SoSFImage(3IV)

NAME
     SoSFImage - Field containing a 2D image

INHERITS FROM
     SoField > SoSField > SoSFImage

SYNOPSIS
     #include <Inventor/fields/SoSFImage.h>

          Methods from class SoSFImage:

     const unsigned char *  getValue(SbVec2s &size, int &nc) const
     void                   setValue(const SbVec2s &size, int nc, const
                                 unsigned char *bytes)
     unsigned char *        startEditing(SbVec2s &size, int &nc)
     void                   finishEditing()

          Methods from class SoSField:

     static SoType       getClassTypeId()

          Methods from class SoField:

     void                setIgnored(SbBool ignore)
     SbBool              isIgnored() const
     SbBool              isDefault() const
     virtual SoType      getTypeId() const
     virtual SbBool      isOfType(SoType type) const
     SbBool              set(const char *valueString)
     void                get(SbString &valueString)
     int                 operator ==(const SoField &f) const
     int                 operator !=(const SoField &f) const
     void                touch()
     SbBool              connectFrom(SoField *fromField)
     SbBool              connectFrom(SoEngineOutput *fromEngine)
     void                disconnect()
     SbBool              isConnected() const
     SbBool              isConnectedFromField() const
     SbBool              getConnectedField(SoField *&writingField) const
     SbBool              isConnectedFromEngine() const
     SbBool              getConnectedEngine(SoEngineOutput *&engineOutput)
                              const
     void                enableConnection(SbBool flag)
     SbBool              isConnectionEnabled() const
     int                 getForwardConnections(SoFieldList &list) const
     SoFieldContainer *  getContainer() const


DESCRIPTION
     A field containing a two-dimensional image. Images can be greyscale
     (intensity), greyscale with transparency information, RGB, or RGB with
     transparency. Each component of the image (intensity, red, green, blue or
     transparency (alpha)) can have an unsigned one-byte value from 0 to 255.

     Values are returned as arrays of unsigned chars. The image is stored in
     this array starting at the bottom left corner of the image with the
     intensity or red component of that pixel, followed by either the alpha,
     the green and blue, or the green, blue and alpha components (depending on
     the number of components in the image).  The next value is the first
     component of the next pixel to the right.

     SoSFImages are written to file as three integers representing the width,
     height and number of components in the image, followed by width*height
     hexadecimal values representing the pixels in the image, separated by
     whitespace. A one-component image will have one-byte hexadecimal values
     representing the intensity of the image. For example, 0xFF is full
     intensity, 0x00 is no intensity. A two-component image puts the intensity
     in the first (high) byte and the transparency in the second (low) byte.
     Pixels in a three-component image have the red component in the first
     (high) byte, followed by the green and blue components (so 0xFF0000 is
     red). Four-component images put the transparency byte after
     red/green/blue (so 0x0000FF80 is semi-transparent blue). Note: each pixel
     is actually read as a single unsigned number, so a 3-component pixel with
     value "0x0000FF" can also be written as "0xFF" or "255" (decimal).

     For example,

          1 2 1 0xFF 0x00

     is a 1 pixel wide by 2 pixel high greyscale image, with the bottom pixel
     white and the top pixel black. And:

          2 4 3 0xFF0000 0xFF00   0 0   0 0   0xFFFFFF 0xFFFF00

     is a 2 pixel wide by 4 pixel high RGB image, with the bottom left pixel
     red, the bottom right pixel green, the two middle rows of pixels black,
     the top left pixel white, and the top right pixel yellow.

METHODS
     const unsigned char *  getValue(SbVec2s &size, int &nc) const
          Returns the pixels in the image as an array of unsigned chars. The
          size and nc arguments are filled in with the dimensions of the image
          and the number of components in the image; the number of bytes in
          the array returned will be size[0]*size[1]*nc.

     void                   setValue(const SbVec2s &size, int nc, const
                                 unsigned char *bytes)
          Sets the value of this field to be an image of the given size, with
          the given number of components, and with the given pixel values.
          size[0]*size[1]*nc bytes from the given array will be copied into
          internal storage maintained by the SoSFImage field.

     unsigned char *        startEditing(SbVec2s &size, int &nc)

     void                   finishEditing()
          These methods can be used to efficiently edit the values in an image
          field. startEditing() returns the size of the image in the size and
          nc arguments; writing past the end of the array returned is a good
          way to cause hard-to-find core dumps.


SEE ALSO
     SoField, SoSField