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Indy Singh
Indy Singh

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at indy.codes

Optimising Image Processing

Reducing memory consumption and time taken by 80%

Contents

  1. Investigating old code
  2. Streaming is winning
  3. Pool your streams
  4. Goodbye System.Drawing, you will not be missed
  5. In the interest of transparency
  6. TLDR - tell me what to do

Investigating old code

In my previous article, we covered how we found and solved a fixed cost of using PutObject on the AWS S3 .NET client; it was also mentioned that we transform the image before it is uploaded to AWS S3 - this is a process that is executed at least 400,000 times a day. With that in mind I decided it was worth exploring the entire code path. As always you can find all the code talked about here, and we will be using this image in our testing. Let us take a look at the existing implementation. Before we can transform an image we need to get a hold of it:-

private static byte[] GetImageFromUrl(string url)
{
    byte[] data;
    var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
    request.Timeout = 10000;
    request.ReadWriteTimeout = 10000;

    using (var response = request.GetResponse())
    using (var responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
    using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
    {
        int count;
        do
        {
            var buf = new byte[1024];
            count = responseStream.Read(buf, 0, 1024);
            memoryStream.Write(buf, 0, count);
        } while (responseStream.CanRead && count > 0);

        data = memoryStream.ToArray();
    }

    return data;
}
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Do you see that .ToArray()? It is evil. I do not have the statistics to hand but I know for a fact I have seen images larger than four megabytes come through this code path. That does not bode well - a quick peak at the implementation shows us why:-

public virtual byte[] ToArray()
{
    BCLDebug.Perf(_exposable, "MemoryStream::GetBuffer will let you avoid a copy.");
    byte[] copy = new byte[_length - _origin];
    Buffer.InternalBlockCopy(_buffer, _origin, copy, 0, _length - _origin);
    return copy;
}
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The LOH threshold is 85,000 bytes this would mean any images larger than the threshold would go straight onto the LOH - this is a problem, I covered why it is a problem in my previous article. At this point curiosity got the better of me, I really wanted to know the size of images coming into this service.

The service processes hundreds of thousands images per day, all I need is a quick sample and idea of the size and shape of incoming data. We have a job that runs at 14:00 every day to pull the latest images from one of our customers.

Hitting their service manually returns 14,630 images to be processed. Spinning up a quick console app to perform a HEAD request and get the Content-Length header:-

Total Images: 14,630
Images Above LOH Threshold: 14,276
Average Image Size: 253,818 bytes
Largest Image Size: 693,842 bytes
Smallest Image Size: 10,370 bytes
Standard Deviation of Sizes: 101,184
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Yikes, that is a huge standard deviation and 97.58% of the images are above the LOH threshold (85,000 bytes). Now that we know the spread of image sizes, we can resume looking at the rest of the current implementation:-

public void Transform(string url)
{
    var bytes = GetImageFromUrl(url);

    if (CanCreateImageFrom(bytes))
    {
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream(bytes))
        using (var originalImage = Image.FromStream(stream))
        using (var scaledImage = ImageHelper.Scale(originalImage, 320, 240))
        using (var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(scaledImage))
        {
            ImageHelper.TransformImage(graphics, scaledImage, originalImage);

            // upload scaledImage to AWS S3 in production, in the test harness write to disk
            using (var fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\v1.jpg"))
            {
                scaledImage.Save(fileStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
            }
        }
    }
}

private static bool CanCreateImageFrom(byte[] bytes)
{
    try
    {
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream(bytes))
        {
            Image.FromStream(stream);
        }
    }
    catch (ArgumentException)
    {
        return false;
    }

    return true;
}
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I have suspicions about the two MemoryStream's knocking about but dotTrace can confirm or deny my suspicions. Running V1 with the sample image one hundred times:-

V1
Took (ms) 10,297
Allocated (kb) 851,894
Peak Working Set (kb) 96,276
Gen 0 collections 184
Gen 1 collections 101
Gen 2 collections 101
-
dotTrace Total RAM (MB) 901
dotTrace SOH (MB) 410
dotTrace LOH (MB) 491

Using dotTrace we can see where the biggest costs are:-

image-01

Now that we have established a baseline - lets get cracking!

Streaming is winning

If we inline the GetImageFromUrl and remove the CanCreateImageFrom - which is not needed because we check the Content-Type earlier in the code path, we can directly operate on the incoming stream.

public class ImageTransformerV2 : IImageTransformer
{
    public void Transform(string url)
    {
        var request = WebRequest.CreateHttp(url);
        request.Timeout = 10000;
        request.ReadWriteTimeout = 10000;

        using (var response = request.GetResponse())
        using (var responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
        using (var originalImage = Image.FromStream(responseStream))
        using (var scaledImage = ImageHelper.Scale(originalImage, 320, 240))
        using (var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(scaledImage))
        {
            ImageHelper.TransformImage(graphics, scaledImage, originalImage);

            // upload scaledImage to AWS S3 in production, in the test harness write to disk
            using (var fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\v2.jpg"))
            {
                scaledImage.Save(fileStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
            }
        }
    }
}
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Stats for V2:-

V1 V2 %
Took (ms) 10,297 7,844 -23.82%
Allocated (kb) 851,894 527,246 -38.10%
Peak Working Set (kb) 96,276 69,436 -27.87%
Gen 0 collections 184 100 -45.65%
Gen 1 collections 101 100 -00.99%
Gen 2 collections 101 100 -00.99%
-
dotTrace Total RAM (MB) 901 550 -38.95%
dotTrace SOH (MB) 410 162 -60.48%
dotTrace LOH (MB) 491 388 -20.97%

Awesome, a few minor tweaks and all the metrics have dropped across the board.

Pool your streams

Using dotTrace again, we can see the next biggest cost:-

image-02

Something is happening inside of the constructor of GPStream that is costing us dearly. Luckily dotTrace can show us the decompiled source which saves us a trip to Reference Sources:-

internal GPStream(Stream stream)
{
    if (!stream.CanSeek)
    {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[256];
        int offset = 0;
        int num;

        do
        {
            if (buffer.Length < offset + 256)
            {
                byte[] numArray = new byte[buffer.Length * 2];
                Array.Copy((Array) buffer, (Array) numArray, buffer.Length);
                buffer = numArray;
            }
            num = stream.Read(buffer, offset, 256);
            offset += num;
        } while (num != 0);

        this.dataStream = (Stream) new MemoryStream(buffer);
    }
    else
        this.dataStream = stream;
}
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You know when you ask yourself a question out loud and you can answer it straight away?

"What?! I can't seek on the incoming HTTP stream?"

No, you can't. Makes total sense when you think about it and because the incoming Stream is not seekable GPStream has to take a copy of it.

Okay, first thing - can we move the cost from framework code to our code? It is not pretty but something like this works:-

public void Transform(string url)
{
    var request = WebRequest.CreateHttp(url);
    request.Timeout = 10000;
    request.ReadWriteTimeout = 10000;

    var memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

    using (var response = request.GetResponse())
    using (var responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
    {
        responseStream.CopyTo(memoryStream);
    }

    using (var originalImage = Image.FromStream(memoryStream))
    using (var scaledImage = ImageHelper.Scale(originalImage, 320, 240))
    using (var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(scaledImage))
    {
        ImageHelper.TransformImage(graphics, scaledImage, originalImage);

        // upload scaledImage to AWS S3 in production, in the test harness write to disk

        using (var fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\v2.jpg"))
        {
            scaledImage.Save(fileStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
        }
    }
}
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dotTrace shows us that we have indeed moved the cost from framework code into our code:-

image-04

Now we could use our old friend System.Buffers and just rent a byte[] then pass that to the constructor of the MemoryStream. That would work, except two things. Firstly, Content-Length is not guaranteed to be set. Secondly, a few weeks earlier I was poking around the .NET driver for Cassandra when I came across Microsoft.IO.RecyclableMemoryStream and it felt like it was exactly what I needed here. If you want to learn more about RecyclableMemoryStream Ben Watson has a great post on what it is and its various use cases. Jumping straight into V3:-

public class ImageTransformerV3 : IImageTransformer
{
    private readonly RecyclableMemoryStreamManager _streamManager;

    public ImageTransformerV3()
    {
        _streamManager = new RecyclableMemoryStreamManager();
    }

    public void Transform(string url)
    {
        var request = WebRequest.CreateHttp(url);
        request.Timeout = 10000;
        request.ReadWriteTimeout = 10000;
        request.AllowReadStreamBuffering = false;
        request.AllowWriteStreamBuffering = false;

        MemoryStream borrowedStream;

        using (var response = request.GetResponse())
        {
            if (response.ContentLength == -1) // Means that content length is NOT sent back by the third party server
            {
                borrowedStream = _streamManager.GetStream(url); // then we let the stream manager had this 
            }
            else
            {
                borrowedStream = _streamManager.GetStream(url, (int)response.ContentLength); // otherwise we borrow a stream with the exact size
            }

            int bufferSize;

            if (response.ContentLength == -1 || response.ContentLength > 81920)
            {
                bufferSize = 81920;
            }
            else
            {
                bufferSize = (int) response.ContentLength;
            }

            // close the http response stream asap, we only need the contents, we don't need to keep it open
            using (var responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
            {
                responseStream.CopyTo(borrowedStream, bufferSize);
            }
        }

        using (borrowedStream)
        using (var originalImage = Image.FromStream(borrowedStream))
        using (var scaledImage = ImageHelper.Scale(originalImage, 320, 240))
        using (var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(scaledImage))
        {
            ImageHelper.TransformImage(graphics, scaledImage, originalImage);
            // upload scaledImage to AWS S3 in production, in the test harness write to disk

            using (var fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\v3.jpg"))
            {
                scaledImage.Save(fileStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
            }
        }
    }
}
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One of my favourite things about RecyclableMemoryStream is that it is a drop-in replacement for MemoryStream. The ArrayPool from System.Buffers requires you to Rent and then Return. Whereas RecyclableMemoryStream handles everything for you as it implements IDisposable. Anyway, enough of my admiration for RecyclableMemoryStream; stats for V3:-

V1 V2 V3 % (V3 vs. V1)
Took (ms) 10,297 7,844 7,688 -25.33%
Allocated (kb) 851,894 527,246 125,739 -85.24%
Peak Working Set (kb) 96,276 69,436 71,140 -26.10%
Gen 0 collections 184 100 29 -84.23%
Gen 1 collections 101 100 2 -98.01%
Gen 2 collections 101 100 1 -99.00%
-
dotTrace Total RAM (MB) 901 550 152 -83.12%
dotTrace SOH (MB) 410 162 150 -63.41%
dotTrace LOH (MB) 491 388 1.6 -99.67%

That is an incredible improvement from V1. This is what V3 looks like in dotTrace:-

image-05

Goodbye System.Drawing, you will not be missed

My knowledge on System.Drawing is pretty sketchy but an afternoon reading about it leads me to the conclusion that if you can avoid using System.Drawing then you are better off. Whilst searching for an alternative to System.Drawing, I came across this article written by Omar Shahine.
Huh, I never considered the overloads. Takes two seconds to try this so we might as well; v3 with useEmbeddedColorManagement disabled and validateImageData turned off these are the stats:-

V1 V2 V3 % (V3 vs. V1)
Took (ms) 10,297 7,844 7,563 -26.55%
Allocated (kb) 851,894 527,246 128,166 -84.95%
Peak Working Set (kb) 96,276 69,436 53,688 -44.23%
Gen 0 collections 184 100 30 -83.69%
Gen 1 collections 101 100 2 -98.01%
Gen 2 collections 101 100 1 -99.00%
-
dotTrace Total RAM (MB) 901 550 154 -82.90%
dotTrace SOH (MB) 410 162 153 -62.68%
dotTrace LOH (MB) 491 388 1.6 -99.67%

A minor increase in some areas but a noticeable drop in Peak Working Set - great! A slightly more recent article by Bertrand Le Roy goes through the various alternatives to System.Drawing. Thankfully, there is a nice little chart at the bottom that shows performance in the context of time taken.

According to that article PhotoSauce.MagicScaler is pretty magic - word of warning this library is Windows only. I wonder how magic it really is? Spinning V4 up:-

public class ImageTransformerV4 : IImageTransformer
{
    public void Transform(string url)
    {
        // truncated for brevity 

        MagicImageProcessor.EnableSimd = false;
        MagicImageProcessor.EnablePlanarPipeline = true;

        using (borrowedStream)
        {
            // upload scaledImage to AWS S3 in production, in the test harness write to disk

            using (var fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\v4.jpg"))
            {
                MagicImageProcessor.ProcessImage(borrowedStream, fileStream, new ProcessImageSettings()
                {
                    Width = 320,
                    Height = 240,
                    ResizeMode = CropScaleMode.Max,
                    SaveFormat = FileFormat.Jpeg,
                    JpegQuality = 70,
                    HybridMode = HybridScaleMode.Turbo
                });
            }
        }
    }
}
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And the stats:-

V1 V2 V3 V4 % (V4 vs. V1)
Took (ms) 10,297 7,844 7,563 1,672 -83.76%
Allocated (kb) 851,894 527,246 128,166 135,876 -84.05%
Peak Working Set (kb) 96,276 69,436 53,688 35,596 -63.02%
Gen 0 collections 184 100 30 32 -82.60%
Gen 1 collections 101 100 2 2 -98.01%
Gen 2 collections 101 100 1 1 -99.00%
-
dotTrace Total RAM (MB) 901 550 154 165 -81.68%
dotTrace SOH (MB) 410 162 153 162 -60.48%
dotTrace LOH (MB) 491 388 1.6 1.6 -99.67%

An insane drop in time taken and a healthy drop in Peak Working Set!

That is magic.

In the interest of transparency

Pun not intended - just before this article was about to be published I saw this interesting tweet:-

Naturally I was interested, spinning up V5 gave me similar results to V4 except a noticeable increase in time taken, peak working set, and LOH allocations. After a conversation on their Gitter I learnt that they are:-

  1. Still working on improving their JPEG decoder - this is relevant because we process other image formats too
  2. Aware that their resizing algorithm is not as optimal as it could be - this is relevant because the main part of the transformation is resizing
  3. Happy to be featured in this article (which says a lot)

TLDR - tell me what to do

If your image transformation process is mostly resizing and you are hosted on Windows then look into using PhotoSauce.MagicScaler with Microsoft.IO.RecyclableMemoryStream you will see a sixty to ninety nine percent reduction in various performance related metrics!

Find me Twitter, LinkedIn, or GitHub.

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