Help with backbuffer

[AlexDX]

Im stuck...
Developping your first game in VB is hell

I use 2 picture boxes, one for the backbuffer where I draw
everything and one for the game screen where I do the final
blit.
The problem is that when I hide the backbuffer (either visible=false or putting it somewhere very far...), it hides the screen too! This doesn't happen if I set autoredraw to true, but Im doing a backbuffer to avoid this since its slow as hell. What can I do to hide the backbuffer and be able to see the screen?

[RJ]

Hi,

so you have a real backbuffer (I mean, not just an offscreen surface, but a complex surface) ?
If so, then the backbuffer is always hidden, and the primary surface is visible.
You display the backbuffer by flipping it (method is "flip"). The pointers of primary surface and backbuffer will be exchanged, thus the backbuffer will become the primary surface (primary will become offscreen) and be displayed on the screen.

RJ

[AlexDX]

This sounds interesting but Im not understanding
anything How can I implement this RJ???

[RJ]

Can't exactly tell you coz I've never used VB.
The APIs are the same, though, only the syntax is different.

What do you mean with "implement" ?
Do you mean how to create the complex surface ?
Well, some tutorials from where I've learned DirectDraw programming showed the examples in VB.
This one explained it for DirectX 7:

Dim ddScreen As DirectDrawSurface7
Dim ddsdScreen As DDSURFACEDESC2

ddsdScreen.lFlags = DDSD_CAPS Or _
DDSD_BACKBUFFERCOUNT

ddsdScreen.ddsCaps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE Or _
DDSCAPS_COMPLEX Or _
DDSCAPS_FLIP

ddsdScreen.lBackbufferCount = 1

Set ddScreen = DirectDraw.CreateSurface(ddsdScreen)

And then the backbuffer:

Dim ddBackbuffer As DirectDrawSurface7
Dim ddsdBackbuffer As DDSURFACEDESC2
Dim caps As DDSCAPS2

caps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_BACKBUFFER
Set ddBackbuffer = ddScreen.GetAttachedSurface(caps)
ddBackbuffer.GetSurfaceDesc ddsdBackbuffer

Should be similar to how you did it, right ? I guess the only differences are the DDSCAPS_COMPLEX, DDSCAPS_FLIP flags to create the complex surface.

BTW, you're using DirectX, right ? I forgot to ask this, coz Backbuffer suddenly reminded me of my past days as a programmer and the last I did was programming for DirectX (in DirectDraw there is a primary surface and a backbuffer). If you're not programming a DirectX game then sorry I got you wrong

RJ

[AlexDX]

hehe NP, thanks for the advice RJ, but its too advanced for me,
I haven't looked at DirectX yet, I only know some basic APIs for using in VB!