Is there a way to use timer ticks for multiple procedures? - vb.net

Question

I am currently coding a small animation. The animation starts off with a small circle moving across the screen, then the user click buttons and other small images move across the screen (I feel like describing the contents of the images, the purpose of the program, etc. would be tangential and irrelevant).
The way I am currently coding the animation is like this:
Private Sub Timer_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer.Tick
Circle1.Left -= 10
If Counter = 16 Then
Timer.Enabled = False
Counter = 0
End If
Counter += 1
End Sub
However, the problem is that I need to use the timer to help animate the movement of multiple images. Other than creating multiple timers, is there a way of using the ticking of the timer in multiple subroutines?

Answer 1

You can use a list to hold all the controls you want to animate. Iterate the list in the timer event and modify the position of the controls. Here's an example how to do it.
Public Class Form1
' this list holds all controls to animate
Private controlsToAnimate As New List(Of Control)
Private random As New Random
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
' this list holds all controls to remove
Dim controlsToRemove As New List(Of Control)
For i = 0 To controlsToAnimate.Count - 1
Dim control = controlsToAnimate(i)
If control.Left < 0 Then
' this control has reached the left edge, so put it in the list to remove
controlsToRemove.Add(control)
Else
' move the control to left
control.Left -= 10
End If
Next
' remove all controls that have reached the left edge
For Each control In controlsToRemove
controlsToAnimate.Remove(control)
control.Dispose()
Next
' for debug only, display the number of controls to animate
Me.Text = controlsToAnimate.Count()
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
' create a new picturebox
Dim newControl As New PictureBox
With newControl
' load an image for the picturebox
.Image = Image.FromFile("D:\Pictures\abc.jpg")
' size of the picturebox
.Size = New Size(100, 100)
' picturebox appears at the right edge of the form,
' the vertical position is randomize
.Location = New Point(Me.Width - newControl.Width, random.Next(Me.Height - newControl.Height))
' stretch the image to fit the picturebox
.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.StretchImage
End With
' add the newly created control to list of controls to animate
controlsToAnimate.Add(newControl)
' add the newly created control to the form
Me.Controls.Add(newControl)
End Sub
End Class