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MDX WinForm with .NET Controls

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25 May 2006CPOL 61K   304   12   16
This article shows how to use .NET controls in Windows Forms containing managed DirectX content

Introduction

This article shows how to use .NET Windows Form controls with managed DirectX content. Most books/tutorials use a WinForm strictly with MDX content. But people are more interested in using WinForm controls together with MDX. This question is frequently asked and not well answered. Here, I present a small project using .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005.

Technique

The most important part of this project is the DirectX device creation. Normally it's:

C#
device = new Device(0, DeviceType.Hardware, this, 
         CreateFlags.SoftwareVertexProcessing, presentParams);
'this' is the alias of 'Form' used to represent this winForm.

In order to make .NET controls such as menubar, etc. to co-exist with a DirectX control, I set up a panel to be used by DirectX.

C#
private System.Windows.Forms.Panel panel1;
// Initialize panel1
device = new Device(0, DeviceType.Hardware, panel1, 
         CreateFlags.SoftwareVertexProcessing, presentParams);

To demonstrate that this works, I have provided a simple managed DirectX project with this project that can be downloaded. Here is the complete source code. Copy/paste and compile with .NET 2.0 managed DirectX.

C#
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data;
using Microsoft.DirectX;
using Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D;

namespace Chapter1Code
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Summary description for Form1.
    /// </summary>
    public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form
    {
        private Device device = null;
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null;
        private Panel panel1;
        private MenuStrip menuStrip1;
        private ToolStripMenuItem mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem;
        private ToolStripMenuItem exitToolStripMenuItem;
        private float angle = 0.0f;

        public Form1()
        {
            //
            // Required for Windows Form Designer support
            //
            InitializeComponent();

            this.Size = new Size(800, 600);
            this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint | 
                          ControlStyles.Opaque, true);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// We will initialize our graphics device here
        /// </summary>
        public void InitializeGraphics()
        {
            // Set our presentation parameters
            PresentParameters presentParams = new PresentParameters();

            presentParams.Windowed = true;
            presentParams.SwapEffect = SwapEffect.Discard;

            // Create our device
            device = new Device(0, DeviceType.Hardware, panel1, 
                     CreateFlags.SoftwareVertexProcessing, 
                     presentParams);            
        }

        private void SetupCamera()
        {            
            device.RenderState.CullMode = Cull.None;
            device.Transform.World = Matrix.RotationAxis(new Vector3(angle / 
                                     ((float)Math.PI * 2.0f), 
                                     angle / ((float)Math.PI * 4.0f), 
                                     angle / ((float)Math.PI * 6.0f)), 
                                     angle / (float)Math.PI);
            angle += 0.1f;

            device.Transform.Projection = Matrix.PerspectiveFovLH((float)Math.PI / 4, 
                                          this.Width / this.Height, 1.0f, 100.0f);
            device.Transform.View = Matrix.LookAtLH(new Vector3(0,0, 5.0f), 
                                    new Vector3(), new Vector3(0,1,0));
            device.RenderState.Lighting = true;
        }

        protected override void OnPaint(System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs e)
        {            
            device.Clear(ClearFlags.Target, 
                System.Drawing.Color.CornflowerBlue, 1.0f, 0);

            SetupCamera();

            CustomVertex.PositionNormalColored[] verts = 
                  new CustomVertex.PositionNormalColored[3];
            verts[0].Position = new Vector3(0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
            verts[0].Normal = new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f);
            verts[0].Color = System.Drawing.Color.White.ToArgb();
            verts[1].Position = new Vector3(-1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
            verts[1].Normal = new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f);
            verts[1].Color = System.Drawing.Color.White.ToArgb();
            verts[2].Position = new Vector3(1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
            verts[2].Normal = new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f);
            verts[2].Color = System.Drawing.Color.White.ToArgb();

            device.Lights[0].Type = LightType.Point;
            device.Lights[0].Position = new Vector3();
            device.Lights[0].Diffuse = System.Drawing.Color.White;
            device.Lights[0].Attenuation0 = 0.2f;
            device.Lights[0].Range = 10000.0f;
            
            device.Lights[0].Enabled = true;

            device.BeginScene();
            device.VertexFormat = CustomVertex.PositionNormalColored.Format;
            device.DrawUserPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 1, verts);
            device.EndScene();

            device.Present();

            this.Invalidate();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        protected override void Dispose( bool disposing )
        {
            if( disposing )
            {
                if (components != null) 
                {
                    components.Dispose();
                }
            }
            base.Dispose( disposing );
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code
        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.panel1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Panel();
            this.menuStrip1 = new System.Windows.Forms.MenuStrip();
            this.mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem = 
                 new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem();
            this.exitToolStripMenuItem = 
                 new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem();
            this.menuStrip1.SuspendLayout();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // panel1
            // 
            this.panel1.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill;
            this.panel1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 24);
            this.panel1.Name = "panel1";
            this.panel1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(307, 275);
            this.panel1.TabIndex = 0;
            // 
            // menuStrip1
            // 
            this.menuStrip1.Items.AddRange(new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem[] {
            this.mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem});
            this.menuStrip1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0);
            this.menuStrip1.Name = "menuStrip1";
            this.menuStrip1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(307, 24);
            this.menuStrip1.TabIndex = 1;
            this.menuStrip1.Text = "menuStrip1";
            // 
            // mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem
            // 
            this.mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem.DropDownItems.AddRange(
                               new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem[] {
            this.exitToolStripMenuItem});
            this.mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem.Name = 
                 "mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem";
            this.mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem.Size = 
                 new System.Drawing.Size(117, 20);
            this.mDXFormWithMenuToolStripMenuItem.Text = "MDX form with Menu";
            // 
            // exitToolStripMenuItem
            // 
            this.exitToolStripMenuItem.Name = "exitToolStripMenuItem";
            this.exitToolStripMenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(152, 22);
            this.exitToolStripMenuItem.Text = "Exit";
            this.exitToolStripMenuItem.Click += 
                 new System.EventHandler(this.exitToolStripMenuItem_Click);
            // 
            // Form1
            // 
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(307, 299);
            this.Controls.Add(this.panel1);
            this.Controls.Add(this.menuStrip1);
            this.Name = "Form1";
            this.Text = "Form1";
            this.menuStrip1.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.menuStrip1.PerformLayout();
            this.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.PerformLayout();
        }
        #endregion

        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        static void Main() 
        {
            using (Form1 frm = new Form1())
            {
                // Show our form and initialize our graphics engine
                frm.Show();
                frm.InitializeGraphics();
                Application.Run(frm);
            }
        }

        private void exitToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            this.Dispose();
        }
    }
}

History

  • 25th May, 2006: Initial post

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Web Developer
United States United States
I currently work and live in NJ, US. I am interested in C/C++/CLR/C# technologies. My blog is http://meditation-art.blogspot.com/

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
BattleDroid14-Apr-11 12:50
BattleDroid14-Apr-11 12:50 
QuestionChange Array to List in MDX Pin
led12327-Jan-10 3:42
led12327-Jan-10 3:42 
QuestionForm update issue? Pin
Eskildh3-Nov-08 2:17
Eskildh3-Nov-08 2:17 
GeneralExcellent! Pin
wck5931-Jan-08 10:48
wck5931-Jan-08 10:48 
GeneralJust what I needed! Pin
SrdjanP29-Nov-06 9:48
SrdjanP29-Nov-06 9:48 
QuestionWhat is MDX? Pin
Jun Du26-May-06 4:22
Jun Du26-May-06 4:22 
AnswerRe: What is MDX? Pin
Nish Nishant26-May-06 4:38
sitebuilderNish Nishant26-May-06 4:38 
GeneralRe: What is MDX? Pin
Nish Nishant26-May-06 5:52
sitebuilderNish Nishant26-May-06 5:52 
GeneralRe: What is MDX? Pin
Fei Liu26-May-06 6:31
Fei Liu26-May-06 6:31 
GeneralRe: What is MDX? Pin
Jun Du27-May-06 10:51
Jun Du27-May-06 10:51 
Generalfiles Pin
pablleaf25-May-06 18:44
pablleaf25-May-06 18:44 
GeneralThis article shows how to... Pin
Marc Clifton25-May-06 13:01
mvaMarc Clifton25-May-06 13:01 
GeneralRe: This article shows how to... Pin
Fei Liu26-May-06 6:19
Fei Liu26-May-06 6:19 
GeneralRe: This article shows how to... Pin
Marc Clifton26-May-06 7:54
mvaMarc Clifton26-May-06 7:54 
GeneralRe: This article shows how to... Pin
Fei Liu26-May-06 15:50
Fei Liu26-May-06 15:50 
GeneralRe: This article shows how to... Pin
Danilo Corallo9-Jun-06 23:57
Danilo Corallo9-Jun-06 23:57 

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