ImageSearch Usage Explanation

[Centrally]

After having lot of issues myself with getting ImageSearch to work I decided to make topic with explanation how to proper use this script.

Here is link of original topic at this topic:

Credits to kangkeng for creating such useful piece of code.

What is ImageSearch?

It's script that find part of screen which you before defined with given image.

When should I use ImageSearch?

You should use it whenever it's not possible or unlikely that pixelsearch will give what you need.

So how can I use ImageSearch and enjoy it's awesome benefits?

First of all to avoid mostly caused problems I recompiled DLLs for both architectures which you can download at end of this post. When you pick your package you should place both ImageSearch.au3 and ImageSearch.dll inside script folder.

Usage Example:

First of all take picture of what you want to search for (print screen + paint + corp + save as bmp).

Place that picture in script directory (I named my picture checkImage (checkImage.bmp is full name with extension). You must include ImageSearch.au3 in your script.

ImageSearch.au3 consist of 2 Functions you can use: _ImageSearch and _ImageSearchArea

Note: Use _ImageSearch to search the entire desktop, _ImageSearchArea to specify a desktop region to search

Values to put in for _ImageSearch function (entire screen search)

($findImage,$resultPosition,ByRef $x, ByRef $y,$tolerance, $HBMP=0)

Values to put in for _ImageSearchArea function (you declare part of screen to be searched)

($findImage,$resultPosition,$x1,$y1,$right,$bottom,ByRef $x, ByRef $y, $tolerance,$HBMP=0)

Description of parameters from ImageSearch.au3 itself:

; Description:   Find the position of an image on the desktop
; Syntax:        _ImageSearchArea, _ImageSearch
; Parameter(s):
;                $findImage - the image to locate on the desktop
;                $tolerance - 0 for no tolerance (0-255). Needed when colors of
;                            image differ from desktop. e.g GIF
;                $resultPosition - Set where the returned x,y location of the image is.
;                                    1 for centre of image, 0 for top left of image
;                $x $y - Return the x and y location of the image
;
; Return Value(s): On Success - Returns 1
;                On Failure - Returns 0

Example of my script using _ImageSearch ( entire screen search)

#include <ImageSearch.au3>

HotKeySet("p", "checkForImage")

global $y = 0, $x = 0

Func checkForImage()
Local $search = _ImageSearch('checkImage.bmp', 0, $x, $y, 0)
If $search = 1 Then
MouseMove($x, $y, 10)
EndIf
EndFunc

while 1
sleep(200)
WEnd

Example of my script using _ImageSearchArea

#include <ImageSearch.au3>

HotKeySet("p", "checkForImage")

global $y = 0, $x = 0

Func checkForImage()
local $search = _ImageSearchArea('check5.bmp', 1, 800, 40, 900, 80, $x, $y, 0)
If $search = 1 Then
MouseMove($x, $y, 10)
EndIf
EndFunc

while 1
sleep(200)
WEnd

I would like to apologize if by writing this I offended any of member that thinks this script is too simple to even have it explained, it's just as me being new to autoIt it took me so much time getting around errors and making this script to work.

Thanks for reading, if you bump on any problems using it post it here, I will try to help you fixing it and update topic for further reference.

Download links:

32bit: ImageSearch 32bit.rar

64bit: ImageSearch 64 bit.rar

Edited February 15, 2013 by Centrally

[ileandros]

Usually imagesearch library is used for game automatation. Pixel search as well. FF udf it's much more powerful I find. But none of them are trustable 100%

[VelvetElvis]

I've used this for automating a daily job at work that refreshes +/- 35 reports daily with each one searching, and it hasn't missed a beat.

I'm curious as to the difference in .dll files, compared to the one in the original post from 2008. Here's the two versions:

Original ImageSearchDLL.dll 92k 2/28/2008

Your ImageSearchDLL.dll 77k 1/24/2010

Can you (or anyone else) tell me what the differences are?

[VelvetElvis]

<Bump> Anyone know the difference in these .dll's?

[techbard]

nice work! thx~

[kjensen]

I think it's fine. I appreciate that I can use that now instead of merging Auto Hot Key/AutoIT type features. I look forward to re-writing some of my mcros to incorporate this and thank you again for the intro into Image search

[romanais]

Hello, i think that there's a typo on your "Example of my script using _ImageSearchArea".

With this line :

local $search = _ImageSearchArea('check5.bmp', 1, 800, 40, 900, 80, $x, $y, 0)Local $search = _ImageSearch('checkImage.bmp', 0, $x, $y, 0)

[Centrally]

It is typo, and I got no idea how that line ended there, anyway thanks for pointing it out, I fixed it now.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Centrally

[Centrally]

I've used this for automating a daily job at work that refreshes +/- 35 reports daily with each one searching, and it hasn't missed a beat.

I'm curious as to the difference in .dll files, compared to the one in the original post from 2008. Here's the two versions:

Original ImageSearchDLL.dll 92k 2/28/2008

Your ImageSearchDLL.dll 77k 1/24/2010

Can you (or anyone else) tell me what the differences are?

I'm not really sure about difference because I only compiled last source code I found, if you really want to find out what is different than try finding source code from 2008 and compare it to one from 2010.

[TimCunningham]

I was having trouble like you were having trouble. This topic is very helpful.

I was working on this image search for hours and hours and I could not get it to work! I was able to find the droid I was looking for (heh) when I saved the image as a 24-bit BMP rather than 256 or 16-bit. Not sure why this is but I hope that helps someone. If it isn't working for you, try saving the picture as a different bmp file.

[Amiekbir]

Hi i did what u said but i am unable to use the imagesearch function. I used the 64 bit one but now working.

[Amiekbir]

i used the 32 bit too same result.

[MythEdge]

Hello and thank you for the tutorial. I have been trying to get this imagesearch function to work for weeks! I took your code and copied it exactly. Then I took ImageSearch.au3, imagesearchdll.dll and my script (Which is a new script file with your code) along with my checkImage.bmp and put them all into my working directory folder. I click the script, I click P and nothing happens but the script no longer runs. I get no error or anything. Did I miss something?

[tbodine88]

I added this code in _imageSearchArea

expandcollapse popup

Func _ImageSearchArea($findImage, $resultPosition, $x1, $y1, $right, $bottom, ByRef $x, ByRef $y, $tolerance, $HBMP = 0)
    ;MsgBox(0,"asd","" & $x1 & " " & $y1 & " " & $right & " " & $bottom)
    If $tolerance > 0 Then $findImage = "*" & $tolerance & " " & $findImage
    If IsString($findImage) Then
        $result = DllCall("ImageSearchDLL.dll", "str", "ImageSearch", "int", $x1, "int", $y1, "int", $right, "int", $bottom, "str", $findImage, "ptr", $HBMP)
        $err = @error
    Else
        $result = DllCall("ImageSearchDLL.dll", "str", "ImageSearch", "int", $x1, "int", $y1, "int", $right, "int", $bottom, "ptr", $findImage, "ptr", $HBMP)
        $err = @error
    EndIf
    Switch $err
        Case 1
            ConsoleWriteError("unable to use the DLL file" & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 2
            ConsoleWriteError('unknown "return type" ' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 3
            ConsoleWriteError('"ImageSearch" not found in DLL' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 4
            ConsoleWriteError('bad number of parameters' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 5
            ConsoleWriteError('bad parameter' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
    EndSwitch

    ; If error exit
    If $result[0] = "0" Then Return 0

    ; Otherwise get the x,y location of the match and the size of the image to
    ; compute the centre of search
    $array = StringSplit($result[0], "|")

    $x = Int(Number($array[2]))
    $y = Int(Number($array[3]))
    If $resultPosition = 1 Then
        $x = $x + Int(Number($array[4]) / 2)
        $y = $y + Int(Number($array[5]) / 2)
    EndIf
    Return 1
EndFunc   ;==>_ImageSearchArea

I down loaded the 64 bit version, and I get the "unable to use the DLL file" error.

I thought this might help some to debug.

I don't have it working, but I'll try the 32 bit version even though I'm running 64 bit windows 7.

[tbodine88]

I added code to test that DLL loads and runs and complain if not:

expandcollapse popup

Func _ImageSearchArea($findImage, $resultPosition, $x1, $y1, $right, $bottom, ByRef $x, ByRef $y, $tolerance, $HBMP = 0)
    ;MsgBox(0,"asd","" & $x1 & " " & $y1 & " " & $right & " " & $bottom)
    If $tolerance > 0 Then $findImage = "*" & $tolerance & " " & $findImage
    If IsString($findImage) Then
        $result = DllCall("ImageSearchDLL.dll", "str", "ImageSearch", "int", $x1, "int", $y1, "int", $right, "int", $bottom, "str", $findImage, "ptr", $HBMP)
        $err = @error
    Else
        $result = DllCall("ImageSearchDLL.dll", "str", "ImageSearch", "int", $x1, "int", $y1, "int", $right, "int", $bottom, "ptr", $findImage, "ptr", $HBMP)
        $err = @error
    EndIf
    Switch $err
        Case 1
            ConsoleWriteError("unable to use the DLL file" & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 2
            ConsoleWriteError('unknown "return type" ' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 3
            ConsoleWriteError('"ImageSearch" not found in DLL' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 4
            ConsoleWriteError('bad number of parameters' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
        Case 5
            ConsoleWriteError('bad parameter' & @CRLF)
            exit 1
    EndSwitch

    ; If error exit
    If $result[0] = "0" Then Return 0

    ; Otherwise get the x,y location of the match and the size of the image to
    ; compute the centre of search
    $array = StringSplit($result[0], "|")

    $x = Int(Number($array[2]))
    $y = Int(Number($array[3]))
    If $resultPosition = 1 Then
        $x = $x + Int(Number($array[4]) / 2)
        $y = $y + Int(Number($array[5]) / 2)
    EndIf
    Return 1
EndFunc   ;==>_ImageSearchArea

Using this I found that on my computer at work the 64 bit version of the DLL gives the error unable to use the DLL file

The 32 bit version when used causes AutoIT to stop working.

Bummer I sure did like this thing back in the old XP days.

Regards tbodine88

[BrewManNH]

Run the script as a 32 bit exe

[asfaloth]

Hello, i tried this plugin and it work very well, but i cant understand one thing: if the image is in a folder located in the script folder, what is the code to make it look inside another folder instead of his own one? My english is bad, if you dont understand, i can try to reformulate the sentence xD

[Ashen]

Just a  small concern of mine about this whole deal:

If, in order to use these functions, I am forced to use a DLL that I do not understand - what happens if in the future the DLL would need to be changed in order to work but no one knows how to change it? do all my scripts stop working forever?

[sersam]

I'm using the 32 bit version. But it's not working. Reason: AutoIT to stop working.

[BrewManNH]

The right side and bottom corner of the rectangle you want to search in.