I am writing a simple game for my course work. The application contains many pictureboxes with no images inside them. I also have a directory with needed pictures in the Visual Studio project debug folder. I need to put the pictures' paths into an array in my program to then randomly insert them into pictureboxes.
The problem is I don't know how it would work on another computer, so I can't organize all the things. The game must be launched without using Visual Studio there, only exe file. Should I first make the installation setup of my unfinished program, or something like this, and then place the application with resources somewhere on disk to know where all my pictures would be on any computer? And then maybe I could determine the exact path where I would take all the pictures and put them into the array. Or vice versa... I'm totally confused with this.
Here what I use to fill the array:
string[] spritePaths = Directory.GetFiles(/*paths*/);
Is it possible for you to distribute the pictures in a folder with the .exe file? If so, you could use a relative path to get all of the pictures.
string[] spritePaths = Directory.GetFiles("pictureFolder");
As DangerZone suggests, you could also add your images as embedded resources.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/319292/how-to-embed-and-access-resources-by-using-visual-c
Here are a few options:
Specify the path to the folder of images as a command line argument. Then you can launch it from CMD, or create a shortcut and specify the arguments there.
Add a TextBox for the user to enter the path to the images.
Add a browse button or menu button and allow the user to search for the folder using a dialog.
Use a predefined location, such as an images folder next to the exe.
Related
For a project I have folders of images. An example folder might be ImagesOfDogs, and the images inside would be sequentially named (1.png, 2.png, etc.). I have a button, and when I press this button I want to open all of the images in a folder at once, in one window. I could make my own window, but I would rather use the default Windows program so the user can edit the photos. This would look like the following (just imagine that black thing is a really cute dog pic):
Let's say the path to a folder is a string titled sPathToFolderOfDogs. On my button click, I want a method like this:
private void OpenCoolPicsOfDogs()
{
Process.Start(sPathToFolderOfDogs);
}
Except that will open all enclosed files in an image viewing application, preferably whichever is the user default. I have tried:
Process.Start("PictureViewer", sPathToFolderOfDogs);
...which opens PictureViewer and does not open my photos in PictureViewer,
Process.Start(sPathToParticularImage1);
Process.Start(sPathToParticularImage2);
etc etc
...which opens each in a new window,
and possibly most creatively/desperately:
String[] arrayOfAllMyPathsToParticularImagesInTheFolder;
(put all the strings in the array)
Process.Start(arrayOfAllMyPathsToParticularImagesInTheFolder);
Which just crashed. I know opening folders in applications through Process.Start should be possible because it is done in the docs here.* Is there a way to do it with images?
*relevant code from link:
// Start Internet Explorer. Defaults to the home page.
Process.Start("IExplore.exe");
// Display the contents of the favorites folder in the browser.
Process.Start(myFavoritesPath);
Thanks!
It turns out my question was a duplicate. However, I am not deleting it, as the powers that be suggest it is best to keep duplicates up as a "signpost" informing future searchers where the true path lies.
Here is the answer to my question (or more specifically, about half a dozen equally functional answers to my question).
TL;DR: The solution I am now using is from #bruceatk in the above link.
How to use image without making .exe file heavier in c# windows application.
One way is keeping the file in debug folder and reading it at runtime but i dont want the user to see any images in the debug folder.
How can i achieve this?
You could store images in a separate Class Library and then reference it in your application.
Users wouldn't be able to see the image files this way, instead they would be stored as a dll file in your debug folder.
Edit:
I have recorded the actions required to achieve this setup, check out this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i794GmZ_aI
I have made a game and wish to distribute it online. I have spent years playing around with many Installers (InstallWise, InstallShield, etc, etc, etc).
They are very complex, require time and in most cases, a decent amount of money. So I want to write my own Installer, that will install my game for the user.
My game is comprised of:
DLL files (these will go inside the Game's folder, inside Program Files.
The application file itself (a single .exe file).
I will also need to create a shortcut on the Desktop (if the user allows) which will launch the .exe in Program Files folder. I can already do this.
I know how to copy and write files to folders. What I am asking is, how do I "pack" the files into my installer file, so that I can give a user a single file to download, which will then "unpack" the game's files into the appropriate location?
I have asked this question 2 years ago on SO and was met with hostility; the person claimed that this is not possible - but incase they haven't noticed, 90% of installers are just a single file, which unpacks its contents into a directory/several directories. So I know it is possible.
The only way I can think of that I can get this to work is by going over each file that needs to be packed, and reading the bytes into the app and storing it into an embedded file. And when the app is run, it will look for embedded files/bytes and write those bytes to new files in the specified locations. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
You will need to either save the bytes in your installer, which means that you will need a builder for the actual installer which will use CodeDom.
Or you can download the files from a server, which seems faster in this case.
You choose.
To do so i would use a Self-Extract Zip. this is an exe that will unpack itself with all necessary files then you set the after extract command to call and exe of yours which copy everything where you want and then create yourself link on desktop and such. not very difficult.
In the Self-Extract file you can also specify that the content is extracted in the temp folder of the computer allowing you to find stuff using environment special directory
i have a picture box in my win forms app. the question is, how can i make the image load from a directory within that application,
for example, i have a program and it lies under Debug directory. Now i have an image located under Debug/source/images/logo.png. I dont want to make use of resources file (embedded within the assembly)
How can i point it towards that path, instead of getting the image/picture from the local resources file.
Try this
String.Format(#"{0}\myDesiredPath\MyFile.MyExtension",System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
There are a number of ways to do this, you can use the ImageLocation property or the Load method to specify the path just take a look at the documentation here
say my application is installed in C:\programfiles\xyz\ I've some setting & other data files (*.dat files) in this directory too.
My application uses OpenFileDialog to open an image. Problem is that when ever user browses to some directory (say MyPictures) for an image. The current working directory of the application becomes that directory (MyPictures in this case).
After user inputs the image. I do some processing over it and save some values to imagedata.dat which will be located in the path where original application is installed.(C:\programfiles\xyz here )
In my code I'm just using FileStream("imagedata.dat",...,...) without any path prefix before the filename. Problem here is that application is crashing because it is searching for imagedata.dat in 'MyPictures\imagedata.dat'.
How can I avoid this?
You should be using absolute path names when saving data to files. The current working directory is controlled by the user, not by you (for example, if they launch your process from a shortcut then the working directory could've been changed before your process even starts up).
Also, you should never save anything under C:\Program Files during normal use. Doing this means your program needs to be running as an administrator, and unless you're doing administrator-y things then you should be able to run it as a regular user.
The correct thing to do in your case is to use the Environment.GetFolderPath() function to get the location of the ApplicationData folder and save your data under there. Just choose a sub-directory based on your application's name.
You could save it to GetCurrentDirectory then restore with SetCurrentDirectory. However, I agree wih codeka that using the appropriate GetFolderPath (probably ApplicationData, CommonApplicationData or LocalApplicationData) is a better solution.