Storing Images .as byte[] vs .png format [HELP NOKIA!]

[earamsey]

Hi,

I need way to load .png images so that excessive amounts of memory are not consumed keeping them in memory on heap. I am using Image class now. I am thinking about byte[] instead.

I know that .png are in compressed format but i'm not even sure if Image class retains it this anyway.

I am concerned that I read somewhere the S60 3rd Ed. stores image bitmap data in Host OS memory and Image class the reference on heap. I am worried this is bad and not sure how often, if at all, Host memory is garbage collected or in enough time before application runs out of Host OS memory! At least byte[] will not use Host memory which is a good thing.

I could compress images into one large byte[] data file and extract/decompress when I need an image when needed.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone from Nokia or anyone knowledgable about this could help me before I waste of a lot of time converting Images and code to use byte[], only to discover no significant change in memory consumption or perhaps made it worse!

Thanks!

[tony_ysy]

Hi,
Go get this example game from Forum Nokia:
http://sw.nokia.com/id/748737bb-3d12...de_v2_0_en.zip

Yes, it is great to reduce the memory consumption. However, byte[] can be applied on RecordStore (database), use array method, as shown from the above sheepdog game. Good luck.

[earamsey]

Thank you!

[gpg15600]

It's much better to keep in memory all the images you need.
If you start creating and deleting images, you will face with a memory fragmentation problem.

[earamsey]

I have too many images to keep them all in memory. Would using byte arrays instead of Image class help any?