I got a quick question about running a directX application (C++) in a managed environment. I'm attempting to write a MDI tool (in C#) where the background of the parent window would be an embedded render window of directX (C++).
I've read ways that involved writing the C++ into a native dll, however it would be prefered to be able to have the C++ projects included within the solution (I dont even know if that's possible though). Eitherway, if you know of some helpful steps, hints, or if this is a bad idea in general, please let me know. Thanks!
The easiest way to do this would be to add a C++/CLI project to your solution. This would then enable you to use the DirectX COM interfaces directly and create a managed wrapper that's easy to call from your C# code. I've taken this approach a few times and it's by far the easiest way of mixing DirectX and .Net that I've ever tried. Managed DirectX used to be an option, but it's no longer supported and it was a fairly small subset of the full COM API anyway.
First of all writing the C++ part in a different dll file doesn't mean that it couldn't be at the same solution as the C# project.
In order to use native DX to render on a managed window you need to pass the HWND window id (use form.WindowId.ToInt32) to the C++ D3Ddevice c'tor. after that each time you'll render using that device it would render on the .NET window.
To do this you probably need two saparate projects - a C++ dll & .NET project. use COM wrapper or p-invoke to pass the HWND to the C++ dll.
If you don't want to spend too much time on writing C++ code for DirectX, you can consider using
SlimDX, since Managed DirectX 1.0 is out of the question, where as 2.0 never leaves the beta and later replace with XNA which has quite different from DirectX itself, and require you to install XNA Game Studio
SlimDX is the opensource version of managed directx with slightly different API and internal structure, but it's easy to use. The recently released version is very stable. I'm currently using it to write a production application.
SlimDX
Managed DirectX
Related
I have a task to do: I have to write a graphical (window) application in .Net which is going to read temperature from the three sensors (namely MCP9808, SI7051 and STS31-DIS) connected via MCP2221 I2C/USB converter and display it on the screen.
There are some requirements: The app has to be graphically estetic, it has to have the some buttons (eg for the periodic read of the temperature) and it has to display a chart showing the temperature variations.
I know that .Net usually comes with C# but I've never used it before and also the libraries for the MCP2221 are for C++ as I believe.
Could anyone help me how to get down to this problem?
If you really need to use .NET for your GUI (WPF or WinForms), you should consider .NET interoperability, which allows you to call C++ compiled code from your .NET code.
Here is another StackOverflow post that should help you:
How to call C++ DLL in C#
If you want to use C++ syntax only, there is also C++/CLI.
Is it possible to render VC++ OpenGL output to a panel in Winforms window created with C# ? I'm aware of Tao framework and OpenTK but I don't want to rely on third party support. There is an article here but this is merely only pixel reproduction and I think this method does not guarantee user interaction with OpenGL scene.
Yes, this is absolutely possible. You have to create the OpenGL context on the HWND that is given by panel.Handle (it's an IntPtr, but can easily be cast to HWND). Be aware, that this is only working in Windows Forms, since in WPF controls do not necessarily have their own HWND. Here is another stackoverflow question, that covers a similar topic.
There are several ways how to access native C++ code from a C# application, so it might be that, depending on your needs, you will have to write a wrapper in C++/CLI around your native C++ library simmilar to (here or here).
I have 3D OpenGL application written in C for Unix-like systems, it is working fine in Linux, but lacks GUI and is only controllable via keyboard.
As far as I know C# GUI is the simplest and nicest and cutest to create and it's very easy to create nice gui in C# in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.
SO I decided I want to embed graphical application written in C OpenGL in C# application GUI, just something like this:
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2773/qoyz.jpg
Of course I want to control C application from my C# GUI.
It could be done any possible way I was thinking maybe about some dll file compiled from C OpenGL code?
I dont have any experience with that kind of stuff, so give me clear answers:)
You are probably going to need to create a managed code wrapper for your C project so that it can be accessed from C#.
See this previously asked question: Porting (unmanaged) C++ to C# vs. using the C++ as a DLL in a C# application
Have you tried Qt SDK? With it you can create not less "cutest, nicest " GUI which is also c++ and cross platform, contrary to MS WinForms or WPF. In fact,many GUI based programs, like Maya or Aftereffects, use Qt
I have a C# application which renders 2D graphics into bitmaps using System.Drawing.Graphics.
I now want to port this application to work on normal .net on windows, mono on linux and in Silverlight/Moonlight.
But at least Silverlight is lacking System.Drawing. Since I don't want to maintain several copies of my rendering code I need one cross platform graphics library.
I see a few alternatives to achieve that:
Use a library available on all platforms
Use a port of System.Drawing to silverlight
Write a wrapper around the graphics libraries of the different platforms myself
I'm trying to avoid 3) due to the required work.
So does anybody know a free library for 1) or 2)? Library should have a reasonable license, i.e. free and not GPL (LGPL is fine).
There is no common library that does the sort of things that System.Drawing does.
This would be a massive undertaking for very little payback.
Of these options this is the only one that is viable.
I'm not sure what sort of graphics you are doing but have you considered XNA? I don't know about its Mono credentials but via Silversprite you might be able to build stuff that compiles for both .NET and Silverlight.
Can anyone tell me how to hook/overlay a DirectX game in C#?
I've tried getting a fullscreen C# window to overlap a game, however it wont.
After researching a little, I found out that I need to hook the game and then display the C# window.
Can anyone explain how I would do this?
Would I be able to display a C# form over a DirectX game?
You can try my example on hooking the Direct3D 9 API using C#. This utilizes EasyHook an open source .NET assembly that allows you to install hooks from managed code into unmanaged functions.
SlimDX is also used - this is an open source managed wrapper around the Direct3D libraries.
The tricky part of the hooking is determining the addresses of a COM objects' virtual functions. This is done in the above example using a small C++ helper DLL that finds the addresses from the VTable. [Update: there is a comment posted that show's how to get the function pointers from the VTable in C# also - given a IntPtr to the com object]
The example hooks the EndScene method of an IDirect3DDevice9, which is also where you would want to draw any overlays. As to displaying a form in the overlay I'm not so sure that will be so easy - I mean you can render the image easily enough, but you will have to capture inputs and manually respond/pass-thru the events to the form in question appropriately. Good luck!
(disclosure: I work for this company)
You can try our Deviare API, it has functionality to hook COM objects from C#.
It's a set of COM objects that can be used from any programming language (supporting COM). An article with source code showing how to capture video and add an overlay is available: instrumenting Direct3D applications to capture video and calculate FPS
COM Spy Console and Direct Sound Capture are two examples that implements a console to hook COM objects like DirectX.
Hope it helps.
Since you don't have direct DirectX Access from C# this may be tricky.
From my limited understanding of the concept:
DirectX Hooks consist of attaching to a DirectX Context and manipulating it, this may/may not require messing with another program's memory, something that's best suited to C/C++
I may be wrong though, however this is an advanced topic and my gut tells me you may have issues under .NET