Question

I have a problem in my application, it needs a heavy memory optimization, but for now i have to deliver a test version of the application, i need something like “ramrush” as api can called from my application without any executables, Ramrush is solving my problem magically now, but i can’t deliver it with my app.

Answer 1

To solve the OP’s immediate needs (even if it’s a bit late today)

• C# memory profile
• Microsoft DebugDiag, see blog post

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There are two levels of memory optimization in image processing code.

• At the easier level, the programmer tries to delete image objects that are no longer needed, as frequently and early as possible (i.e. after every line of code).
• The more difficult level requires implementing some image processing steps as memory-efficient pipelines.

One example:

class RgbToGray : ImageSource
{
    private ImageSource m_src;
    public RgbToGray(ImageSource src)
    {
        m_src = src;
    }
    public void GetPixels(int x0, int y0, int rectWidth, int rectHeight, out Pixel[,] result)
    {
        // omitted: validate parameters
        Pixel[,] temp = new Pixel[rectHeight, rectWidth];
        m_src.GetPixels(x0, y0, rectWidth, rectHeight, out temp);
        for (int y = y0; y < y0 + rectHeight; ++y)
        {
            for (int x = x0; x < x0 + rectWidth; ++x)
            {
                result[y,x] = SomeCalculation(temp[y,x]);
            }
        }
    }
};

In this example, the RgbToGray performs an image processing on-demand, without requiring its own permanent memory usage, but instead relies on a temporary buffer. For this implementation to work, the caller must call GetPixels with a particular “buffer granularity” which must be smaller than the full image size, in order to achieve the memory-saving effect.

(The particular framework I have in mind is Windows Imaging Component, but similar ideas can be found in many other frameworks such as OpenCV’s MatExpr template.)

Apparently, not all frameworks allow such optimization.