I am making a simple game that (for the main part) consists of a Panel with a grid of 32 PictureBoxes inside, each with a BackgroundImage. You click on a "tile" and it flips revealing a picture. My problem is that when the Form Loads, I can see it drawing. I see the Panel .. then empty PictureBoxes, then finally it fills in the PictureBoxes with the BackgroundImages.
I've turned DoubleBuffer to True for the Form, and I've also added the following:
Private Sub UseDoubleBuffer()
Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint Or ControlStyles.UserPaint Or ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer, True)
Me.UpdateStyles()
End Sub
Which I call when the Form Loads. I'm not sure what else I can do? I want it to just 'pop' onto the screen. Why isn't the DoubleBuffer working? Do I need to code the panel manually? I was trying to avoid that as it's obviously easier to just drag and drop into the Form, but if I need to, I will.
I can't post screenshots apparently, as my rep isn't high enough yet, but believe me, it looks hideous, and I do want to make this as sleek as I possible can. Any ideas?
Try creating flicker free custom panel controls:
Here are the steps to use this control:
1. Add new class "NonFlickerPanel" to your C# application.
2. Replace autogenerated class code with C# code shown below.
3. Use NonFlickerPanel object instead of Panel object in your application.
public partial class NonFlickerPanel : Panel
{
public NonFlickerPanel() : base()
{
this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint,
ControlStyles.UserPaint
ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer,
true);
}
}
Try making the picture boxes invisible (.visible = false) until they're all loaded, then set visible to true for all of them.
Related
I have made a toolbar that has a Search Textbox, using the visual studio built in search for the toolwindowpane: https://learn.microsoft.com/pt-pt/previous-versions/visualstudio/visual-studio-2015/extensibility/adding-search-to-a-tool-window?view=vs-2015&redirectedfrom=MSDN
That is working just fine right now after overriding the methods, however i also added a toolbar to the toolwindow from the vsct file, however it is positioning the search and the toolbar in the same row:
Is there any way to position the search bar underneath the toolbar just like the solution explorer in visual studio? If not, is there a way to decrease the toolbar size so it uses the minimum space so it doesn't look weird like in the picture?
Thank you.
EDIT: Constructor of the class that inherits ToolWindowPane:
public CpcObjectsWindow() : base(null)
{
this.Caption = "CPC Objects";
// This is the user control hosted by the tool window; Note that, even if this class implements IDisposable,
// we are not calling Dispose on this object. This is because ToolWindowPane calls Dispose on
// the object returned by the Content property.
this.Content = new CpcObjectsWindowControl();
this.ToolBar = new CommandID(new Guid(CpcExtensionPackage.guidCpcExtensionPackageCmdSet), CpcExtensionPackage.cpcObjectsToolbar);
this.ToolBarLocation = (int)VSTWT_LOCATION.VSTWT_TOP;
}
I tried to add search to a tool window , a search control appears at the top of the tool window.
I tried to search form the ToolWindowPane Class but there is not any property can set the size of search bar. I think that you can submit a feature request on DC.
I am designing a multipage windows form using panels.
I'm displaying a login form and validating the button click, and want to hide the login panel and show the main panel.
However, when I click the button, the login panel disappears alright, but the main panel does not appear. since there is nothing to display, the form window shrinks to just the minimize/maximize/close buttons.
Here's the code for the button:
private void btn_login_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (pwdBox.Text == optopwd)
{
MessageBox.Show("Good Morning!!");
loginpanel.Visible = false;
mainpanel.Visible = true;
}
else MessageBox.Show("Incorrect password!");
pwdBox.Text = "";
}
Please let me know what I have missed/misunderstood. Thanks!
Edit:
Screenshots:
Login Screen:
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/9310/loginscreenj.jpg
Empty window:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1376/emptyx.jpg
The standard mistake is that you accidentally put the mainpanel inside the loginpanel. So when you make loginpanel invisible, the mainpanel can never become visible. This accident is common in the designer, it won't let you put two panels on top of each other. You fix it with View + (Other Windows) + Document Outline. Drag mainpanel and drop it on the form. You'll have to fix the Location property by editing it in the Properties window instead of moving the panel with the mouse.
An entirely different approach is to use a TabControl. Easy in the designer, you just need to hide the tabs at runtime. Code is here.
Or use two UserControls.
Looks like your for is automatically resizing. There are 2 properties on the form responsible for auto size:
AutoSize = True;
AutoSizeMode = GrowAndShrink;
If you have the above settings then your form would shrink just to control panel (buttons) if there's nothing else to display.
Let me know if that helps.
UPDATED
also... does your control "pwdBox" belong to main panel?
Two suggestions:
Try setting the height attribute to 100%
mainpanel.Height = 100%
If that doesn't work, ensure that the page isn't initializing with mainpanel.visible set to false on a postback.
I'm new here!
I searched internet a lot for my question, but I didn't found anything - or I'm really thinking wrong.
I program on VB.NET since 2 years, and on XNA since 6 months. I built a game and an editor for the game, and they are running great.
The question i about my editor (for an RPG game), and I'll try to explain at my best.
I have a main form with menustrips on top and a big picturebox covering the entire form, a picbox that is binded to the Game1 object when it start with the command Run().
The Game1 object handles two classes, that are basically panels that it draws on the picbox of the main form: a tileset panel in the left down the tabpage, and a map panel on the right. This works perfectly.
The problem is when for the first time yesterday I tried to draw with XNA on a form. I have multiple forms to manage NPCs, equipment, conditions, events, variables, etc and in the event form, I have a tabpage that manages map teleport events. On this tabpage I have a list of maps and a picbox where I want to draw a small view of the selected map. For this, I created of course a minimap panel with it's own draw and update methods.
...but of course, the minimap appears on the main form on the normal map.
I tried to change in real time the DeviceWindowHandle, but I failed... apparently, it changes only during the Run()
I tried to create a new game object and binding him to the event teleport form, but in the moment of lunching the Run() of this object, the debugger stops saying that I cannot launch more that one game loop in a thread.
I can't believe that XNA doesn't let to draw multiple things on different forms... and I can not pause the main loop from the event form (which is called from the NPC form) to start the minimap loop!
I think that is something really easy that unfortunately I don't know...
I'm getting crazy and lost... what I can do?
Please help me, thanks!!
Here's an example of what I commented (Sorry it's in C# but I don't really write VB.Net. Translating it should be pretty straight forward though):
private MainGame mainGame;
private ToolboxGame toolbox1;
private ToolboxGame toolbox2;
// And this should be put in some Form Initialization method:
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => {
this.mainGame = new MainGame(imgEditorPictureBox.Handle)
this.mainGame.Run();
}
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => {
this.toolbox1 = new ToolboxGame(toolbox1PictureBox.Handle)
this.toolbox1.Run();
}
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => {
this.toolbox2 = new ToolboxGame(toolbox2PictureBox.Handle)
this.toolbox2.Run();
}
Something like that should do it. Obviously whenever you "move" variables from one "game" to another, keep in mind that they run on different threads, so anywhere you use it, you'll need to
lock (dummyObject)
{
// Use data
}
to make sure you're not accessing it in one game, while the other is trying to set it.
Locking in VB.Net: Is there a lock statement in VB.NET?
You'll obviously need to come up with some smart infrastructure to get this working smoothly, but since you've made a game and editor before, I'm sure this should not prove a humongous challenge.
All you want show to the player you need draw in the game window. You have one Game with one GraphicsDevice and by default all you draw will be rendered on the game window. But you can call GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget method to change render target. Call it with RenderTarget2D object as parameter and anithing you will draw after this will be rendered to that render target.
Next you need call GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(null) to set game window as render target again.
There is my (uncompleted yet) custom GUI realization for XNA. I hope it can help you.
Update
class Game1 : Game
{
GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice;
SpriteBatch spriteBatch;
public RenderTarget2D MinimapRenderBuffer;
public RenderTarget2D AnotherRenderBuffer1;
public RenderTarget2D AnotherRenderBuffer2;
public EventHandler RenderBuffersUpdated;
void Initialize()
{
// Better initialize them only once, don't do it in Draw method
this.MinimapRenderBuffer = new RenderTarget2D(this.graphicsDevice, 100, 100); // any size you want
this.AnotherRenderBuffer1 = new RenderTarget2D(this.graphicsDevice, 50, 50);
this.AnotherRenderBuffer2 = new RenderTarget2D(this.graphicsDevice, 500, 500);
}
void Draw()
{
this.graphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(this.MinimapRenderBuffer);
// draw minimap to MinimapRenderBuffer
this.graphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(this.AnotherRenderBuffer1);
// draw whatewer to AnotherRenderBuffer1
this.graphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(this.AnotherRenderBuffer2);
// draw whatewer to AnotherRenderBuffer2
this.graphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(null);
// now draw to screen
if (this.RenderBuffersUpdated != null)
{
RenderBuffersUpdated(null, null);
}
}
}
And use rendertargets in your editor when event raised. And you can convert them to bitmaps.
I am designing a settings form for my application as shown below:
A tree view with multiple nodes at the left and I want to have one GroupBox for each node to be displayed at the right whenever a node is selected. I have designed my group box with necessary controls for the first node. The question is, how do I design an another group box in the same place when another item is already there. Is there a way to hide a control from a form during design time?
I have always just changed the Z-Order of the GroupBox or Panel by right clicking on it and sending it to back. Just make sure when you add the other GroupBoxes that you add them to the same Parent. Make their Visible property False and then display the GroupBox you want at runtime by making it Visible.
EDIT: Changed answer to be more relevant.
EDIT #2: I missed the VB tag, translating this should be a trivial task anyway.
If you extend GroupBox like this, you'll have a stock GroupBox which will hide itself at design time.
public class myGroupBox : GroupBox
{
public myGroupBox() { InitializeComponent(); }
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
if (DesignMode) this.Visible = false;
}
}
NOTE: This should work for almost any non-sealed control.
Like the title says, I've got a Child form being shown with it's TopLevel property set to False and I am unable to click a MaskedTextBox control that it contains (in order to bring focus to it). I can bring focus to it by using TAB on the keyboard though.
The child form contains other regular TextBox controls and these I can click to focus with no problems, although they also exhibit some odd behavior: for example if I've got a value in the Textbox and I try to drag-click from the end of the string to the beginning, nothing happens. In fact I can't use my mouse to move the cursor inside the TextBox's text at all (although they keyboard arrow keys work).
I'm not too worried about the odd TextBox behavior, but why can't I activate my MaskedTextBox by clicking on it?
Below is the code that shows the form:
Dim newReportForm As New Form
Dim formName As String
Dim FullTypeName As String
Dim FormInstanceType As Type
formName = TreeView1.SelectedNode.Name
FullTypeName = Application.ProductName & "." & formName
FormInstanceType = Type.GetType(FullTypeName, True, True)
newReportForm = CType(Activator.CreateInstance(FormInstanceType), Form)
Try
newReportForm.Top = CType(SplitContainer1.Panel2.Controls(0), Form).Top + 25
newReportForm.Left = CType(SplitContainer1.Panel2.Controls(0), Form).Left + 25
Catch
End Try
newReportForm.TopLevel = False
newReportForm.Parent = SplitContainer1.Panel2
newReportForm.BringToFront()
newReportForm.Show()
I tried your code and got a good repro this time. As I mentioned in my original post, this is indeed a window activation problem. You can see this in Spy++, note the WM_MOUSEACTIVATE messages.
This happens because you display the form with a caption bar. That convinces the Windows window manager that the window can be activated. That doesn't actually work, it is no longer a top-level window. Visible from the caption bar, it never gets drawn with the "window activated" colors.
You will have to remove the caption bar from the form. That's best done by adding this line to your code:
newReportForm.FormBorderStyle = Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None
Which will turn the form into a control that's otherwise indistinguishable from a UserControl. You can still make it distinctive by using this code instead:
newReportForm.ControlBox = False
newReportForm.Text = ""
Either fix solves the mouse click problem.
This is a miserable bug and it took me a long time to find this question. We're doing exactly the same thing as the OP, displaying a Form inside a split container. My workaround was to add an event handler to the MaskedTextBox's Click event:
private void MaskedTextBoxSetFocus(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var mtb = (MaskedTextBox)sender;
mtb.Focus();
}
This works for the MaskedTextBox but I'm concerned about other odd behavior due to this bug so I will probably set the border style as in the accepted answer.
The text box behavior is a symptom of the same problem. Something is swallowing mouse down notifications. It isn't explained by your code snippet. Forms indeed swallow the mouse click that activates them, but that is a one-time behavior and is turned off by setting its TopLevel property to False.
Not much left. One candidate is the Control.Capture property, turned on at the MouseDown event for a button so that the button can see the MouseUp event, no matter where the mouse moved. That's a one-time effect as well. Watch out for controls that set the Focus in a MouseDown event.
The other is some kind of IMessageFilter code in your form(s) that's eating WM_LBUTTONDOWN messages.