Probably the fastest way to do this is to use DirectX. Every DirectX application contains a buffer, or a surface to hold the contents of the video memory related to that application. This is called the back buffer of the application. Some applications might have more than one back buffer. And there is another buffer that every application can access by default - the front buffer. This one, the front buffer, holds the video memory related to the desktop contents, and so essentially is the screen image. By accessing the front buffer from your application, you can capture the contents of the screen at that moment.
Accessing the front buffer from your application is pretty easy and straightforward. The interface IDirect3DDevice9 provides the GetFrontBufferData() method that takes a IDirect3DSurface9 object pointer and copies the contents of the front buffer onto that surface. The IDirect3DSurfce9 object can be generated by using the method IDirect3DDevice8::CreateOffscreenPlainSurface(). Once the screen is captured onto the surface, you can use the function D3DXSaveSurfaceToFile() to save the surface directly to the disk in bitmap format. Thus, the code to capture the screen looks as follows:
extern IDirect3DDevice9* g_pd3dDevice;
Void CaptureScreen()
{
IDirect3DSurface9* pSurface;
// g_pd3dDevice is an IDirect3DDevice9 object, and has been assumed to be properly initialized
g_pd3dDevice->CreateOffscreenPlainSurface(ScreenWidth, ScreenHeight,
D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, D3DPOOL_SCRATCH, &pSurface, NULL);
g_pd3dDevice->GetFrontBufferData(0, pSurface);
D3DXSaveSurfaceToFile("Desktop.bmp",D3DXIFF_BMP,pSurface,NULL,NULL);
pSurface->Release();
}
If you want a buffer to the actual bits, instead of saving it directly to disk, you can use code like this:
extern void* pBits;
extern IDirect3DDevice9* g_pd3dDevice;
IDirect3DSurface9* pSurface;
// g_pd3dDevice is an IDirect3DDevice9 object, and has been assumed to be properly initialized
g_pd3dDevice->CreateOffscreenPlainSurface(ScreenWidth, ScreenHeight,
D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, D3DPOOL_SCRATCH,
&pSurface, NULL);
g_pd3dDevice->GetFrontBufferData(0, pSurface);
D3DLOCKED_RECT lockedRect;
pSurface->LockRect(&lockedRect,NULL,
D3DLOCK_NO_DIRTY_UPDATE|
D3DLOCK_NOSYSLOCK|D3DLOCK_READONLY)));
for( int i=0 ; i < ScreenHeight ; i++)
{
memcpy( (BYTE*) pBits + i * ScreenWidth * BITSPERPIXEL / 8 ,
(BYTE*) lockedRect.pBits + i* lockedRect.Pitch ,
ScreenWidth * BITSPERPIXEL / 8);
}
g_pSurface->UnlockRect();
pSurface->Release();
Make sure that we have allocated enough memory before copying into pBits. A typical value for BITSPERPIXEL is 32 bits per pixel. However, it may vary depending on your current monitor settings.
EDIT
Here is a C++ program I put together to time it. The function Direct3D9TakeScreenshots takes a parameter that determines how many times to take a screen shot. I have it set to 10 right now, but you can change it. Running on my machine, in release mode, I get the following results:
18:33:23.189
18:33:23.579
So that's 390 milliseconds to take 10 screen shots and copy them to a buffer. That averages to about 39 milliseconds per screen shot and buffer copy.
#include "pch.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <d3d9.h> // DirectX 9 header
#pragma comment(lib, "d3d9.lib") // link to DirectX 9 library
#define WIDEN2(x) L ## x
#define WIDEN(x) WIDEN2(x)
#define __WFILE__ WIDEN(__FILE__)
#define HRCHECK(__expr) {hr=(__expr);if(FAILED(hr)){wprintf(L"FAILURE 0x%08X (%i)\n\tline: %u file: '%s'\n\texpr: '" WIDEN(#__expr) L"'\n",hr, hr, __LINE__,__WFILE__);goto cleanup;}}
#define RELEASE(__p) {if(__p!=nullptr){__p->Release();__p=nullptr;}}
HRESULT Direct3D9TakeScreenshots(UINT adapter, UINT count)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
IDirect3D9 *d3d = nullptr;
IDirect3DDevice9 *device = nullptr;
IDirect3DSurface9 *surface = nullptr;
D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS parameters = { 0 };
D3DDISPLAYMODE mode;
D3DLOCKED_RECT rc;
UINT pitch;
SYSTEMTIME st;
LPBYTE *shots = nullptr;
// init D3D and get screen size
d3d = Direct3DCreate9(D3D_SDK_VERSION);
HRCHECK(d3d->GetAdapterDisplayMode(adapter, &mode));
parameters.Windowed = TRUE;
parameters.BackBufferCount = 1;
parameters.BackBufferHeight = mode.Height;
parameters.BackBufferWidth = mode.Width;
parameters.SwapEffect = D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD;
parameters.hDeviceWindow = nullptr;
// create device & capture surface
HRCHECK(d3d->CreateDevice(adapter, D3DDEVTYPE_HAL, NULL, D3DCREATE_SOFTWARE_VERTEXPROCESSING, ¶meters, &device));
HRCHECK(device->CreateOffscreenPlainSurface(mode.Width, mode.Height, D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM, &surface, nullptr));
// compute the required buffer size
HRCHECK(surface->LockRect(&rc, NULL, 0));
pitch = rc.Pitch;
HRCHECK(surface->UnlockRect());
// allocate screenshots buffers
shots = new LPBYTE[count];
for (UINT i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
shots[i] = new BYTE[pitch * mode.Height];
}
GetSystemTime(&st); // measure the time we spend doing <count> captures
wprintf(L"%i:%i:%i.%i\n", st.wHour, st.wMinute, st.wSecond, st.wMilliseconds);
for (UINT i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
// get the data
HRCHECK(device->GetFrontBufferData(0, surface));
// copy it into our buffers
HRCHECK(surface->LockRect(&rc, NULL, 0));
CopyMemory(shots[i], rc.pBits, rc.Pitch * mode.Height);
HRCHECK(surface->UnlockRect());
}
GetSystemTime(&st);
wprintf(L"%i:%i:%i.%i\n", st.wHour, st.wMinute, st.wSecond, st.wMilliseconds);
cleanup:
if (shots != nullptr)
{
for (UINT i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
delete shots[i];
}
delete[] shots;
}
RELEASE(surface);
RELEASE(device);
RELEASE(d3d);
return hr;
}
int main()
{
Direct3D9TakeScreenshots(D3DADAPTER_DEFAULT, 10);
}
