[mapserver-dev] MS RFC 87: Bitmap pattern support

[Havard Tveite]

Dear Tamas,

This would be a nice feature.
I was wondering if SYMBOL type "RASTER" could be an
alternative to "PATTERNMAP"?
Why?  "VECTOR" is now used for creating shapes /
patterns using lines, so why not use "RASTER" to
create shapes / patterns using pixels.
I agree that "BITMAP" would have been even better.

It would still be useful to have scalable patterns
that were not anti-aliased (to avoid edge effects
when "tiling" polygons).  These would have to be
specified using the vector approach, but could be
changed to a raster representation before going to
the final rendering.  In the map file, it could be
achieved by using symbol type vector with the old
(now GD specific) ANTIALIAS keyword.
I don't know how difficult it would be to achieve
this with the current rendering approach, but your
implementation of "PATTERNMAP" could perhaps be of
use in some way.

Håvard


On 1/14/2013 11:30 PM, Tamas Szekeres wrote:
> Developers,
>
> I have added a new RFC document proposing a solution for creating bitmap patterns. This is in fact a new symbol type PATTERNMAP (wanted to use BITMAP but it was already reserved for other purposes) which is aware of color and backgroundcolor settings and rendered equally well with the various kind of renderers. Currently we have no such option to achieve the same result, by using vector symbols we can not provide the same look for most of the renderers (agg, cairo), due to the possible antialiasing behaviour of the line drawings.
>
> Please find the complete RFC document at this location:
> http://mapserver.org/trunk/development/rfc/ms-rfc-87.html
>
> I have also created a tracking ticket for this addition:
> https://github.com/mapserver/mapserver/issues/4561
>
> The corresponding implementation has been added to this branch:
> https://github.com/szekerest/mapserver/tree/bitmapsymbol
>
> I have also prepared a sample test case providing to implement all the mapinfo symbols for auto style (see result image attached to this post):
> http://www.gisinternals.com/tests/testbrushpatterns.zip
>
> Let me know about your opinion.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tamas