Why does StretchDIBits not display anything?

Question

I want to paint a monochome bitmap stretched at 200% with two colors: pure black and pure white.

I use the following code, but nothing gets displayed.
If I replace SRCCOPY with SRCPAINT I get a white rectangle, but still no random 2x2 blocks get painted as is supposed to happen.

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  ShowCell(Form1.Canvas);  //Using another canvas does not help.
end;

procedure ShowCell(Canvas: TCanvas);
const
  cHeight = 100;
  cWidth = 50;    //50 * 8 = 400 pixels
var
  bmpinfo: PBitmapInfo;
  color: PRGBQUAD;
  i: Integer;
  x,y,h: integer;
  DataBuffer: array[0..cHeight-1,0..cWidth-1] of byte;
  ScanLineWidth: integer;
  Cell: TLifeCell;
  Coordinate: TCoordinate;
begin
  GetMem(bmpinfo, SizeOf(TBitmapInfo) + SizeOf(TRGBQUAD)*2);
  color:= @bmpinfo^.bmiColors[0];
  color^.rgbRed:= 255;
  color^.rgbBlue:= 255;
  color^.rgbGreen:= 255;
  color^.rgbReserved:= 0;
  Inc(color);
  color^.rgbRed:= 0;
  color^.rgbBlue:= 0;
  color^.rgbGreen:= 0;
  color^.rgbReserved:= 0;

  with bmpinfo.bmiHeader do begin
    biSize:= SizeOf(bmpinfo.bmiHeader);
    biWidth:= cWidth*8;   //8 pixels per byte
    biHeight:= cHeight;
    biPlanes:= 1;
    biBitCount:= 1;
    biCompression:= BI_RGB;
    biSizeImage:= 0;
    biXPelsPerMeter:= 0;
    biYPelsPerMeter:= 0;
    biClrUsed:= 0;
    biClrImportant:= 0;
  end;

  ScanlineWidth:= cWidth div 8;
  if (ScanlineWidth mod 4) <> 0 then Inc(ScanlineWidth, 4 - ScanlineWidth mod 4);

  for x:= 0 to cwidth-1 do begin
    for y:= 0 to cheight-1 do begin
      DataBuffer[x][y]:= Random(255);
    end;
  end;

    StretchDIBits(Canvas.Handle,  0, 0, cHeight*2, cWidth*2*8, 0, 0, cHeight, cWidth*8,
             @DataBuffer, bmpinfo^, DIB_RGB_COLORS, SRCCOPY);
  FreeMem(bmpinfo);
end;

What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

It works for me with some corrections - cwidth/cheight in the cycle and main - width and height arguments of StretchDiBits function were exchanged. Has GetLastError reported wrong param values? (In my case - not)

  for x:= 0 to cwidth-1 do begin
    for y:= 0 to cheight-1 do begin
      DataBuffer[x][y]:= Random(255);
    end;
  end;

  StretchDIBits(Canvas.Handle, 0,0,cWidth*2*8,cHeight*2,0,0,cwidth*8,cHeight,@DataBuffer,
    bmpinfo^, DIB_RGB_COLORS, SRCCOPY);

Another possible issue - you defined cWidth (data buffer width) independently of ScanlineWidth calculation.

Answer 2

There are a number of errors:

• Bitmap declaration does not match StretchDIBits call.
• Bitmap is upside down
• Loop has x and y reversed
• Status code is not checked (and finally)
• For performance reasons the width of a bitmap should be a multiple of 4 (or 8) bytes

Bitmap declaration does not match StretchDIBits call
The problem is that the declaration of the bitmap must match the arguments of StretchDIBits. If these do not match you'll get a silent error and nothing will get displayed.

Here are the problem lines:

with bmpinfo.bmiHeader do begin
  biSize:= SizeOf(bmpinfo.bmiHeader);
  biWidth:= cWidth*8;   //8 pixels per byte   must match srcWidth.
  biHeight:= cHeight;   // must match srcHeight below.

StretchDIBits(Canvas.Handle,0,0,cWidth*2*8,cHeight*2  
                           ,0,0,cwidth*8,cHeight,   //srcWidth,srcHeight 
              @DataBuffer, bmpinfo^, DIB_RGB_COLORS, SRCCOPY);

If either the srcWidth or srcHeight parameter exceed the dimensions of the bitmap the call will fail.
In the call to StretchDIBits in the question Height and Width are reversed, making the bitmap too large and forcing an error, preventing display.

Bitmap is upside down
Because IBM has had it's grubby hands on the bitmap format logic went out the window and the default for bitmaps is to be upside down.

BITMAPINFOHEADER
biHeight The height of the bitmap, in pixels. If biHeight is positive, the bitmap is a bottom-up DIB and its origin is the lower-left corner. If biHeight is negative, the bitmap is a top-down DIB and its origin is the upper-left corner.

Unless you want your data to be upside down, you'd better make biHeight negative, like so:

with bmpinfo.bmiHeader do begin
  biSize:= SizeOf(bmpinfo.bmiHeader);
  biWidth:= cWidth*8;   //8 pixels per byte   must match srcWidth.
  biHeight:= -cHeight;   // "-" = TopDown: must match srcHeight below.

Loop has x and y reversed
In the loop, take note that x and y are reversed in the buffer.

  for y:= 0 to cHeight-1 do begin
    for x:= 0 to cWidth-1 do begin   //fill scanlines in the inner loop.
      DataBuffer[y][x]:= Random(256);  //y,x must be reversed!
    end; {for x}
  end; {for y}

Status code is not checked
If I had bothered to check the return value of StretchDIBits than I could have saved myself the bother. I would have known there was an error.

If the function succeeds, the return value is the number of scan lines copied. Note that this value can be negative for mirrored content.

If the function fails, or no scan lines are copied, the return value is 0.

Success:= StretchDIBits(.....
Assert(Success <> 0,'StretchDIBits error, check your arguments');  

For performance reasons the width of a bitmap should be a multiple of 4 bytes
If you are going to write to your bitmap buffer using (32-bit) integers, you'd better make sure your bitmap width is a multiple of 4 bytes, or you're going to suffer delays due to misaligned writes.
If you use 64-bit Int64 writes, make it a multiple of 8 bytes.

Windows only enforces a 2-byte alignment. This is because the bitmaps need to stay compatible with 16-bit Windows bitmaps.

bmWidthBytes The number of bytes in each scan line. This value must be divisible by 2, because the system assumes that the bit values of a bitmap form an array that is word aligned