C++ Pixels In Console Window [closed]

It depends on your OS. I suppose you are programming in a Windows platform, therefore you can use SetPixel but you have to use "windows.h" to get a console handle, so here an example for drawing the cos() function:

#include<windows.h> #include<iostream> #include <cmath> using namespace std; #define PI 3.14 int main() { //Get a console handle HWND myconsole = GetConsoleWindow(); //Get a handle to device context HDC mydc = GetDC(myconsole); int pixel =0; //Choose any color COLORREF COLOR= RGB(255,255,255); //Draw pixels for(double i = 0; i < PI * 4; i += 0.05) { SetPixel(mydc,pixel,(int)(50+25*cos(i)),COLOR); pixel+=1; } ReleaseDC(myconsole, mydc); cin.ignore(); return 0; } 

You can also use some others libraries like: conio.h allegro.h sdl, etc.

If you're willing to have the image look blocky, you could take advantage of the block characters from the console code page.

• █ = '\xDB' = U+2588 FULL BLOCK
• ▄ = '\xDC' = U+2584 LOWER HALF BLOCK
• ▀ = '\xDF' = U+2580 UPPER HALF BLOCK
• and space

By using the half-blocks in combination with colored text, you can turn an 80×25 console window into an 80×50 16-color display. (This was the approach used by the QBasic version of Nibbles.)

Then, you just need to convert your image to the 16-color palette and a reasonably small size.

windows.h provides a function SetPixel() to print a pixel at specified location of a window. The general form of the function is

SetPixel(HDC hdc, int x, int y, COLORREF& color); 

where, x and y are coordinates of pixel to be display and color is the color of pixel.

Important: to print the pixel in your machine with Code::blocks IDE, add a link library libgdi32.a (it is usually inside MinGW\lib ) in linker setting.

Console is a text device, so in general you don't write to individual pixels. You can create a special font and select it as a font for console, but it will be monochromatic. There are libraries which simplify writing console UI (e.g. Curses), but I believe that you also have more gamelike functionality in mind besides just showing a sprite.

if you want to write a game, I suggest taking a look at some of the graphics/game frameworks/libs, e.g. SDL

I have drawn the straight line using windows.h in code::blocks. I can't explain it in details, but I can provide you a code and procedure to compile it in code::blocks.

1. go to setting menu and select compiler and debugger.
2. Click on linker tab and add a link library libgdi32.a which is at C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks\MinGW\lib directory.

Now compile this program

#include <windows.h> #include <cmath> #define ROUND(a) ((int) (a + 0.5)) /* set window handle */ static HWND sHwnd; static COLORREF redColor=RGB(255,0,0); static COLORREF blueColor=RGB(0,0,255); static COLORREF greenColor=RGB(0,255,0); void SetWindowHandle(HWND hwnd){ sHwnd=hwnd; } /* SetPixel */ void setPixel(int x,int y,COLORREF& color=redColor){ if(sHwnd==NULL){ MessageBox(NULL,"sHwnd was not initialized !","Error",MB_OK|MB_ICONERROR); exit(0); } HDC hdc=GetDC(sHwnd); SetPixel(hdc,x,y,color); ReleaseDC(sHwnd,hdc); return; // NEVERREACH // } void drawLineDDA(int xa, int ya, int xb, int yb){ int dx = xb - xa, dy = yb - ya, steps, k; float xIncrement, yIncrement, x = xa, y = ya; if(abs(dx) > abs(dy)) steps = abs(dx); else steps = abs(dy); xIncrement = dx / (float) steps; yIncrement = dy / (float) steps; setPixel(ROUND(x), ROUND(y)); for(int k = 0; k < steps; k++){ x += xIncrement; y += yIncrement; setPixel(x, y); } } /* Window Procedure WndProc */ LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd,UINT message,WPARAM wParam,LPARAM lParam){ switch(message){ case WM_PAINT: SetWindowHandle(hwnd); drawLineDDA(10, 20, 250, 300); break; case WM_CLOSE: // FAIL THROUGH to call DefWindowProc break; case WM_DESTROY: PostQuitMessage(0); return 0; default: break; // FAIL to call DefWindowProc // } return DefWindowProc(hwnd,message,wParam,lParam); } int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,LPSTR lpCmdLine,int iCmdShow){ static TCHAR szAppName[] = TEXT("Straight Line"); WNDCLASS wndclass; wndclass.style = CS_HREDRAW|CS_VREDRAW ; wndclass.lpfnWndProc = WndProc ; wndclass.cbClsExtra = 0 ; wndclass.cbWndExtra = 0 ; wndclass.hInstance = hInstance ; wndclass.hIcon = LoadIcon (NULL, IDI_APPLICATION) ; wndclass.hCursor = LoadCursor (NULL, IDC_ARROW) ; wndclass.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) GetStockObject (WHITE_BRUSH) ; wndclass.lpszMenuName = NULL ; wndclass.lpszClassName = szAppName ; // Register the window // if(!RegisterClass(&wndclass)){ MessageBox(NULL,"Registering the class failled","Error",MB_OK|MB_ICONERROR); exit(0); } // CreateWindow // HWND hwnd=CreateWindow(szAppName,"DDA - Programming Techniques", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL); if(!hwnd){ MessageBox(NULL,"Window Creation Failed!","Error",MB_OK); exit(0); } // ShowWindow and UpdateWindow // ShowWindow(hwnd,iCmdShow); UpdateWindow(hwnd); // Message Loop // MSG msg; while(GetMessage(&msg,NULL,0,0)){ TranslateMessage(&msg); DispatchMessage(&msg); } /* return no error to the operating system */ return 0; } 

In this program I have used DDA line drawing algorithm. Pixel drawing tasks is done by setPixel(ROUND(x), ROUND(y)) function. This is windows programing which you can learn details here

To use in CodeBlocks I found this (you have to add a linker option -lgdi32):

//Code Blocks: Project Build Options Linker settings Othoer linker options: add -lgdi32 

I forgot: You have to put this before including windows.h:

#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0500 

The whole cosine code again. Ready to compile:

//Code Blocks: Project Build Options Linker settings Othoer linker options: add -lgdi32 #define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0500 #include "windows.h" #include <iostream> #include <cmath> using namespace std; #define PI 3.14 int main(){ HWND myconsole = GetConsoleWindow(); HDC mydc = GetDC(myconsole); int pixel =0; COLORREF COLOR= RGB(255,255,255); //Draw pixels for(double i = 0; i < PI * 4; i += 0.05) { SetPixel(mydc,pixel,(int)(50+25*cos(i)),COLOR); pixel+=1; } ReleaseDC(myconsole, mydc); cin.ignore(); return 0; }