Capture screen using DirectX

Question

I know how to use GDI to capture screen, however it is very slow (it barely captures 10 fps)

I have read that DirectX offers the best speed. But before I start learning DirectX I wanted to test a sample to see if it is really that fast.

I have found this question that offers a sample code to do that:

void dump_buffer()
{
   IDirect3DSurface9* pRenderTarget=NULL;
   IDirect3DSurface9* pDestTarget=NULL;
     const char file[] = "Pickture.bmp";
   // sanity checks.
   if (Device == NULL)
      return;

   // get the render target surface.
   HRESULT hr = Device->GetRenderTarget(0, &pRenderTarget);
   // get the current adapter display mode.
   //hr = pDirect3D->GetAdapterDisplayMode(D3DADAPTER_DEFAULT,&d3ddisplaymode);

   // create a destination surface.
   hr = Device->CreateOffscreenPlainSurface(DisplayMde.Width,
                         DisplayMde.Height,
                         DisplayMde.Format,
                         D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM,
                         &pDestTarget,
                         NULL);
   //copy the render target to the destination surface.
   hr = Device->GetRenderTargetData(pRenderTarget, pDestTarget);
   //save its contents to a bitmap file.
   hr = D3DXSaveSurfaceToFile(file,
                              D3DXIFF_BMP,
                              pDestTarget,
                              NULL,
                              NULL);

   // clean up.
   pRenderTarget->Release();
   pDestTarget->Release();
}

I have tried to include the required files. However not all of them can be included (for example #include <D3dx9tex.h>).

Can anyone provide a working example that has all of the required includes or point me to what libraries I should install.

I am using Visual C++ 2010 Express on Windows 7 Ultimate (x64).

---

Edit:

Also, this code is not complete, for example what is the Device identifier?!

Answer 1

Here is some sample code to capture the screen with DirectX 9. You shouldn't have to install any SDK (except the standard files that come with Visual Studio, although I didn't tested VS 2010).

Just create a simple Win32 console application, add the following in the stdafx.h file:

  #include <Wincodec.h>             // we use WIC for saving images
  #include <d3d9.h>                 // DirectX 9 header
  #pragma comment(lib, "d3d9.lib")  // link to DirectX 9 library

Here is the sample main implementation

  int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
  {
    HRESULT hr = Direct3D9TakeScreenshots(D3DADAPTER_DEFAULT, 10);
    return 0;
  }

What this will do is capture 10 times the screen, and save "cap%i.png" images on the disk. It will also display the time taken for this (saving images is not counted in that time, only screen captures). On my (desktop windows 8 - Dell Precision M2800/i7-4810MQ-2.80GHz/Intel HD 4600 which is a pretty crappy machine...) machine, it takes 100 1920x1080 captures in ~4sec, so around 20/25 fps.

  HRESULT Direct3D9TakeScreenshots(UINT adapter, UINT count)
  {
    HRESULT hr = S_OK;
    IDirect3D9 *d3d = nullptr;
    IDirect3DDevice9 *device = nullptr;
    IDirect3DSurface9 *surface = nullptr;
    D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS parameters = { 0 };
    D3DDISPLAYMODE mode;
    D3DLOCKED_RECT rc;
    UINT pitch;
    SYSTEMTIME st;
    LPBYTE *shots = nullptr;

    // init D3D and get screen size
    d3d = Direct3DCreate9(D3D_SDK_VERSION);
    HRCHECK(d3d->GetAdapterDisplayMode(adapter, &mode));

    parameters.Windowed = TRUE;
    parameters.BackBufferCount = 1;
    parameters.BackBufferHeight = mode.Height;
    parameters.BackBufferWidth = mode.Width;
    parameters.SwapEffect = D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD;
    parameters.hDeviceWindow = NULL;

    // create device & capture surface
    HRCHECK(d3d->CreateDevice(adapter, D3DDEVTYPE_HAL, NULL, D3DCREATE_SOFTWARE_VERTEXPROCESSING, &parameters, &device));
    HRCHECK(device->CreateOffscreenPlainSurface(mode.Width, mode.Height, D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM, &surface, nullptr));

    // compute the required buffer size
    HRCHECK(surface->LockRect(&rc, NULL, 0));
    pitch = rc.Pitch;
    HRCHECK(surface->UnlockRect());

    // allocate screenshots buffers
    shots = new LPBYTE[count];
    for (UINT i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
      shots[i] = new BYTE[pitch * mode.Height];
    }

    GetSystemTime(&st); // measure the time we spend doing <count> captures
    wprintf(L"%i:%i:%i.%i\n", st.wHour, st.wMinute, st.wSecond, st.wMilliseconds);
    for (UINT i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
      // get the data
      HRCHECK(device->GetFrontBufferData(0, surface));

      // copy it into our buffers
      HRCHECK(surface->LockRect(&rc, NULL, 0));
      CopyMemory(shots[i], rc.pBits, rc.Pitch * mode.Height);
      HRCHECK(surface->UnlockRect());
    }
    GetSystemTime(&st);
    wprintf(L"%i:%i:%i.%i\n", st.wHour, st.wMinute, st.wSecond, st.wMilliseconds);

    // save all screenshots
    for (UINT i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
      WCHAR file[100];
      wsprintf(file, L"cap%i.png", i);
      HRCHECK(SavePixelsToFile32bppPBGRA(mode.Width, mode.Height, pitch, shots[i], file, GUID_ContainerFormatPng));
    }

  cleanup:
    if (shots != nullptr)
    {
      for (UINT i = 0; i < count; i++)
      {
        delete shots[i];
      }
      delete[] shots;
    }
    RELEASE(surface);
    RELEASE(device);
    RELEASE(d3d);
    return hr;
  }

Note this code implicitely links to WIC (an imaging library included with Windows for quite a time now) to save the image files (so you don't need the famous D3DXSaveSurfaceToFile that require old DirectX SDKs to be installed):

  HRESULT SavePixelsToFile32bppPBGRA(UINT width, UINT height, UINT stride, LPBYTE pixels, LPWSTR filePath, const GUID &format)
  {
    if (!filePath || !pixels)
      return E_INVALIDARG;

    HRESULT hr = S_OK;
    IWICImagingFactory *factory = nullptr;
    IWICBitmapEncoder *encoder = nullptr;
    IWICBitmapFrameEncode *frame = nullptr;
    IWICStream *stream = nullptr;
    GUID pf = GUID_WICPixelFormat32bppPBGRA;
    BOOL coInit = CoInitialize(nullptr);

    HRCHECK(CoCreateInstance(CLSID_WICImagingFactory, nullptr, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_PPV_ARGS(&factory)));
    HRCHECK(factory->CreateStream(&stream));
    HRCHECK(stream->InitializeFromFilename(filePath, GENERIC_WRITE));
    HRCHECK(factory->CreateEncoder(format, nullptr, &encoder));
    HRCHECK(encoder->Initialize(stream, WICBitmapEncoderNoCache));
    HRCHECK(encoder->CreateNewFrame(&frame, nullptr)); // we don't use options here
    HRCHECK(frame->Initialize(nullptr)); // we dont' use any options here
    HRCHECK(frame->SetSize(width, height));
    HRCHECK(frame->SetPixelFormat(&pf));
    HRCHECK(frame->WritePixels(height, stride, stride * height, pixels));
    HRCHECK(frame->Commit());
    HRCHECK(encoder->Commit());

  cleanup:
    RELEASE(stream);
    RELEASE(frame);
    RELEASE(encoder);
    RELEASE(factory);
    if (coInit) CoUninitialize();
    return hr;
  }

And some macros I used:

  #define WIDEN2(x) L ## x
  #define WIDEN(x) WIDEN2(x)
  #define __WFILE__ WIDEN(__FILE__)
  #define HRCHECK(__expr) {hr=(__expr);if(FAILED(hr)){wprintf(L"FAILURE 0x%08X (%i)\n\tline: %u file: '%s'\n\texpr: '" WIDEN(#__expr) L"'\n",hr, hr, __LINE__,__WFILE__);goto cleanup;}}
  #define RELEASE(__p) {if(__p!=nullptr){__p->Release();__p=nullptr;}}

Note: for Windows 8+ clients, all these (except WIC) should be dropped in favor of the Desktop Duplication API.