Using WinForms with XNA? - c#

Can you use WinForms with XNA? I would like to use the drag and drop of the WinForms, and use XNA for animations and stuff.
I am wasting a lot of time coding the buttons (in XNA), so with this I thought it would speed my time up.

It is possible to create hybrid between Xna and Winform. Check out this project http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/winforms_series_1

Why not use WPF?! It has the same 'function' as WinForms and has the ability to implement animations in a simple way (much more simple than in WinForms anyway).

Related

XNA animation inside WPF

My question is it possible to do play XNA animation inside WPF ? and how can I achieve this ?
I did little searching and found that it's possible with Winform but I need to do it in WPF as my whole project is in wpf and only this issue is what's left.
Update:
Here's the source I'm using.
https://xnamodelviewer.codeplex.com/
Update 2:
I tried using a naive way which is putting the initialization of animationplayer & animationclips in the draw function and updating it in the update function which requires gameTime (not available) so I used instead a stopwatch to achieve the same thing but the model didn't do any animation.
So after sometime tinkering with WPF and XNA and switched to another method illustrated here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nicgrave/archive/2010/07/25/rendering-with-xna-framework-4-0-inside-of-a-wpf-application.aspx and still the animation didn't play (it removes hosting winform inside WPF) , So I've decided to switch to winform (no more wpf).

Music spectrum visualization with better effects/graphics

I'm creating a music player in C# / WPF.
With the BASS audio engine, I can create simple spectrums like this:
But I'm looking to create nicer looking ones like those seen in YouTube videos created in After Effects.
Are there any DirectX, OpenGL or other engines that can produce similar effects that I can use in my application?
Well, first, your question isn't the best (fit wise) to SO, since it's not about a problem you have with code.
Having said that, WPF supports OpenGL, as you can see
Using OpenGL in a WPF Application
Creating OpenGL Windows in WPF
And also DirectX (although 9 it seems)
Walkthrough: Hosting Direct3D9 Content in WPF
So, yes, you can choose your engine :)

an XNA way to make a menustrip

I will preface this by I am new to XNA and I realize what I am asking for doesn't exist.
However I am curious if I wanted to create something similar to a menustrip from winforms in XNA, how would I do that? Is there a best way? Or even a way?
I appreciate it, thanks!
Well, if you're only targeting windows, you can always render XNA in a winforms project or wpf app. Once you do that, you can use the built-in controls to render the menu.
If however you're looking for something that will work on xbox or windows phone, you will have to do the work of rendering and positioning the menu yourself using whatever rendering techniques you are familiar with (ie. SpriteBatch, etc.)
I found a possible solution, that will need further investigation:
http://neoforce.codeplex.com/
This should give me UI control w/o having to recode everything, unless I can just add an XNA pane to my winforms app
Edit:
neoforce appears to not work well with c# 2010. I did however find this: http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/winforms_series_1 which does work, to do as Joel Martinez mentioned of drawing an XNA form inside of a winform. It is not trivial but this example code should be enough for a jump start.

XNA and WinForms

I was wondering If there was a way to have an xna game within a windows forms or in vice versa. I have found several examples online, but I couldn't understand what they were doing. I was also wondering if there was a way to make a sprite act like a button on a winforms...is it possible to click on a sprite?
Yes, on all.
Sprite act like a button on winforms:
use the onclick event
Xna Game within Windows Forms:
You would need to add a reference to the Xna.framework.something ... sorry kinda out of touch which class implements it but a lot of examples on the xna forums by the community
It should generate a toolbox control to be able to drag and drop.
Example: Nick Gravelyn's Tile Editor... it's youtube based which take you through it step by step.
Winforms into Xna Game:
I would say not to rely on adding a winform objects to xna games as it would not always work. e.g: running on xbox360 :D
Though, it would be same thing as above for the answer.
Examples: Winforms components into xna

C# + Custom graphics on controls?

I was just wondering if there are ways of creating my own custom winforms controls?
I've been plundering with Visual Studio 2008 now trying to do some c# apps. And the GUI end up looking terrible because of the standard winforms limitations.
And I noticed that I can add images to buttons for example, but ther's no hover effect. Or, the hover effect makes the whole button area gray. I don't want any of that, I just want to either create my own graphics for the controls or find some free (opensource perhaps) controls that already exist.
Any light on any of this, anyone? :)
You can write complete Winforms controls from scratch, doing all the painting and input processing yourself - you just create a class derived from 'Control' and get on with it.
There's a fair bit to making a first-class control which integrates nicely with the VS designer, so people tend to derive their custom control from an existing control which has most of the behaviour they want.
Here would be a good place to start: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6hws6h2t.aspx
I'm puzzled, you are doing WinForms development, yet in comments say you have done many months of WPF development, but WPF is not good enough because it is not cross platform.
How is WinForm more cross platform, and have you seen how ugly WinForms looks under mono on a Mac as it's draw via X11.
If you want style and cross platform, go for Flex or Silverlight, as your already know WPF I'd go the Silverlight route.
It's cross platform, and has all the beauty of WPF, but at the cost of reduced functionality out of the box.
First - may be more pragmatic to look at WPF, or hosting some WPF elements inside winforms (which is supported - like so). Other than that - you can do all your own painting if you want; but it is a lot of work.
Any reason why you don't use WPF? You have much more more UI control if you went down the route.
If you must go with WinForms then there are many commercial solutions like DevExpress. If you really want you own look and feel it'll be alot of work.
Yes. You can create your own controls. It is called a User Control. Just select Add->and User Control.
WPF is a good alternative if you want your windows form to look fancy.

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