Drawing Pixels in WPF

Question

how would I manage pixel-by-pixel rendering in WPF (like, say, for a raytracer)? My initial guess was to create a BitmapImage, modify the buffer, and display that in an Imag

Answer 1

You can add small rects if you want, but each of those is a FrameworkElement, so it's probably a bit heavyweight. The other option is to create yourself a DrawingVisual, draw on it, render it then stick it in an image:

private void DrawRubbish()
{
    DrawingVisual dv = new DrawingVisual();
    using (DrawingContext dc = dv.RenderOpen())
    {
        Random rand = new Random();

        for (int i = 0; i < 200; i++)
            dc.DrawRectangle(Brushes.Red, null, new Rect(rand.NextDouble() * 200, rand.NextDouble() * 200, 1, 1));

        dc.Close();
    }
    RenderTargetBitmap rtb = new RenderTargetBitmap(200, 200, 96, 96, PixelFormats.Pbgra32);
    rtb.Render(dv);
    Image img = new Image();
    img.Source = rtb;
    MainGrid.Children.Add(img);
}