Which method is better for sending a stream of images between two processes, local TCP/IP connection or Interprocess communication?

Question

Assuming that I have to copy each image on the stream (I cannnot simply access that data with any mutex protection, it must be copied anyway), which method is better, pros/cons?

I would like to know also how much performance loss this implied compared to using the images in the same process.

Thanks

Answer 1

For images, IPC through shared memory would be the best option.

Answer 2

At least Windows' firewalls can interfere even with local TCP/IP connections. Therefore I would prefer shared memory.

Answer 3

In term of performance, IPC through shared memory is the best option but IMHO, even if sockets consume a little more processing, they will give you a better result in term of evolutivity of your software.

Answer 4

Google "Memory Mapped Files"

Answer 5

This might shed some light on different IPC methods: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~beej/guide/ipc/

Answer 6

I would take the VCAM example of a DirectShow capture device (available at: http://tmhare.mvps.org/downloads/vcam.zip)

This driver appears to the O/S as a video capture device and would run in the destination process. The source would use shared memory buffers to feed it frames to inject.

While more complicated than a minimal shared-memory IPC scheme, it gives an incredible advantage in that your video pipes can connect to most media player programs, capture and editing tools, etc.

I have done this several times, including features like sinks, mixers, Freeframe effect plugins, and so on. It should take a day or two to hack together.