Use mipmapping to scale large images, if
needed.
Another new feature available in Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.5
on all platforms is related to mipmapping. Flash Player 9 and AIR
1.0 introduced a mipmapping feature that improved the quality and
performance of downscaled bitmaps.
Note:
The mipmapping feature applies only to dynamically
loaded images or embedded bitmaps. Mipmapping does not apply to
display objects that have been filtered or cached. Mipmapping can
be processed only if the bitmap has a width and height that are
even numbers. When a width or height that is an odd number is encountered,
mipmapping stops. For example, a 250 x 250 image can be mipmapped down
to 125 x 125, but it cannot be mipmapped further. In this case,
at least one of the dimensions is an odd number. Bitmaps with dimensions
that are powers of two achieve the best results, for example: 256
x 256, 512 x 512, 1024 x 1024, and so on.
As an example, imagine that a 1024 x 1024 image is loaded, and
a developer wants to scale the image to create a thumbnail in a
gallery. The mipmapping feature renders the image properly when
scaled by using the intermediate downsampled versions of the bitmap
as textures. Previous versions of the runtime created intermediate
downscaled versions of the bitmap in memory. If a 1024 x 1024 image
was loaded and displayed at 64 x 64, older versions of the runtime
would create every half-sized bitmap. For example, in this case
512 x 512, 256 x 256, 128 x 128, and 64 x 64 bitmaps would be created.
Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.5 now support mipmapping directly
from the original source to the destination size required. In the
previous example, only the 4 MB (1024 x 1024) original bitmap and
the 16 KB (64 x 64) mipmapped bitmap would be created.
The mipmapping logic also works with the dynamic bitmap unloading
feature. If only the 64 x 64 bitmap is used, the 4-MB original bitmap
is freed from memory. If the mipmap must be recreated, then the
original is reloaded. Also, if other mipmapped bitmaps of various
sizes are required, the mipmap chain of bitmaps is used to create
the bitmap. For example, if a 1:8 bitmap must be created, the 1:4 and
1:2 and 1:1 bitmaps are examined to determine which is loaded into
memory first. If no other versions are found, the 1:1 original bitmap
is loaded from the resource and used.
The JPEG decompressor can perform mipmapping within its own format.
This direct mipmapping allows a large bitmap to be decompressed
directly to a mipmap format without loading the entire uncompressed
image. Generating the mipmap is substantially faster, and memory
used by large bitmaps is not allocated and then freed. The JPEG
image quality is comparable to the general mipmapping technique.
Note:
Use mipmapping sparingly. Although it improves the quality
of downscaled bitmaps, it has an impact on bandwidth, memory, and
speed. In some cases, a better option can be to use a pre-scaled
version of the bitmap from an external tool and import it into your
application. Don’t start with large bitmaps if you only intend to scale
them down.
