit alpha channels if using the BITMAPV5HEADER header. DirectXTex opts into the WIC2 behavior for writing 32-bit alpha channels using the V5 header when available

• GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppRGBE is an 8:8:8:8 format, which does not match DXGI_FORMAT_R9G9B9E5_SHAREDEXP. This WIC pixel format is therefore converted to GUID_WICPixelFormat128bppRGBAFloat and returns as DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32A32_FLOAT.

• Paletted WIC formats are not supported for writing by the SaveToWIC functions.

• When writing PNG files, if the input image format is DXGI_FORMAT_*_SRGB, then the resulting file will have the sRGB rendering intent chunk. Otherwise, it will not have the sRGB chunk and instead will have an explicit gAMA chunk of 1.0.

WIC2

WIC2 is available on Windows 8 and on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with KB 2670838 installed.

• The WIC2 pixel format GUID_WICPixelFormat96bppRGBFloat loads as DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32_FLOAT. Otherwise it converts this to DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32A32_FLOAT.

• Conversions cases for WIC2 pixel formats GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppRGB, GUID_WICPixelFormat64bppRGB, and GUID_WICPixelFormat64bppPRGBAHalf are included. The pixel format GUID_WICPixelFormat96bppRGBFixedPoint is converted to DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32_FLOAT rather than DXGI_FORMAT_R32G32B32A32_FLOAT

See Windows Imaging Component and Windows 8

Windows Store apps

File access and permissions (Windows Runtime apps)

Load

If you wish to load an image from a file that is specified by the user from a WinRT picker, you will need to copy the file locally to a temporary location before you can use LoadFromWICFile on it. This is because you either won't have file access rights to the user's file location, or the StorageFile is actually not a local file system path (i.e. it's a URL).

// Using C++/CX (/ZW) and the Parallel Patterns Library (PPL)
create_task(openPicker->PickSingleFileAsync()).then([this](StorageFile^ file)
{
    if (file)
    {
        auto tempFolder = Windows::Storage::ApplicationData::Current->TemporaryFolder;
        create_task(file->CopyAsync( tempFolder, file->Name, NameCollisionOption::GenerateUniqueName )).then([this](StorageFile^ tempFile)
        {
            if ( tempFile )
            {
                HRESULT hr = LoadFromWICFile( ..., tempFile->Path->Data(), ... );
                DX::ThrowIfFailed(hr);
            }
        });
    });
}

Save

For SaveToWICFile to succeed, the application must have write access to the destination path. For Windows Store apps, the file access permissions are rather restricted so you'll need to make sure you use a fully qualified path to a valid write folder. A good location to use is the app data folder:

auto folder = Windows::Storage::ApplicationData::Current->LocalFolder;
// use folder->Path->Data() as the path base

If you are going to immediately copy it to another location via StorageFolder, then use the app's temporary folder:

auto folder = Windows::Storage::ApplicationData::Current->TemporaryFolder;
// use folder->Path->Data() as the path base