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How Camera works in Libgdx and together with Viewport

If you work with LibGdx it goes not long until you come to Camera and viewport. If you work the first time with camera and Viewport you get some questions about how it works and how to use it. So:
How can I use a Camera in LibGdx? What's viewport width and height?
What is a Viewport, how can I use it and how it works together with the Camera?

How can I use a Camera in LibGdx? What's viewport width and height?
Firstly it's important that you know the Camera works with World units not with Pixels. World units are not a regular Unit. You self can define how much one World Unit is. Later more.
First, we create an OrthographicCamera a SpriteBatch and a Texture:
private OrthographicCamera camera;
private SpriteBatch batch;
private Texture img;
#Override
public void create () {
//We create a OrthographicCamera through which we see 50x50 World Units
camera = new OrthographicCamera(50,50);
batch = new SpriteBatch();
img = new Texture("badlogic.jpg");
}
We create a OrthographicCamera and in the Constructor we define how many World Units we see if we look through this camera into our world. In our example 50 x 50 World Units these are the viewport width and height.
So we have created a Camera with a viewport width and height of 50.
In the render() method we render our image:
#Override
public void render () {
//Clear the screen (1)
Gdx.gl.glClearColor(1, 1, 1, 1);
Gdx.gl.glClear(GL20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
//Set ProjectionMatrix of SpriteBatch (2)
batch.setProjectionMatrix(camera.combined);
batch.begin();
//Draw image on position 0, 0 with width 25 and height 25 (3)
batch.draw(img, 0, 0, 25, 25);
batch.end();
}
(1) Clear the Screen, if we don't do that every Texture will draw over the other and if we draw a Animation we will see the old Frames.
(2) The batch is our Drawer he draws our Images, Animations etc. Default he draws a World which has so many World Units like the Screen has Pixels so in this case 1 World Unit = 1 Pixel. But now we will see 50 x 50 World Units doesn't matter how big the screen is. To say the Batch that he should draw what we see through our camera we must call: batch.setProjectionMatrix(camera.combined);
(3) Now we draw our img on Position 0,0 But 0, 0 doesn't mean on Pixel position 0,0 it means the Image will be drawn on World position 0,0 also width and height are not in Pixels they are in World units so the img will be drawn on Position 0,0 25x25 World Units big. So on a 50x50 viewport, the image fills one-quarter of the whole screen.
The Image fill one-quarter of the whole screen exactly as expected. But why it is on the right top and not on the bottom left?
The Problem is that the center of the Camera point on the position 0,0
So our Image is drawn on position 0,0 he fills the top right corner.
We must set the position of the camera so 0,0 is in the bottom left corner:
camera = new OrthographicCamera(50,50);
camera.position.set(camera.viewportWidth / 2, camera.viewportHeight / 2, 0);
In the render() method we must add camera.update() because every time we change the position or the scale or what else of the camera we must update the camera.
Now the Image is in the bottom left.
Where are the Pixels?
We always speak about World units but where are the Pixels? The pixels are still there. If we have a Screen size of 200 x 200 pixels the batch will always draw 200 x 200 pixels. With the method batch.setProjectionMatrix(camera.combined); we only say the batch how much World Units are one Pixel.
If we have a Screen with 200 x 200 pixels and we create a Camera with a viewport of 50 x 50 world units the SpriteBatch know 1 WorldUnit = 4 Pixels.
Now we draw a Image which is 25 x 25 World Units big the SpriteBatch knows he must draw the image 25 * 4 = 100 pixel big.
So the pixels still there but it's easier to think in World Units.
If it's not clear enough here is a little bit more detailed description: Libgdx's World Units
Box2d
It's also very important to think in World Units if you use Box2d because Box2d works with Meters. So if you create a Body with a Force off 5 on the x axis, the Body is 5 m/s fast.
And now it's very cool to work with World Units because you can say 1 World Unit = 1 Meter so you can create a object with a width of 10 and you know after one second the Body will be in the Center of the Object. If you work with Pixels you will have a Problem if you have a different Screensize.
What is a Viewport, how can I use it and how it works together with the Camera?
Now we have the big Problem about different Screen sizes.
Suddenly we have a Screen size of 350 x 200 pixels, now the Image will be stretched and don't look so nice as before.
For this Problem we use Viewports a few Viewports are StretchViewport, FitViewport and ExtendViewport. All viewports you can find here: https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/Viewports.
Firstly what is a Viewport.
Imagine the camera is a speaker who speaks English. Different Screen Sizes are other People who speak German, French, Chinese etc. and the Viewport is the translator. The Translator doesn't change the sense of that what the English Speaker says but he adapts it so the others can understand it. Same are camera and Viewport. Viewport doesn't say or change what you can see on your screen if you run the program. He only handles that you always see the same on different Screen sizes. A Camera can life without Viewport. A Viewport not without Camera.
Add a viewport Object:
private Viewport viewport;
and the resize() method:
#Override
public void resize (int width, int height) {
viewport.update(width, height);
}
StretchViewport
Create a StretchViewport:
camera = new OrthographicCamera(50, 50);
camera.position.set(camera.viewportWidth / 2, camera.viewportHeight / 2, 0);
viewport = new StretchViewport(camera.viewportWidth, camera.viewportHeight, camera);
In the StretchViewport Constructor, we define the viewport width and height and the Camera.
Now we get the same result as before if we have different Screensizes the Images will be stretched.
FitViewport
Maybe we won't stretch our Images we will matter about the ratio of x and y.
The ratio of x and y means: is an Object 2 width and 1 height he will always twice as wide as high for example 200x100, 30x15 but not 20x15.
Create a FitViewport:
camera = new OrthographicCamera(50, 50);
camera.position.set(camera.viewportWidth / 2, camera.viewportHeight / 2, 0);
viewport = new FitViewport(camera.viewportWidth, camera.viewportHeight, camera);
Now the Image will always be a square. To see the Bars on the Side lets draw the Image as big as our viewport:
batch.draw(img, 0, 0, 50, 50);
The Image has a Ratio of 1 because of 50(width)/50(height) = 1 so the Image will always have the same width and height. The Bars on the side are outside of our Viewport and will be drawn in the color you define here: Gdx.gl.glClearColor(1, 1, 1, 1);
ExtendViewport
Maybe we won't Bars on the Side then we can take a ExtendViewport. The ExtendViewport keeps the world aspect ratio without bars by extending the world in one direction. Means on a screen where the aspect ratio between width and height are bigger you will see more of the world.
On a screen 400x200 aspect ration = (400/200 = 2) you will see more than on a screen of 300x200 (300/200 = 1.5);
To show this create a ExtendViewport and draw the Image bigger than the viewport and a second small Image:
camera = new OrthographicCamera(50, 50);
camera.position.set(camera.viewportWidth / 2, camera.viewportHeight / 2, 0);
viewport = new ExtendViewport(camera.viewportWidth, camera.viewportHeight, camera);
// in render() method
batch.begin();
batch.draw(img, 0, 0, 100, 50);
batch.draw(img, -20, 0, 20, 20);
batch.end();
If we now start our Program with a Screen size of 200x200 we see:
And if we resize the Screen on x axis To make the screen wider:
Now we can see more off the first Image and additinal the Second image but the ratio will always be the same. The Image is only stretched because we draw it 100x50 not because of resizing.
I hope this will clear some Questions about Camera and Viewport if you will learn more, read and look some tutorials and read the LibGdx wiki: https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki

Cut off a part of canvas

I have a canvas with graph, i get it from server. Sometimes the graph is not in the center. Now i want to cut off the rest part of canvas. I have the graph max and min x,y points. Ho to cut off the rest part of canvas? I can't find a solution.

First create a tempBitmap of size full width and Height like this
Bitmap tempImage = Bitmap.createBitmap(width, height, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
Bitmap finalBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(tempImage, (int) minX, (int) minY, width, height);
here finalBitmap is that which you want.
You can draw it in canvas and also save as bitmap.

Add text with grey background to pictures like Snapchat does? Android/Java

Bitmap newBm = ...
Canvas canvas = new Canvas(newBm);
Paint paint = new Paint(Paint.ANTI_ALIAS_FLAG);
paint.setColor(Color.WHITE);
paint.setTextSize((int) (44 * scale));
Rect bounds = new Rect();
paint.getTextBounds(gText, 0, gText.length(), bounds);
canvas.drawText(gText, x, y, paint);
I drew text on the Bitmap like so. How could I get a grey background that is the same height as the text but covers the whole screen??

You could use a Rect. Before drawing the text draw the Rect to the screen:
int screenWidth = getApplicationContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics().widthPixels;
Rect greyBack = new Rect(0,top,screenWidth,bottom);
Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setARGB(128, 100, 100, 100); //added alpha because Snapchat has translucent //grey background
canvas.drawRect(greyBack, paint);
top and bottom need to be coordinates above and below the text. You could use y's value and take away a bit for top and add a bit for bottom. How much you add/subtract is up to you and changes the height of the greyBack background.

The best way to see and learn how these sort of things are done with well written code is to look at the android source code itself. For example here is the onDraw method for a TextView it includes additional stuff you won't probably need like compoundPadding, but you can follow it through and get the basic concept of how it's done.

Set Bitmap to specific size inside imageview

Trying to resize a bitmap and set to a specific part of an imageview. The imageview is square and I wish to have the bitmap in the bottom right corner. Width to be 10% of imageview and height to be 30%.
int w = imageview.getWidth();
Bitmap bm = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.vertical_bar_green);
imageview.setImageBitmap(Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(bm, w/10, w*30/100, false));
imageview.setScaleType(ScaleType.FIT_END);
The result is the bitmap is the full height of the imageview and the width is much larger.
How can I set specific points to place the bitmap?

From the documentation for END (the matrix used by FIT_END).
Compute a scale that will maintain the original src aspect ratio, but
will also ensure that src fits entirely inside dst. At least one axis
(X or Y) will fit exactly. END aligns the result to the right and
bottom edges of dst.
You will probable want to use a custom matrix for this, probably built with setRectToRect().
For example:
Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
RectF from = new RectF(0, 0, bm.getIntrinsicWidth(), bm.getIntrinsicHeight());
RectF to = new RectF(view.getWidth() * 0.9, view.getHeight() * 0.7, view.getWidth(), view.getHeight());
matrix.setRectToRect(from, to, Matrix.ScaleToFit.FILL);
view.setScaleType(ScaleType.MATRIX);
view.setImageMatrix(matrix);
(I'm not sure if you wanted to keep the original proportions or not, if you want it then use FIT_END for setRectToRect()).

Android Rotatable ImageView

I am trying to create a Rotatable an ImageView to which I will specify certain angle and pivot point and see it rotated around that pivot point. I tried something like this:
Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
matrix.postRotate(45, imageView.getWidth(), imageView.getHeight());
imageView.setScaleType(ScaleType.MATRIX);
imageView.setImageMatrix(matrix);
but the parameters of postRotate method (the second and third - the pivot points) make NO CHANGE at all. even if they are 0, 0 - it's the same thing.
So I wanna create a ImageView that would be rotated by certain angle when initialized. In this example 45 degrees. I tried setting the bounds and staff.. no help.
How do I do that? :/

You can rotate a ImageView by using setRotation(int);
// rotate imageView 45 around center pivot point
imageView.setPivotX(imageView.getWidth()/2);
imageView.setPivotY(imageView.getHeight()/2);
imageView.setRotation(45);
Reference: http://goo.gl/WhhGM
Edit: I had to shorten the link because of a ) in the url, some browsers don't like that.

This is how I use view.setRotation(float angle) in my apps, hope it will be helpful:
//to make rotation use next code
imageView.setPivotX(imageView.getWidth() / 2);
imageView.setPivotY(imageView.getHeight() / 2);
imageView.setRotation(45);
//to reset rotate state to initial position
imageView.setPivotX(imageView.getWidth() / 2);
imageView.setPivotY(imageView.getHeight() / 2);
imageView.setRotation(0);
Based on answer from Spencer

This function works for me.
public static Bitmap rotateImage (Bitmap srcBitmap, int width, int height, int rotation)
{
// create rotated image
Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
rotation = (rotation +1 ) % 3;
rotation = rotation * 90;
matrix.postRotate( rotation,
width,
height );
Bitmap rotatedBmp = Bitmap.createBitmap( srcBitmap,
0,
0,
srcBitmap.getWidth(),
srcBitmap.getHeight(),
matrix,
false );
return rotatedBmp;
}