AURGH!! HOW DO THEY DO IT?!?!?!

How do you make a transparent splash screen like you see on some apps. For instance, Trillian has a boot up splash that's an image, it's rounded and shaped anything but square, and has NO window in the BG ... no form color behind it! Like a transparent gif or something! How can this be done in VB? CAN it be done? Can it be done WITHOUT employing DirectX?
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Comments

  • i got this site from someone in an earlier post...
    http://software.xfx.net/activex/formshaper/


    [hr]
    : How do you make a transparent splash screen like you see on some apps. For instance, Trillian has a boot up splash that's an image, it's rounded and shaped anything but square, and has NO window in the BG ... no form color behind it! Like a transparent gif or something! How can this be done in VB? CAN it be done? Can it be done WITHOUT employing DirectX?
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    :

  • : How do you make a transparent splash screen like you see on some apps. For instance, Trillian has a boot up splash that's an image, it's rounded and shaped anything but square, and has NO window in the BG ... no form color behind it! Like a transparent gif or something! How can this be done in VB? CAN it be done? Can it be done WITHOUT employing DirectX?
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    :

    [grey]You can try to take a picture of the background using bitblt, but if you want truly seethrough forms you will need w2k or later and some API's I have yet to explore.

    DjSpirit, not quite visible today?[/grey]

  • I think some time ago someone asked the same question and he got the answer.

    P.S. You could also draw directly to the screen (but don't ask me how)
  • : : How do you make a transparent splash screen like you see on some apps. For instance, Trillian has a boot up splash that's an image, it's rounded and shaped anything but square, and has NO window in the BG ... no form color behind it! Like a transparent gif or something! How can this be done in VB? CAN it be done? Can it be done WITHOUT employing DirectX?
    : : [size=5]T[red]0[/red][green]0[/green]l[blue]K[/blue][purple]1[/purple]T[/size]
    : :
    :
    : [grey]You can try to take a picture of the background using bitblt, but if you want truly seethrough forms you will need w2k or later and some API's I have yet to explore.
    :
    : DjSpirit, not quite visible today?[/grey]
    :
    :

    [grey]Send me a mail containing your e-mail adress an I will ship you a project demonstrating a simple seethroug splashscreen.

    DjSpirit, now you see me, now you don't.[/grey]

  • : : : How do you make a transparent splash screen like you see on some apps. For instance, Trillian has a boot up splash that's an image, it's rounded and shaped anything but square, and has NO window in the BG ... no form color behind it! Like a transparent gif or something! How can this be done in VB? CAN it be done? Can it be done WITHOUT employing DirectX?
    : : : [size=5]T[red]0[/red][green]0[/green]l[blue]K[/blue][purple]1[/purple]T[/size]
    : : :
    : :
    : : [grey]You can try to take a picture of the background using bitblt, but if you want truly seethrough forms you will need w2k or later and some API's I have yet to explore.
    : :
    : : DjSpirit, not quite visible today?[/grey]
    : :
    : :
    :
    : [grey]Send me a mail containing your e-mail adress an I will ship you a project demonstrating a simple seethroug splashscreen.
    :
    : DjSpirit, now you see me, now you don't.[/grey]
    :
    :
    Sorry for the latent reply ... this MB was not working for a bit. here:
    webmaster@xen-tech.com
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  • just create a region with the createregion(...) and combineregion(...) apis. the documentation for this is in the msdn, i think there is also an example. then use setwindowregion(...) on you vb form (use the form.hwnd property) and voil: there it is! ps: you don't have to delete the region afterwards because windows does it automatically for you, in this case only. and you have to set form.borderstyle to nothing and form.picture to your picture. really easy.

    the only complicated process is converting your image to a region, because you have to combine rectangular and circular regions, but a elliptic splash screen requires only about 20 lines of code incl. api decls.
  • : just create a region with the createregion(...) and combineregion(...) apis. the documentation for this is in the msdn, i think there is also an example. then use setwindowregion(...) on you vb form (use the form.hwnd property) and voil: there it is! ps: you don't have to delete the region afterwards because windows does it automatically for you, in this case only. and you have to set form.borderstyle to nothing and form.picture to your picture. really easy.
    :
    : the only complicated process is converting your image to a region, because you have to combine rectangular and circular regions, but a elliptic splash screen requires only about 20 lines of code incl. api decls.
    :
    Unfortunately I have no idea how to USE the API so I'll just have to figure out how to use formshaper (which probably works on your API concept). Does anybody know, however, off topic, how I can simply rename a file via VB? Like ... image1 opens an image file ... then I wanna rename that file in VB code ... how can I go about it? Also, how ca nI go about copying and pasting files in VB? I had a topic about using get and put to do this, and genjuro's system WORKS but there must be a more memory and code efficient way.

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  • use filecopy(source, dest). and then delete the source file with
    kill(source). two native vb methods. i wondered if there wasn't a func named filerename or similar but i haven't found anyone. but i'll figure out an api function which will simply rename a file. just a day or two.
    and, if you'd like to, i could come up with an example for
    CreateRegion(...). e-mail mfroeb@gmx.de if this is your wish.
  • : use filecopy(source, dest). and then delete the source file with
    : kill(source). two native vb methods. i wondered if there wasn't a func named filerename or similar but i haven't found anyone. but i'll figure out an api function which will simply rename a file. just a day or two.
    : and, if you'd like to, i could come up with an example for
    : CreateRegion(...). e-mail mfroeb@gmx.de if this is your wish.
    :


    to rename a file just use the [b]Name[/b] statement... as in Name sourcefilename as newfilename

    to use formshaper it's real easy...just add it to your project..draw on your form using the Shape component and then in the Form_Load sub add the code FormShaper1.ShapeIt ...asuming the name of your FormShaper object is FormShaper1 ...which is the default for the first one you put down (and you only need one)...the hard part it drawing the shapes you want with the Shape component...its hard to get something complex looking and FormShaper has inluded a [italic]ShapeItImage[/italic] method, but i havent been able to figure out how to use that yet...
  • : : use filecopy(source, dest). and then delete the source file with
    : : kill(source). two native vb methods. i wondered if there wasn't a func named filerename or similar but i haven't found anyone. but i'll figure out an api function which will simply rename a file. just a day or two.
    : : and, if you'd like to, i could come up with an example for
    : : CreateRegion(...). e-mail mfroeb@gmx.de if this is your wish.
    : :
    :
    :
    : to rename a file just use the [b]Name[/b] statement... as in Name sourcefilename as newfilename
    :
    : to use formshaper it's real easy...just add it to your project..draw on your form using the Shape component and then in the Form_Load sub add the code FormShaper1.ShapeIt ...asuming the name of your FormShaper object is FormShaper1 ...which is the default for the first one you put down (and you only need one)...the hard part it drawing the shapes you want with the Shape component...its hard to get something complex looking and FormShaper has inluded a [italic]ShapeItImage[/italic] method, but i havent been able to figure out how to use that yet...
    :

    i didn't use the name statement anytime - so i even din't know that it existed. and the wonderful object catalog doesn't say anything about it. i really hate this quickbasic-statements (and the other ones such as print or line - they could have been implemented with standard vb methods and would have been more conform to the rest of world)

    so, use the name statement.

    and why use a formshaper or any other component if you could do it with api calls? the components only encapsulate the api calls - nothing else. and a component means component registration, an at least 20 kb bigger program + component size, and upgrading a component is very much work. at least for the customers (does this version work with this component, vice versa, or nothing at all?). so be customer friendly and create one exe which works all the time.
  • : : : use filecopy(source, dest). and then delete the source file with
    : : : kill(source). two native vb methods. i wondered if there wasn't a func named filerename or similar but i haven't found anyone. but i'll figure out an api function which will simply rename a file. just a day or two.
    : : : and, if you'd like to, i could come up with an example for
    : : : CreateRegion(...). e-mail mfroeb@gmx.de if this is your wish.
    : : :
    : :
    : :
    : : to rename a file just use the [b]Name[/b] statement... as in Name sourcefilename as newfilename
    : :
    : : to use formshaper it's real easy...just add it to your project..draw on your form using the Shape component and then in the Form_Load sub add the code FormShaper1.ShapeIt ...asuming the name of your FormShaper object is FormShaper1 ...which is the default for the first one you put down (and you only need one)...the hard part it drawing the shapes you want with the Shape component...its hard to get something complex looking and FormShaper has inluded a [italic]ShapeItImage[/italic] method, but i havent been able to figure out how to use that yet...
    : :
    :
    : i didn't use the name statement anytime - so i even din't know that it existed. and the wonderful object catalog doesn't say anything about it. i really hate this quickbasic-statements (and the other ones such as print or line - they could have been implemented with standard vb methods and would have been more conform to the rest of world)
    :
    : so, use the name statement.
    :
    : and why use a formshaper or any other component if you could do it with api calls? the components only encapsulate the api calls - nothing else. and a component means component registration, an at least 20 kb bigger program + component size, and upgrading a component is very much work. at least for the customers (does this version work with this component, vice versa, or nothing at all?). so be customer friendly and create one exe which works all the time.
    :
    As I have said on several occasions I have no idea how to USE the API.
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  • : As I have said on several occasions I have no idea how to USE the API.
    : [size=5]T[red]0[/red][green]0[/green]l[blue]K[/blue][purple]1[/purple]T[/size]
    :

    As I have said, I will come up with an example, but currently I have really much to do. So I think sunday or monday the example will be here.
  • So for the impatient of us, I have gathered all required information and created a wonderful, easy to use and small sample after diving deep into MSDN :-)

    (i'm impatient, too)

    if anyone wants to have this file, it's here on programmersheraven.com - search for win32 region api sample (it will be validated within a week, so wait).

    if you don't want to wait, send an e-mail to mfroeb@gmx.de with subject region api and i will reply with file attached.

    it works well for me, hope it will work for you.
  • http://members.fortunecity.com/alexv/index.html?VBSFC.html

    Link is (or used to be, try it) to a product you can use to create shaped forms. Draw the shape you want and it will save all necesary [italic]code[/italic] to a form. Note that "code" is emphasized? There are no controls or DLLs to distribute.

    Take it step by step with simple shapes and the code is really easy to learn. Then you won't need [italic]any[/italic] external component or program for this.
  • "... draw on your form using the Shape component ..."
    "... the hard part it drawing the shapes you want with the Shape component ..."
    "... its hard to get something complex looking and FormShaper has inluded a [italic]ShapeItImage[/italic] method, but i havent been able to figure out how to use that yet ..."

    with my region api sample just draw an image with any drawing tool you like and save it in any format visual basic understands (bmp, rle, gif, jpg). then just call setwindowregion(form1.hwnd, createregionfromdc(form1.hdc,800,600,vbRed)) and you're done!
    no shapes on your form, you can use the complex effects of you favourite drawing tool, the source code is free and (i hope) well explained, you can even change shape of your formular later (just load a new image into the form and call setwindowregion(...) again.

    so, why not use my method?
    btw: it's only 5 kb including sample project and image, how big is formshaper?
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