StreamGeometry vs DrawingContext.DrawLine in WPF C#

Question

I'm going to draw hundreds of lines in real-time. I have chosen the Visual Layer to do this. But I see that there are two different ways to draw a line here. Which one you suggest to get a better performance and speed?

1. DrawingContext.DrawLine

public class DrawingTypeOne : FrameworkElement
{
    private readonly VisualCollection _visuals;
    public DrawingTypeOne(double thickness)
    {
        var myPen = new Pen
        {
            Thickness = 1,
            Brush = Brushes.White,
        };
        myPen.Freeze();

        _visuals = new VisualCollection(this);
        var drawingVisual = new DrawingVisual();
        using (var dc = drawingVisual.RenderOpen())
        {
            dc.DrawLine(myPen, new Point(0,0) , new Point(100,100));
            _visuals.Add(drawingVisual);
        }
    }

    protected override Visual GetVisualChild(int index)
    {
        return _visuals[index];
    }

    protected override int VisualChildrenCount
    {
        get
        {
            return _visuals.Count;
        }
    }
}

2. StreamGeometry

public class DrawingTypeTwo : FrameworkElement
{
    private readonly VisualCollection _visuals;
    public DrawingTypeTwo()
    {
        _visuals = new VisualCollection(this);

        var geometry = new StreamGeometry();
        using (var gc = geometry.Open())
        {
            gc.BeginFigure(new Point(0, 0), true, true);
            gc.LineTo(new Point(100,100), true, false);
        }
        geometry.Freeze();

        var drawingVisual = new DrawingVisual();
        using (var dc = drawingVisual.RenderOpen())
        {
            dc.DrawGeometry(Brushes.Red, null, geometry);
        }

        _visuals.Add(drawingVisual);
    }

    protected override Visual GetVisualChild(int index)
    {
        return _visuals[index];
    }

    protected override int VisualChildrenCount
    {
        get
        {
            return _visuals.Count;
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Like I said you only need one visual and inside you can have all your lines.

Take a look at this:

First we define multiple drawings inside our drawing context:

class EllipseAndRectangle : DrawingVisual
{
    public EllipseAndRectangle()
    {
        using (DrawingContext dc = RenderOpen())
        {
            // Black ellipse with blue border
            dc.DrawEllipse(Brushes.Black,
                new Pen(Brushes.Blue, 3),        
                new Point(120, 120), 20, 40); 

            // Red rectangle with green border
            dc.DrawRectangle(Brushes.Red,
                new Pen(Brushes.Green, 4),    
                new Rect(new Point(10, 10), new Point(80, 80))); 
        }
    }
}

This is that one speical visual or element hosting all the drawings:

public class EllAndRectHost : FrameworkElement
{
    private EllipseAndRectangle _ellAndRect = new EllipseAndRectangle();

    // EllipseAndRectangle instance is our only visual child
    protected override Visual GetVisualChild(int index)
    {
        return _ellAndRect;
    }

    protected override int VisualChildrenCount
    {
        get
        {
            return 1;
        }
    }
}

And this is how you can use all those things in XAML:

<local:EllAndRectHost Margin="30" ... />

I was talking about the DrawingVisual class you could inherit from instead of creating 100 visuals for 100 lines.

Regarding your question, first approach is faster. Because the second approach is in the end doing the same the first does just its wrapped nicely. DrawLine is the lowest end. You can't go any deeper than DrawLine. DrawGeometry is calling DrawLine and some other internal stuff.