I'm trying to capture a bitmap from desktop and then stream that to another device on the local network via socket connection.

I have a working example of this using gdi that sends a bitmap via socket to the client device and renders it to a picture box, but this solution is pretty inefficient as I'm sending unchanged bitmaps and it requires a lot of cpu processing on the client.

I'll include this example as a reference point

public class Serial
    public static byte[] BitmapToBytes(Bitmap bitmap) {
        using(MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream()) {
            using(BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(ms)) {
                using(MemoryStream msb = new MemoryStream()) {
                    bitmap.Save(msb, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
                    byte[] bitmapBytes = msb.ToArray();
                    
                    bw.Write(bitmapBytes.Length);
                    bw.Write(bitmapBytes);

                    return ms.ToArray();
                }
            }
        }
    }
    
    public static Bitmap BytesToBitmap(byte[] bytes) {
        using(MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(bytes)) {
            using(BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(ms)) {
                int len = br.ReadInt32();
                byte[] bitmapBytes = br.ReadBytes(len);

                if(len == bitmapBytes.Length) {
                    using(MemoryStream msb = new MemoryStream(bitmapBytes)) {
                        return new Bitmap(msb);
                    }
                } else {
                    return null;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

public class Send {
    private ClientInfo Instance;
    
    public Send(ClientInfo instance) {
        Instance = instance;
    }
    
    public void Bitmap(Bitmap bitmap) {
        if(!Instanced) { return; }
        Instance.SendMessage((uint)Code.Bitmap, Serial.BitmapToBytes(bitmap));
    }
}

public class Server { //Same code for Client
    public event EventHandler<BitmapEventArgs> BitmapReceived = delegate { };
    
    //Socket connection setup code stripped as it's not relevant
    
    private void Data_Received(ClientInfo c, uint code, byte[] bytes, int len) {
        switch((Code)code) {
            case Code.BitmapReceived:
                BitmapReceived(this, new BitmapEventArgs(Serial.BytesToBitmap(bytes)));
                break;
        }
    }
}

public partial class Form1 : Form {
    private Client Client;
    private Server Server;
    private Send Send;
    
    private void StartSocket() {
        new Thread(() => {
            StopSocket();
            Client = new Client();
            Client.ClientConnected += Client_Connected;
            Client.ClientDisconnected += Client_Disconnected;
            Client.BitmapReceived += Bitmap_Received;

            if(!Client.Start(Config.Connection.IP, Config.Connection.Port)) {
                Client = null;

                Server = new Server();
                Server.ClientConnected += Client_Connected;
                Server.ClientDisconnected += Client_Disconnected;
                Server.BitmapReceived += Bitmap_Received;
                Server.Start(Config.Connection.Port);
            }
        }).Start();
    }
    
    private void Client_Connected(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        if(sender is Server) {
            Send = new Send(Server.Instance);
        } else {
            Send = new Send(Client.Instance);
        }
    }
    
    private void SendBitmap() {
        if(Send == null) { return; }

        new Thread(() => {
            while(Send != null) {
                Bitmap b = CaptureBitmap();
                if(b != null) {
                    Send.Bitmap(b);
                    Thread.Sleep(16); //around 60 times a second
                }
            }
        }).Start();
    }
    
    private void Bitmap_Received(object sender, BitmapEventArgs e) {
        if(Send != null && e.Bitmap != null) {
            BitmapPicBox.Image = e.Bitmap;
        }
    }
    
    private Bitmap CaptureBitmap() {
        IntPtr deskHandle = WinApi.GetDesktopWindow();
        IntPtr dc = WinApi.GetWindowDC(deskHandle);
        if(dc != IntPtr.Zero) {
            if(WinApi.GetWindowRect(deskHandle, out WinApi.RECT winRect)) {
                IntPtr hdcDest = WinApi.CreateCompatibleDC(dc);
                IntPtr hBitmap = WinApi.CreateCompatibleBitmap(dc, winRect.Width, winRect.Height);
                IntPtr hOld = WinApi.SelectObject(hdcDest, hBitmap);
                if(WinApi.BitBlt(hdcDest, 0, 0, winRect.Width, winRect.Height, dc, winRect.Left, winRect.Top, WinApi.TernaryRasterOperations.SRCCOPY)) {
                    WinApi.SelectObject(hdcDest, hOld);
                    WinApi.DeleteDC(hdcDest);
                    WinApi.ReleaseDC(deskHandle, dc);
                    Bitmap b = Image.FromHbitmap(hBitmap);
                    WinApi.DeleteObject(hBitmap);
                    return b;
                } else {
                    WinApi.DeleteDC(hdcDest);
                    WinApi.ReleaseDC(deskHandle, dc);
                    WinApi.DeleteObject(hBitmap);
                }
            }
        }

        return null;
    }
}

I have since tried a SharpDX implementation. I used the example from this github project for getting desktop image by desktop duplication and feeding that to a panel on the form which renders it.

But I'm not sure how I'd integrate this into my socket connection, I'd need to pass the frame being created as a byte array, and then back into a Bitmap1 that can be rendered.

Receiving the byte array and converting to Bitmap1 would be here:

private void RenderDuplicatedFrame(byte[] bitmapBytes) {
    //Convert bitmapBytes to SharpDX.Direct2D1.Bitmap1
    SharpDX.Direct2D1.Bitmap1 bitmap = //???

    _backBufferDc.Value.BeginDraw();
    _backBufferDc.Value.Clear(new RawColor4(0, 0, 0, 1));

    using(bitmap) {
        var renderX = (Size.Width - RenderSize.Width) / 2;
        var renderY = (Size.Height - RenderSize.Height) / 2;

        _backBufferDc.Value.DrawBitmap(bitmap, new RawRectangleF(renderX, renderY, renderX + RenderSize.Width, renderY + RenderSize.Height), 1, BitmapInterpolationMode.Linear);
    }

    _backBufferDc.Value.EndDraw();
    _swapChain.Value.Present(1, 0);
}

Sending the Bitmap1 would be here:

private void AcquireFrame() {
    var od = _outputDuplication.Value;
    SharpDX.DXGI.Resource frame;
    OutputDuplicateFrameInformation frameInfo;

    od.AcquireNextFrame(500, out frameInfo, out frame);

    using(frame) {
        if(frameInfo.LastPresentTime != 0) {
            using(var frameSurface = frame.QueryInterface<Surface>()) {
                using(var frameDc = new SharpDX.Direct2D1.DeviceContext(_2D1Device.Value, DeviceContextOptions.EnableMultithreadedOptimizations)) {
                    using(var frameBitmap = new Bitmap1(frameDc, frameSurface)) {

                        //Convert frameBitmap to byte array here to send over socket
                        
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        od.ReleaseFrame();
    }
}

So how do I go about converting to and from a byte array?

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