a_pygame_convert_&_convertalpha_.md

🟡 convert() & convert_alpha()

🫐 When Importing an Image, you want to convert it to a format that PYgame can work more easily

• • if the image has no transparent pixels: .convert()
• • if the image has transparent pixels: .convert_alpha() , this will make your game run much faster.

🧶 Optimizing Image Import for Pygame

🟠 When importing images into Pygame, converting them to a suitable format can significantly enhance performance. Here's how to handle different types of images:

convert()

🔸 For images without transparency:

• • Use the .convert() method.
• • • This will optimize the image's color format for faster rendering, as it ✋ simplifies the image data without the need for transparency support.

For example:

a simple background image or a sprite with a solid color background.

• Use the .convert() method to optimize these images. This converts the image to a format that Pygame can quickly render because it doesn’t need to manage transparency.

background = pygame.image.load('background.png').convert()

• check the video by 🌟 Code with Russ

convert_alpha()

🔸 For images with transparency:

• • Use the .convert_alpha() method.
• • • This method preserves the transparency information and converts the image into a format that maintains the alpha channel, ✋ ensuring both quality and performance.

For example,

• a character sprite with a transparent background or a UI icon with see-through areas.

• • Use the .convert_alpha() method for these images.
• • • This method preserves the transparency of the image, ensuring that the alpha channel (which controls transparency) is maintained for accurate rendering.

character = pygame.image.load('character.png').convert_alpha()

🧶 Properly converting your images ensures smoother gameplay and better performance by aligning image formats with Pygame's rendering capabilities.

🟤 Space Shooter example

🟦 Applying it to the code

# 18 - convert
player_surf = pygame.image.load(image_path).convert()

🟠 Output

• • As you can see, the image has a black background, indicating that it contains alpha values.

Therefore, we need to use convert_alpha() instead of convert()

simplescreenrecorder-2024-08-17_23.30.51.mp4

convert_alpha() instead of convert()

player_surf = pygame.image.load(image_path).convert_alpha()

🧶 The code

 import pygame

# from os.path import join / path for img (important!!)
import os

pygame.init()
# path for img (important!!)
script_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)


#  --- window
WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT = 1280, 720
#3
display_surface = pygame.display.set_mode((WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT))
#  --- window


pygame.display.set_caption("Space shooter")

running = True

surf = pygame.Surface((100,200))
surf.fill('orange')
x = 100




image_path = os.path.join(script_dir, '..', 'images', 'player.png')
# ✋
player_surf = pygame.image.load(image_path).convert_alpha()


while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
       if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False

    display_surface.fill("lavenderblush2")
    x += 0.1

    display_surface.blit(player_surf, (x,150))

    pygame.display.update()




pygame.quit()

simplescreenrecorder-2024-08-18_18.48.46.mp4