[PixelBit]

Is there a better way to "change screens" than hiding everything? I want like a screen that loads a save file and a create file screen (amongst others) and it will get way too confusing creating lots of elements and hiding them all with xxx.Hide()

[modi123_1]

What do you mean change screens? Show other forms? Hiding tabs? Some sort of user control?

[Ryano121]

It would probably be best if you put your components in their own container/panel etc so that you can just call the hide method once for the container and not for each individual component. (Although this is untested)

[PixelBit]

modi123_1, on 18 October 2011 - 11:24 AM, said:

What do you mean change screens? Show other forms? Hiding tabs? Some sort of user control?

i mean for example have one screen, it has, say first name, second name and title labels, it has create and load buttons and a custom background, then on the load screen that leads from the load button it will have a list of files with radio buttons next to them, a load button and a title label and custom background, on another screen it will have other stuff and so on. And all these things are in different places.

[modi123_1]

Okay that didn't help...


Are you saying you have three separate forms in your solution, or one form with a ton of controls you show and hide to make it look like multiple forms?


Forms:

• "it has, say first name, second name and title labels"
  
• "then on the load screen that leads from the load button"
  
• "will have other stuff"

[PixelBit]

modi123_1, on 18 October 2011 - 11:43 AM, said:

Okay that didn't help...


Are you saying you have three separate forms in your solution, or one form with a ton of controls you show and hide to make it look like multiple forms?


Forms:

• "it has, say first name, second name and title labels"
  
• "then on the load screen that leads from the load button"
  
• "will have other stuff"

Ok hmm let me explai nit this way, imagin a game, it has a title screen, a load game scree, a new game screen, a main game screen, a pause screen. That is the kind of thing im going for. Do you understand?

[modi123_1]

Okay - that's a whole different paradigm than an application. You should have mentioned that up front. It's all in the animation.

Most of those 'screen's are just text directly drawn on to the video buffer. That's how I make my XNA menus... well that and have it make a silly scroll looking background draw first then the string on top of that.

The load screen is mostly just an image with an animated whirly-bird to show it's thinking.

A pause screen is often like the menus - it hijacks the game engine, puts it in idle, and prints some text on the screen.

See you really don't do that in a desktop application... right? There's no animation per-say going on. I mean sure I could *DRAW* button-esque things onto the graphics object, but that would negate all the fun trappings of a button object.. I would have to rebuild it from the ground up. You can check out my OOP tutorial that deals with drawing to hte graphics object.

See your average desktop app doesn't change much.. pretty static. You can get around that with things like dynamic tabs.. hiding and showing custom user controls made up of controls.. or utilizing the 'splash screen' in your project's properties (application tab).

[PixelBit]

modi123_1, on 18 October 2011 - 12:10 PM, said:

Okay - that's a whole different paradigm than an application. You should have mentioned that up front. It's all in the animation.

Most of those 'screen's are just text directly drawn on to the video buffer. That's how I make my XNA menus... well that and have it make a silly scroll looking background draw first then the string on top of that.

The load screen is mostly just an image with an animated whirly-bird to show it's thinking.

A pause screen is often like the menus - it hijacks the game engine, puts it in idle, and prints some text on the screen.

See you really don't do that in a desktop application... right? There's no animation per-say going on. I mean sure I could *DRAW* button-esque things onto the graphics object, but that would negate all the fun trappings of a button object.. I would have to rebuild it from the ground up. You can check out my OOP tutorial that deals with drawing to hte graphics object.

See your average desktop app doesn't change much.. pretty static. You can get around that with things like dynamic tabs.. hiding and showing custom user controls made up of controls.. or utilizing the 'splash screen' in your project's properties (application tab).

Ok, well you see i have no idea how to animate or anyhting, what im making is a game but its a text based, kingdom game where you allocate resorces to make your kingdom grow and stuff. It wil lahve a scroll box updating you like +1 wood, a citizen died, a citizen was born and then places that show your recources and stuff. I'm doing this because i can include everyhting i've learnt in visual basic so far and learn soem other htings, so i thought it would be good.

[modi123_1]

Hmm... okay... in that context:

Quote

it has a title screen,

- Splash screen I mentioned above in the properties.

Quote

a load game scree,

- Menu button

Quote

a new game screen,

- Menu button

Quote

a main game screen,

- The actual form.

Quote

a pause screen.

- Menu button and/or button on the form... disables the screen except for this button and stops the game play.. switches text to 'un pause'. Clicking button a second time re-enables the screen, changes its text back to 'pause'...

[PixelBit]

modi123_1, on 18 October 2011 - 12:38 PM, said:

Hmm... okay... in that context:

Quote

it has a title screen,

- Splash screen I mentioned above in the properties.

Quote

a load game scree,

- Menu button

Quote

a new game screen,

- Menu button

Quote

a main game screen,

- The actual form.

Quote

a pause screen.

- Menu button and/or button on the form... disables the screen except for this button and stops the game play.. switches text to 'un pause'. Clicking button a second time re-enables the screen, changes its text back to 'pause'...

ok thanks ill look into that