Robot roadie needed to pack the truck As the band's roadie, you have to pack the truck. Your program will place the packages so that they fit in the smallest height.

A badly packed truck



Rules

Packages may be rotated through multiples of 90 degrees. Packages may touch but must not overlap.

The output is the repacked image (to file or stdout). Your program may use any input or output raster image format.

Your program must accept any number of packages of various shapes in images up to 4000x4000 pixels. It must not be hardcoded for this test image. If I suspect any submission to be tailored towards this specific image, I reserve the right to replace it by a new test image.

Score

Your score is the smallest height of a rectangle that will contain your arrangement (the width is the input rectangle width). In the case of a tie, the earliest entry wins.

Standard loopholes are prohibited as usual.
Language : Java
Score : 555 533
I just went for trying to brute force a solution by iterating over the shapes in order of decreasing area (perimeter in case of tie) and trying out all packing possibilities until a valid packing is found for that shape at which point the shape's position is fixed and the algorithm goes on to the next shape. In order to hopefully improve the quality of the result when searching for a valid packing first all possible positions are tried with the shape rotated such that it is taller than it is wider.
Note: this assumes that the input image(s) have all of the shapes separated by white space. It takes the maximum width of the output as the first argument and a list of shape images as the other arguments (each shape image can have one or more shape separated by at least one line of white pixels)
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.geom.AffineTransform;
import java.awt.geom.Point2D;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Queue;
import java.util.Set;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;

public class Packer {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        long t1 = System.currentTimeMillis();

        int width = Integer.valueOf(args[0]);
        List&lt;Item&gt; itemList = new ArrayList&lt;Item&gt;();
        for (int i = 1; i &lt; args.length; i++) {
            itemList.addAll(getItems(ImageIO.read(new File(args[i]))));
        }

        File outputFile = new File(&quot;output.png&quot;);
        if (outputFile.exists()) {
            outputFile.delete();
        }
        outputFile.createNewFile();

        ImageIO.write(pack(itemList, width), &quot;PNG&quot;, outputFile);
        long t2 = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println(&quot;Finished in &quot; + (t2 - t1) + &quot;ms&quot;);
    }

    private static BufferedImage pack(List&lt;Item&gt; itemList, int width) {
        System.out.println(&quot;Packing &quot; + itemList.size() + &quot; items&quot;);
        Collections.sort(itemList, new Comparator&lt;Item&gt;() {

            @Override
            public int compare(Item o1, Item o2) {
                return o1.area &lt; o2.area ? 1 : (o1.area &gt; o2.area ? -1
                        : (o1.perimiter &lt; o2.perimiter ? 1
                                : (o1.perimiter &gt; o2.perimiter ? -1 : 0)));
            }
        });
        Packing packing = new Packing(width);
        PackedItem.Rotation[] widthRots = { PackedItem.Rotation.ZERO,
                PackedItem.Rotation.ONE_EIGHTY };
        PackedItem.Rotation[] heightRots = { PackedItem.Rotation.NINETY,
                PackedItem.Rotation.TWO_SEVENTY };
        int count = 0;
        for (Item item : itemList) {
            count++;
            int minSize = Math.min(item.width, item.height);
            int maxSize = Math.max(item.width, item.height);
            int x = 0;
            int y = 0;
            int rot = 0;
            PackedItem.Rotation[] rots = widthRots;
            if (item.width &gt; item.height) {
                rots = heightRots;
            }
            boolean rotsSwitched = false;

            PackedItem packedItem = new PackedItem(item, rots[rot], x, y);
            System.out.format(&quot;Packing item %d which is %d by %d\n&quot;, count,
                    item.width, item.height);
            while (!packing.isValidWith(packedItem)) {
                if (rot == 0) {
                    rot = 1;
                } else {
                    rot = 0;
                    if (x + minSize &gt;= width) {
                        x = 0;
                        y++;
                        if (!rotsSwitched
                                &amp;&amp; y + maxSize &gt; packing.height) {
                            rotsSwitched = true;
                            if (item.width &gt; item.height) {
                                rots = widthRots;
                            } else {
                                rots = heightRots;
                            }
                            y = 0;
                        }
                    } else {
                        x++;
                    }
                }
                packedItem.set(x, y, rots[rot]);
            }
            packing.addItem(packedItem);
            System.out.format(&quot;Packed item %d\n&quot;, count);
        }
        return packing.getDrawing();
    }

    private static List&lt;Item&gt; getItems(BufferedImage image) {
        List&lt;Item&gt; itemList = new ArrayList&lt;Item&gt;();
        boolean[][] pointsProcessed = new boolean[image.getWidth()][image
                .getHeight()];

        for (int i = 0; i &lt; image.getWidth(); i++) {
            for (int j = 0; j &lt; image.getHeight(); j++) {
                if (pointsProcessed[i][j]) {
                    continue;
                }
                ImagePoint point = ImagePoint.getPoint(i, j, image);
                if (point.getColor().equals(Color.WHITE)) {
                    pointsProcessed[point.x][point.y] = true;
                    continue;
                }
                Collection&lt;ImagePoint&gt; itemPoints = new ArrayList&lt;ImagePoint&gt;();
                Queue&lt;ImagePoint&gt; pointsToProcess = new LinkedList&lt;ImagePoint&gt;();
                pointsToProcess.add(point);
                while (!pointsToProcess.isEmpty()) {
                    point = pointsToProcess.poll();
                    if (pointsProcessed[point.x][point.y]) {
                        continue;
                    }
                    pointsProcessed[point.x][point.y] = true;
                    if (point.getColor().equals(Color.WHITE)) {
                        continue;
                    }
                    itemPoints.add(point);
                    pointsToProcess.addAll(point.getNeighbors());
                }
                itemList.add(new Item(itemPoints));
            }
        }

        return itemList;
    }

    private interface Point {
        int getX();

        int getY();

        Color getColor();
    }

    private static final class ImagePoint implements Point {
        private static final Map&lt;BufferedImage, Map&lt;Integer, Map&lt;Integer, ImagePoint&gt;&gt;&gt; POINT_CACHE = new HashMap&lt;BufferedImage, Map&lt;Integer, Map&lt;Integer, ImagePoint&gt;&gt;&gt;();
        private final int x;
        private final int y;
        private final Color color;
        private final BufferedImage image;
        private Collection&lt;ImagePoint&gt; neighbors;

        private ImagePoint(int x, int y, BufferedImage image) {
            this.x = x;
            this.y = y;
            this.image = image;
            this.color = new Color(image.getRGB(x, y));
        }

        static ImagePoint getPoint(int x, int y, BufferedImage image) {
            Map&lt;Integer, Map&lt;Integer, ImagePoint&gt;&gt; imageCache = POINT_CACHE
                    .get(image);
            if (imageCache == null) {
                imageCache = new HashMap&lt;Integer, Map&lt;Integer, ImagePoint&gt;&gt;();
                POINT_CACHE.put(image, imageCache);
            }
            Map&lt;Integer, ImagePoint&gt; xCache = imageCache.get(x);
            if (xCache == null) {
                xCache = new HashMap&lt;Integer, Packer.ImagePoint&gt;();
                imageCache.put(x, xCache);
            }
            ImagePoint point = xCache.get(y);
            if (point == null) {
                point = new ImagePoint(x, y, image);
                xCache.put(y, point);
            }
            return point;
        }

        Collection&lt;ImagePoint&gt; getNeighbors() {
            if (neighbors == null) {
                neighbors = new ArrayList&lt;ImagePoint&gt;();
                for (int i = -1; i &lt;= 1; i++) {
                    if (x + i &lt; 0 || x + i &gt;= image.getWidth()) {
                        continue;
                    }
                    for (int j = -1; j &lt;= 1; j++) {
                        if ((i == j &amp;&amp; i == 0) || y + j &lt; 0
                                || y + j &gt;= image.getHeight()) {
                            continue;
                        }
                        neighbors.add(getPoint(x + i, y + j, image));
                    }
                }
            }
            return neighbors;
        }

        @Override
        public int getX() {
            return y;
        }

        @Override
        public int getY() {
            return x;
        }

        @Override
        public Color getColor() {
            return color;
        }
    }

    private static final class Item {
        private final Collection&lt;ItemPoint&gt; points;
        private final int width;
        private final int height;
        private final int perimiter;
        private final int area;

        Item(Collection&lt;ImagePoint&gt; points) {
            int maxX = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
            int minX = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
            int maxY = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
            int minY = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
            for (ImagePoint point : points) {
                maxX = Math.max(maxX, point.x);
                minX = Math.min(minX, point.x);
                maxY = Math.max(maxY, point.y);
                minY = Math.min(minY, point.y);
            }
            this.width = maxX - minX;
            this.height = maxY - minY;
            this.perimiter = this.width * 2 + this.height * 2;
            this.area = this.width * this.height;
            this.points = new ArrayList&lt;ItemPoint&gt;(points.size());
            for (ImagePoint point : points) {
                this.points.add(new ItemPoint(point.x - minX, point.y - minY,
                        point.getColor()));
            }
        }

        private static final class ItemPoint implements Point {
            private final int x;
            private final int y;
            private final Color color;

            public ItemPoint(int x, int y, Color color) {
                this.x = x;
                this.y = y;
                this.color = color;
            }

            @Override
            public int getX() {
                return x;
            }

            @Override
            public int getY() {
                return y;
            }

            @Override
            public Color getColor() {
                return color;
            }
        }
    }

    private static final class PackedItem {
        private final Collection&lt;PackedPoint&gt; points;
        private Rotation rotation;
        private int x;
        private int y;
        private AffineTransform transform;
        private int modCount;

        PackedItem(Item item, Rotation rotation, int x, int y) {
            this.set(x, y, rotation);
            this.points = new ArrayList&lt;PackedPoint&gt;();
            for (Point point : item.points) {
                this.points.add(new PackedPoint(point));
            }
        }

        void set(int newX, int newY, Rotation newRotation) {
            modCount++;
            x = newX;
            y = newY;
            rotation = newRotation;
            transform = new AffineTransform();
            transform.translate(x, y);
            transform.rotate(this.rotation.getDegrees());
        }

        void draw(Graphics g) {
            Color oldColor = g.getColor();
            for (Point point : points) {
                g.setColor(point.getColor());
                g.drawLine(point.getX(), point.getY(), point.getX(),
                        point.getY());
            }
            g.setColor(oldColor);
        }

        private enum Rotation {
            ZERO(0), NINETY(Math.PI / 2), ONE_EIGHTY(Math.PI), TWO_SEVENTY(
                    3 * Math.PI / 2);

            private final double degrees;

            Rotation(double degrees) {
                this.degrees = degrees;
            }

            double getDegrees() {
                return degrees;
            }
        }

        private final class PackedPoint implements Point {
            private final Point point;
            private final Point2D point2D;
            private int x;
            private int y;
            private int modCount;

            public PackedPoint(Point point) {
                this.point = point;
                this.point2D = new Point2D.Float(point.getX(), point.getY());
            }

            @Override
            public int getX() {
                update();
                return x;
            }

            @Override
            public int getY() {
                update();
                return y;
            }

            private void update() {
                if (this.modCount != PackedItem.this.modCount) {
                    this.modCount = PackedItem.this.modCount;
                    Point2D destPoint = new Point2D.Float();
                    transform.transform(point2D, destPoint);
                    x = (int) destPoint.getX();
                    y = (int) destPoint.getY();
                }
            }

            @Override
            public Color getColor() {
                return point.getColor();
            }
        }
    }

    private static final class Packing {
        private final Set&lt;PackedItem&gt; packedItems = new HashSet&lt;PackedItem&gt;();
        private final int maxWidth;
        private boolean[][] pointsFilled;
        private int height;

        Packing(int maxWidth) {
            this.maxWidth = maxWidth;
            this.pointsFilled = new boolean[maxWidth][0];
        }

        void addItem(PackedItem item) {
            packedItems.add(item);
            for (Point point : item.points) {
                height = Math.max(height, point.getY() + 1);
                if (pointsFilled[point.getX()].length &lt; point.getY() + 1) {
                    pointsFilled[point.getX()] = Arrays.copyOf(
                            pointsFilled[point.getX()], point.getY() + 1);
                }
                pointsFilled[point.getX()][point.getY()] = true;
            }
        }

        BufferedImage getDrawing() {
            BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(maxWidth, height,
                    BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
            Graphics g = image.getGraphics();
            g.setColor(Color.WHITE);
            g.drawRect(0, 0, maxWidth, height);
            for (PackedItem item : packedItems) {
                item.draw(g);
            }
            return image;
        }

        boolean isValidWith(PackedItem item) {
            for (Point point : item.points) {
                int x = point.getX();
                int y = point.getY();
                if (y &lt; 0 || x &lt; 0 || x &gt;= maxWidth) {
                    return false;
                }
                boolean[] column = pointsFilled[x];
                if (y &lt; column.length &amp;&amp; column[y]) {
                    return false;
                }
            }
            return true;
        }
    }
}

The solution this produces (takes about 4 minutes 30 seconds on my machine) is:

Looking at this picture it seems like the result can be improved by iterating over all of the shapes post packing and trying to move them all up a bit. I might try doing that later.