Note
You should favor the usage pygame2.sdlext.surfarray over directly using the numpy or Numeric surfarray modules, if you do not require any special features of one of the packages. This allows you to write compatible code for various platforms having either Numeric or numpy installed.
Functions to convert pixel data between pygame Surfaces and Numpy arrays. This module will only be available when pygame can use the external Numpy package.
Note, that numpysurfarray is an optional module. It requires that Numpy is installed to be used. If not installed, an exception will be raised when it is used. eg. ImportError: no module named numpy
Every pixel is stored as a single integer value to represent the red, green, and blue colors. The 8bit images use a value that looks into a colormap. Pixels with higher depth use a bit packing process to place three or four values into a single number.
The Numpy arrays are indexed by the X axis first, followed by the Y axis. Arrays that treat the pixels as a single integer are referred to as 2D arrays. This module can also separate the red, green, and blue color values into separate indices. These types of arrays are referred to as 3D arrays, and the last index is 0 for red, 1 for green, and 2 for blue.
In contrast to Numeric Numpy does use unsigned 16bit integers, images with 16bit data will be treated as unsigned integers.
Copy pixels into a 2d array.
Copy the pixels from a Surface into a 2D array. The bit depth of the surface will control the size of the integer values, and will work for any type of pixel format.
This function will temporarily lock the Surface as pixels are copied (see the Surface.lock - lock the Surface memory for pixel access method).
Copy pixels into a 3d array.
Copy the pixels from a Surface into a 3D array. The bit depth of the surface will control the size of the integer values, and will work for any type of pixel format.
This function will temporarily lock the Surface as pixels are copied (see the Surface.lock - lock the Surface memory for pixel access method).
Copy pixel alphas into a 2d array.
Copy the pixel alpha values (degree of transparency) from a Surface into a 2D array. This will work for any type of Surface format. Surfaces without a pixel alpha will return an array with all opaque values.
This function will temporarily lock the Surface as pixels are copied (see the Surface.lock - lock the Surface memory for pixel access method).
Copy the colorkey values into a 2d array.
Create a new array with the colorkey transparency value from each pixel. If the pixel matches the colorkey it will be fully tranparent; otherwise it will be fully opaque.
This will work on any type of Surface format. If the image has no colorkey a solid opaque array will be returned.
This function will temporarily lock the Surface as pixels are copied.
Blit directly from a array values
Directly copy values from an array into a Surface. This is faster than converting the array into a Surface and blitting. The array must be the same dimensions as the Surface and will completely replace all pixel values.
This function will temporarily lock the Surface as the new values are copied.
Copy an array to a new surface.
Create a new Surface that best resembles the data and format on the array. The array can be 2D or 3D with any sized integer values.
Map a 3d array into a 2d array.
Convert a 3D array into a 2D array. This will use the given Surface format to control the conversion. Palette surface formats are not supported.
Note: arrays do not need to be 3D, as long as the minor axis has three elements giving the component colours, any array shape can be used (for example, a single colour can be mapped, or an array of colours).
Reference pixels into a 2d array.
Create a new 2D array that directly references the pixel values in a Surface. Any changes to the array will affect the pixels in the Surface. This is a fast operation since no data is copied.
Pixels from a 24-bit Surface cannot be referenced, but all other Surface bit depths can.
The Surface this references will remain locked for the lifetime of the array (see the Surface.lock - lock the Surface memory for pixel access method).
Reference pixels into a 3d array.
Create a new 3D array that directly references the pixel values in a Surface. Any changes to the array will affect the pixels in the Surface. This is a fast operation since no data is copied.
This will only work on Surfaces that have 24-bit or 32-bit formats. Lower pixel formats cannot be referenced.
The Surface this references will remain locked for the lifetime of the array (see the Surface.lock - lock the Surface memory for pixel access method).
Reference pixel alphas into a 2d array.
Create a new 2D array that directly references the alpha values (degree of transparency) in a Surface. Any changes to the array will affect the pixels in the Surface. This is a fast operation since no data is copied.
This can only work on 32-bit Surfaces with a per-pixel alpha value.
The Surface this array references will remain locked for the lifetime of the array.