Develop Reference

How to ensure UWP app is always full screen on launch?

Is there a way (either C# or XAML) I can maximize a UWP app window even after I resized and closed it previously on desktop?
I have tried with ApplicationViewWindowingMode.FullScreen but this makes the app go entire full screen and covers the Windows Taskbar too.

You can use another value PreferredLaunchViewSize from ApplicationViewWindowingMode and then set ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchViewSize but the key is to find out what the size is going to be.
Theoretically, you could use a really big number and window would just extend to the max it could be. However, it's probably safer to just calculate the screen dimensions in effective pixels.
So if you just call the following method before InitializeComponent(); on your main Page, it should maximize the window on startup.
private static void MaximizeWindowOnLoad()
{
// Get how big the window can be in epx.
var bounds = ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().VisibleBounds;
ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchViewSize = new Size(bounds.Width, bounds.Height);
ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchWindowingMode = ApplicationViewWindowingMode.PreferredLaunchViewSize;
}
Note the app somehow remembers these settings even after you uninstalled it. If you ever want to change back to the default behavior (app starts up with the previous window size), simply call ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchWindowingMode = ApplicationViewWindowingMode.Auto; once and remove all the code.
Update
Looks like in the latest Windows 10 build, ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().VisibleBounds no longer returns the full window size in effective pixels anymore. So we now need a new way to calculate it.
Turns out it's quite straightforward since the DisplayInformation class also gives us the screen resolution as well as the scale factor.
The following is the updated code -
public MainPage()
{
MaximizeWindowOnLoad();
InitializeComponent();
void MaximizeWindowOnLoad()
{
var view = DisplayInformation.GetForCurrentView();
// Get the screen resolution (APIs available from 14393 onward).
var resolution = new Size(view.ScreenWidthInRawPixels, view.ScreenHeightInRawPixels);
// Calculate the screen size in effective pixels.
// Note the height of the Windows Taskbar is ignored here since the app will only be given the maxium available size.
var scale = view.ResolutionScale == ResolutionScale.Invalid ? 1 : view.RawPixelsPerViewPixel;
var bounds = new Size(resolution.Width / scale, resolution.Height / scale);
ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchViewSize = new Size(bounds.Width, bounds.Height);
ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchWindowingMode = ApplicationViewWindowingMode.PreferredLaunchViewSize;
}
}

If you want to MAXIMISE your app on launch you can use the following:
ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchWindowingMode = ApplicationViewWindowingMode.Maximized;
But be sure to put it into the Loaded Event for your Page or it will not work!

I've too few points to comment directly. None of the above resized to a maximized view for me (or the below single-line ApplicationViewWindowingMode.Maximized method), but I have used some of the answers to come up with something that worked for me. It is still very clunky however. The screen size given in 'DisplayInformation' is too big to allow the page to be resized directly to it. Trying to do it didn't work and I had to take 60 off height and width to get it to return 'true', therefore I have the following bit of nonsense which worked, maybe it will help someone else find a better answer. It goes in the page/window loaded event. Nothing else needs to be added elsewhere.
private void Page_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var view = ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView();
var displayInfo = DisplayInformation.GetForCurrentView();
double x = ActualWidth;
double y = ActualHeight;
bool answer = true;
// Get the screen resolution (APIs available from 14393 onward).
var resolution = new Size(displayInfo.ScreenWidthInRawPixels-60, displayInfo.ScreenHeightInRawPixels-60);
answer = view.TryResizeView(resolution); //This should return true if the resize is successful
if (answer)
{
x = displayInfo.ScreenWidthInRawPixels - 60;
y = displayInfo.ScreenHeightInRawPixels - 60;
}
answer = true;
while (answer == true)
{
x++;
answer = view.TryResizeView(new Size { Width = x, Height = y });
}
x = x - 1;
answer = true;
while (answer == true)
{
y++;
answer = view.TryResizeView(new Size { Width = x, Height = y });
}

Adding the following line to the OnLaunched event under App.xaml.cs did it for me.
ApplicationView.PreferredLaunchWindowingMode = ApplicationViewWindowingMode.FullScreen;
NOTE: Make sure to add it before the following line
Window.Current.Activate();
If you like to go fullscreen at the runtime use the following line.
ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().TryEnterFullScreenMode();

I have this one liner that works as I expected Justins code to, but for some reason, when using Justins answer, my window would not be maximized... But then I changed something that did make it maximized but I lost all my fluent design such as Acrylic and RevealHighlite...
So I came up with this one liner which keeps all of my fluent design principles happy:
ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().TryEnterFullScreenMode();
Something to note:
I did try Justins answer, and I am using his method of MaximizeWindowOnLoad() which I have called straight after the initializeComponent();
Full overview:
public class()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
MaximizeWindowOnLoad();
}
private static void MaximizeWindowOnLoad()
{
ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().TryEnterFullScreenMode();
}

Flicker in C# WinForms program on screen clear

Alright, so I've done some research into this topic and most of the solutions I've found claim to fix the problem but I am finding that they aren't quite working right. I'm in the early stages of implementing just a simple little particle engine, nothing crazy I'm just doing it out of boredom. I have not done anything like this with WinForms before, I have certainly with C/C++ but this is a new thing for me. The following is the code I am using to draw the particles to the screen, the boiler plate code for the particles is not relevant as it works fine, I am more curious about my actual game loop.
Here is the main code for updates and redraws
public MainWindow()
{
this.DoubleBuffered = true;
InitializeComponent();
Application.Idle += HandleApplicationIdle;
}
void HandleApplicationIdle(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = CreateGraphics();
while (IsApplicationIdle())
{
UpdateParticles();
RenderParticles(g);
g.Dispose();
}
}
//Variables for drawing the particle
Pen pen = new Pen(Color.Black, 5);
Brush brush = new SolidBrush(Color.Blue);
public bool emmiter = false;
private void EmitterBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Determine which emitter to use
if (emmiter == true)
{
//Creates a new particle
Particle particle = new Particle(EmitterOne.Left, EmitterOne.Top, .5f, .5f, 20, 20);
emmiter = false;
}
else if(emmiter == false)
{
Particle particle = new Particle(EmitterTwo.Left, EmitterTwo.Top, -.5f, .5f, 20, 20);
emmiter = true;
}
}
public void RenderParticles(Graphics renderer)
{
Invalidate();
Thread.Sleep(0);
//Iterate though the static list of particles
for (int i = 0; i < Particle.activeParticles.Count; i++)
{
//Draw Particles
renderer.DrawRectangle(pen, Particle.activeParticles[i].x,
Particle.activeParticles[i].y,
Particle.activeParticles[i].w,
Particle.activeParticles[i].h);
}
}
public void UpdateParticles()
{
for (int i = 0; i < Particle.activeParticles.Count; i++)
{
//Move particles
Particle.activeParticles[i].MoveParticle();
}
}
The issue I am running into is that anytime the screen is getting cleared and updated, it gets this awful flickering, and not only that but it sometimes won't whenever I emit a particle.
The form is basically just using labels as invisible locations on the screen to say where to render each particle.
Anyway, I've seen this topic before but nothing has fixed anything, the current implementation is the least flickery/laggy but is not solving the issue.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!
EDIT* I realized I was never deallocating the graphics object each loop so I did that and there is no more delay whenever I click the emitter button, however the flicker is still there, I updated the code accordingly.

Getting rid of the visible paint artifacts requires double-buffering. In other words, render the scene into a back-buffer that, when ready, gets quickly blitted to the screen surface in a single step. That's a built-in feature in Winforms, simply set the DoubleBuffered property to true in the form constructor. You must use the Paint event to take advantage of that. Override OnPaint() and call RenderParticles(e.Graphics).
You need to take care of timing, right now your UI thread is burning 100% core and animation speed completely depends on the number of particles and the speed of the machine. Instead of Application.Idle, drop a Timer from the toolbox onto your form. In the Tick event handler, call UpdateParticles() and this.Invalidate() to get the Paint event to fire again. The timer's Interval property value is critical, you get the most reproducible update rate by picking 15 or 31 msec (64 or 32 FPS).
You are not always going to get the desired FPS rate, the timer will simply delay or skip a Tick event if the machine gets busy or is too slow or other code on the UI thread needs to run. To make sure that doesn't affect the animation, you must measure actual elapsed time instead of moving the particles by a fixed amount. Either Environment.TickCount, DateTime.UtcNow or Stopwatch are suitable ways to measure true elapsed time.

How to automatically snap a WPF window to an edge of the screen while retaining its size?

As the application starts, I'd like my WPF window to automatically snap to the right edge of the screen. Is there a way to do that? I also want to be able to retain its dimensions. So, unlike the snapping behavior that happens when you drag a window to the edge of the screen, causing the window to resize to either a portion of the screen or full screen, I want my window to simply snap to the edge at a certain location by default or if dragged by the user to a specific location afterwards, without resizing. I still want to retain the ability of the user to drag the window away from the edge.
Is there anything like that already implemented or would I have to create my own behavior schema? I tried numerous search keyword combinations, but couldn't find anything similar to what I'm doing. Some of the searches included disabling snapping behavior or providing snapping behavior, but nothing in the way I described above.
EDIT:
I haven't been able to find a ready solution, so I wrote my own. This solution is based on BenVlodgi's suggestions, so I thank him for helping me out. This is a very rough implementation and still requires a lot of polishing and better code techniques, but it works and it's a good base for anyone wanting to try this. It's incredibly simple and works very well with WPF. The only limitation of this implementation is that I haven't tried getting it to work with two screens yet, but it's incredibly simple (I'm just not going to have time for it and I don't need that functionality at this point). So, here's the code and I hope that it helps someone out there:
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
// Get the working area of the screen. It excludes any dockings or toolbars, which
// is exactly what we want.
private System.Drawing.Rectangle screen =
System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea;
// This will be the flag for the automatic positioning.
private bool dragging = false;
// The usual initialization routine
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
// Wait until window is lodaded, but prior to being rendered to set position. This
// is done because prior to being loaded you'll get NaN for this.Height and 0 for
// this.ActualHeight.
private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// Sets the initial position.
SetInitialWindowPosition();
// Sets the monitoring timer loop.
InitializeWindowPositionMonitoring();
}
// Allows the window to be dragged where the are no other controls present.
// PreviewMouseButton could be used, but then you have to do more work to ensure that if
// you're pressing down on a button, it executes its routine if dragging was not performed.
private void Window_MouseDown(object sender, System.Windows.Input.MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
// Set the dragging flag to true, so that position would not be reset automatically.
if (e.ChangedButton == System.Windows.Input.MouseButton.Left)
{
dragging = true;
this.DragMove();
}
}
// Similar to MouseDown. We're setting dragging flag to false to allow automatic
// positioning.
private void Window_MouseUp(object sender, System.Windows.Input.MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
if (e.ChangedButton == System.Windows.Input.MouseButton.Left)
{
dragging = false;
}
}
// Sets the initial position of the window. I made mine static for now, but later it can
// be modified to be whatever the user chooses in the settings.
private void SetInitialWindowPosition()
{
this.Left = screen.Width - this.Width;
this.Top = screen.Height / 2 - this.Height / 2;
}
// Setup the monitoring routine that automatically positions the window based on its location
// relative to the working area.
private void InitializeWindowPositionMonitoring()
{
var timer = new System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer();
timer.Tick += delegate
{
// Check if window is being dragged (assuming that mouse down on any portion of the
// window is connected to dragging). This is a fairly safe assumption and held
// true thus far. Even if you're not performing any dragging, then the position
// doesn't change and nothing gets reset. You can add an extra check to see if
// position has changed, but there is no significant performance gain.
// Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just O(n) execution, where n is the number of
// ticks the mouse has been held down on that window.
if (!dragging)
{
// Checking the left side of the window.
if (this.Left > screen.Width - this.Width)
{
this.Left = screen.Width - this.Width;
}
else if (this.Left < 0)
{
this.Left = 0;
}
// Checking the top of the window.
if (this.Top > screen.Height - this.Height)
{
this.Top = screen.Height - this.Height;
}
else if (this.Top < 0)
{
this.Top = 0;
}
}
};
// Adjust this based on performance and preference. I set mine to 10 milliseconds.
timer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, 10);
timer.Start();
}
}
Make sure that your window has the following:
MouseDown="Window_MouseDown"
MouseUp="Window_MouseUp"
WindowStartupLocation="Manual"
Loaded="Window_Loaded"
Also, this doesn't work well with Windows native components of the window, such as the top bar, so I disable the style and create my own (which is actually good for me, since I don't want the windows style for this):
WindowStyle="None"

I don't like the polling approach, but it's been excessively difficult to find a better solution that is still simple in WPF, so I'm gonna post my own.
The solution that I found is actually quite simple, in that it reimplements the behaviour of the DragMove() method of the window, which gives you the option to change the window position while it's being dragged. The following code reimplements DragMove() by storing the distance between the top left corner of the window and the mouse cursor.
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
// this is the offset of the mouse cursor from the top left corner of the window
private Point offset = new Point();
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void OnMouseLeftButtonDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
Point cursorPos = PointToScreen(Mouse.GetPosition(this));
Point windowPos = new Point(this.Left, this.Top);
offset = (Point)(cursorPos - windowPos);
// capturing the mouse here will redirect all events to this window, even if
// the mouse cursor should leave the window area
Mouse.Capture(this, CaptureMode.Element);
}
private void OnMouseLeftButtonUp(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
Mouse.Capture(null);
}
private void OnMouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (Mouse.Captured == this && Mouse.LeftButton == MouseButtonState.Pressed)
{
Point cursorPos = PointToScreen(Mouse.GetPosition(this));
double newLeft = cursorPos.X - offset.X;
double newTop = cursorPos.Y - offset.Y;
// here you can change the window position and implement
// the snapping behaviour that you need
this.Left = newLeft;
this.Top = newTop;
}
}
}
Now you could implement the snapping / sticky window behaviour like this: The window will stick to the edge of the screen if it's within a range of 25 pixels (plus or minus).
int snappingMargin = 25;
if (Math.Abs(SystemParameters.WorkArea.Left - newLeft) < snappingMargin)
newLeft = SystemParameters.WorkArea.Left;
else if (Math.Abs(newLeft + this.ActualWidth - SystemParameters.WorkArea.Left - SystemParameters.WorkArea.Width) < snappingMargin)
newLeft = SystemParameters.WorkArea.Left + SystemParameters.WorkArea.Width - this.ActualWidth;
if (Math.Abs(SystemParameters.WorkArea.Top - newTop) < snappingMargin)
newTop = SystemParameters.WorkArea.Top;
else if (Math.Abs(newTop + this.ActualHeight - SystemParameters.WorkArea.Top - SystemParameters.WorkArea.Height) < snappingMargin)
newTop = SystemParameters.WorkArea.Top + SystemParameters.WorkArea.Height - this.ActualHeight;
The downside of this approach is that the snapping will not work, if the window is being dragged on the title bar, because that doesn't fire the OnMouseLeftButtonDown event (which I don't need, because my window is borderless). Maybe it will still help someone.

There is no API calls you can make (as far as I've seen) to use the Windows snapping features, however you could just get the System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea of the screen and set your Top, Left, Height and Width Properties of your Window accordingly.
Edit: The above suggestion does require Forms, which you probably don't want. I believe the WPF equivalent is System.Windows.SystemParameters.WorkArea

Which is faster when animating the UI: a Control or a Picture?

/I'm working with and testing on a computer that is built with the following:
{1 GB RAM (now 1.5 GB), 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium Processor, ATI Mobility Radeon X600 GFX}
I need scale / transform controls and make it flow smoothly. Currently I'm manipulating the size and location of a control every 24-33ms (30fps), ±3px. When I add a 'fade' effect to an image, it fades in and out smoothly, but it is only 25x25 px in size. The control is 450x75 px to 450x250 px in size. In 2D games such as Bejeweled 3, the sprites animate with no choppy animation.
So as the title would suggest: which is easier/faster on the processor: animating a bitmap (rendering it to the parent control during animation) or animating the control it's self?
EDIT:
Hey, I thought this was a helpful community, not one that down-rates questions that don't seem challenging! (And I've seen more ridiculous questions here with better ratings too!) Please drop me a line first before negatively rating my questions!

I managed to find some free-time in my heck-tick scheduled, to quickly whip up a new project. I'm sure my time could have been better spent else where but hopefully someone else in my shoes may find this of use out there...
The answer is: a Picture over a Control. When rendering a bitmap onto the canvas, there are very little events that will fire, if any. As for the control, it is filled with events - some chained, some looped, and the addition of recursion, so a simple 'LocationChanged' event wouldn't even cover the half of what actually is taking place under the hood.
What I would do for controls that have lots of dynamic animations applied to them during runtime, is to develop a two piece set: a control [rendering] template or active interface (for when the control is at a stand-still or before the play of an animation), and a the animating structure with basic defining properties such as the display image [the rendered control], the rectangle bounds, and any animation algorithms that may be applied latter.
Edit: As Requested, here are the before and after code examples:
// This is the triggering event of the translating animation
private void object_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// the starting point is at (75,75)
element.Transform(new Point(500, 250));
}
Before:
public class ControlElement : UserControl
{
private Timer tick;
private Point pT0;
public ControlElement() : base()
{
tick = new Timer();
tick.Interval = 30; // about 30fps
tick.Tick += new EventHandler(tick_Tick);
}
void tick_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// get the new point from distance and current location/destination
this.Location = Utils.Transform(this.Location, pT0, 3);
if ((pT0.X - this.Location.X)+(pT0.Y - this.Location.Y) <= 0)
{
this.Location = pT0;
tick.Stop();
//this.Visible = true;
}
}
public void Transform(Point destination)
{
pT0 = destination;
//this.Visible = false;
tick.Start();
}
}
After: I create a class that holds a picture of what the control would look like using the DrawToBitmap feature. It still contains the same animation methods as above. I had to add the Location and LocationChanged elements since this class was no longer a control. If and when the actual control needed to be accessed, I would stop rendering and display an instance of the control it's self.
Here is the rendering call:
void element_LocationChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
canvas.Invalidate();
}
void canvas_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (element != null)
{
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(element.Display);
Pen p = new Pen(Color.FromArgb(128, 128, 128), 1);
e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmp, element.Location);
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(p,
element.Location.X, element.Location.Y,
bmp.Width, bmp.Height);
}
}

WPF Render Transform Behaving Weird

I am experiencing a weird problem with a render transform in WPF. The project I'm working on needs to display a clicked user point over an image. When the user clicks a point, a custom control is placed at the location of their click. The image should then be able to be scaled around any point using the mouse wheel, and the custom control should be translated (not scaled) to the correct location.
To do this, I follow the MouseWheel event as follows:
private void MapPositioner_MouseWheel(object sender, MouseWheelEventArgs e)
{
Point location = Mouse.GetPosition(MainWindow.Instance.imageMap);
MainWindow.Instance.imageMap.RenderTransform = null;
ScaleTransform st = new ScaleTransform(scale + (e.Delta < 0 ? -0.2 : 0.2), scale += (e.Delta < 0 ? -0.2 : 0.2));
st.CenterX = location.X;
st.CenterY = location.Y;
TransformGroup tg = new TransformGroup();
tg.Children.Add(st);
//tg.Children.Add(tt);
MainWindow.Instance.imageMap.RenderTransform = tg;
if (scale <= 1)
{
MainWindow.Instance.imageMap.RenderTransform = null;
}
if (TransformationChanged != null)
TransformationChanged();
}
Then, I implemented an event handler in the custom control for the TransformationChanged event seen at the end of the above code block as follows:
private void Instance_TransformationChanged()
{
//check image coords
//
if (MainWindow.Instance.imageMap.RenderTransform != null)
{
if (MainWindow.Instance.imageMap.RenderTransform != Transform.Identity)
{
Transform st = MainWindow.Instance.imageMap.RenderTransform;
Point image = MainWindow.VideoOverlayCanvas.TransformToVisual(MainWindow.Instance.MapImage).Transform(loc2);
Point trans = st.Transform(image);
Point final = MainWindow.Instance.MapImage.TransformToVisual(MainWindow.VideoOverlayCanvas).Transform(trans);
// selected = anchor2;
// final = ClipToOverlay(final);
// selected = null;
connector.X2 = final.X;
connector.Y2 = final.Y;
Canvas.SetLeft(anchor2, final.X);
Canvas.SetTop(anchor2, final.Y);
}
}
else
{
connector.X2 = loc2.X;
connector.Y2 = loc2.Y;
Canvas.SetLeft(anchor2, loc2.X);
Canvas.SetTop(anchor2, loc2.Y);
}
}
This way, I can ensure that the custom control's position is updated only after the new transform is set. Note that since I am applying the transform to the point, there is no scaling done to the control, the effect is that it is translated to the point it should. This works fine as long as the user is only scaling around one point. If they change that point, it doesnt work.
Here are some images that show the problem:
User clicks a point
user zooms out, what happened here?
after zooming out (all the way out in this case) it looks ok
I've been messing with this for about two days now, so I apologize if my code looks messy. I know this is a pretty obscure question so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Max

If anyone is looking for an answer to this, because of deadlines, I had to write a workaround by having the user pan with the right mouse button and zoom with the mouse wheel. This way zooming always happens around the center of the image, so the controls are always lined up. I'm still looking for answers to the original question though if anyone can figure it out
Thanks,
Max

I'm not sure what's wrong with your transform, but have you considered an alternate approach? For example, you might want to add a transparent canvas set to stay at the same size as the image, z-order above the image (explicitly set or just put the Canvas element just after the image element). Then you can just use Canvas.SetLeft and Canvas.SetTop to place the user control where the user clicked, and to move it around. A lot easier than using a transform.