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LaVolpe Window Shaper 3 w/Full Region Class
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| Submitted on: |
2/3/2006 8:08:21 AM |
| By: |
LaVolpe
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| Level: |
Intermediate |
| User Rating: |
By 29 Users |
| Compatibility: |
VB 5.0, VB 6.0 |
| Views: |
21297 |
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(Updated w/more Functions) The attached code will shape a window around a bitmap faster than anything else I've seen on any other site. A simple modification to the code (really optional parameters), can produce the desired results up to 4x faster! Surprised I haven't considered it before. This time the code is moved into a class that has many region-related functions. If the only reason you download is to strip out the RegionFromBitmap function, I think you will also appreciate learning about those other functions. Oh, why is this one faster; cause it uses a method none of the others do -- documented in the code. Patched: 18Nov/1430. SaveRegionToFile fixed, added 1 more ImportRegion option, cleaned-up code, made IsRegion public, & minor touch ups, more comments. 31Jan06/1800z: correct calc errors for rare cases in RegionFromBitmap() & minor tweaks throughout. 1Feb/0200z. Added many more region functions, added more examples in sample project, commented the code to death. History of changes at top of the class module. 2Feb/2130z: Added all remaining functions I can think of and even threw in a Region Collision routine. Short of bugs or bone-head errors, this class is done and now contains 99% of all known functions that actually create, destroy or modify regions.
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Other 72 submission(s) by this author
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Your Vote
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Other User Comments
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 11/18/2005 3:51:11 AM: Light Templer
Hi Keith, great class, a lot to learn from! That kind of stuff pushes VB's limits more and more. Thx and my ***** for. LiTe
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11/18/2005 10:07:12 AM: Kenneth Foster
LaVolpe, I must be missing something.I've been trying to save the region created in your demo but its not saving anything.Can you give an example.The syntex I used is
SaveRegionToFile 0,"D:\Temp\ST1.bmp",,True
Thanks Ken
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11/18/2005 10:27:16 AM: LaVolpe
Minor bug in the SaveRegionToFile routine: if trying to overwrite a hidden or read-only file, it won't. Will upload simple patch later tonight.
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11/18/2005 10:38:19 AM: LaVolpe
Ken, the bug I just reported hasn't anything to do with your issue. You are passing a region handle (1st param) of zero; pass the region you created, or create a new one if needed.
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11/18/2005 12:07:06 PM: Heriberto Mantilla Santamaria
wow, you always surprise me with your codes, excellent work.
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11/18/2005 12:19:19 PM: D. Rijmenants
Great stuff. Such code always reminds me that there's still much to learn. Thanks for sharing!
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11/18/2005 12:50:23 PM: TerriTop
This is awesome! I always learn a ton from your submissions... Thanks for sharing this gem! TerriTop
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11/18/2005 4:48:52 PM: LaVolpe
Glad you enjoy it. Kinda became an expert with regions awhile back when I was looking for faster alternatives to pathfinding... ended up learning more than I wanted to trying to achieve something I never really achieved :(
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11/18/2005 5:47:05 PM: James Miller
Great job, Keith!!! I'm always humbled by your work. Thanks for the submission. ~James
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11/18/2005 7:13:45 PM: Option Explicit
As you know I'm just making my first forays into region code, so this is perfect for me to learn from. Thanks!
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11/18/2005 7:48:26 PM: Dr. Intel
Hi Keith,
This is a cool application. Like Mama always said "Qualit is as Quality Does". Great job !!!!
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11/18/2005 11:11:09 PM: LaVolpe
Dr. Intel? Didn't recognize you until I saw your email address. A few new/revised handles out there this year.
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11/19/2005 12:23:27 AM: Robert Rayment
Interesting. I put a label on to show result for EXE. Strange thing is 'with and w/o' exclusion rectangle times are sometimes the same and sometimes swap around. Maybe needs QueryPerformance,, timing for EXE.
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11/19/2005 1:25:29 AM: LaVolpe
Robert the routines are processing that image at about 1/20th of a second. Pretty fast & maybe too fast for poor GetTickCount. I'm not going to gripe; the routines are fast & if an incorrect timing occurs because of that? Oh well. Now if the timings were > 200ms, I'd be concerned. :)
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11/19/2005 3:06:17 AM: Robert Rayment
Keith: It's just that timing ratios in the IDE, I've found, are not necessarily a good guide to timings in an EXE.
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11/19/2005 3:20:34 AM: Richard Mewett
Superb submission as always! Lots to learn from :) 5 regions...
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11/19/2005 11:53:28 AM: LaVolpe
To all. Not clearly explained in the RegionFromBitmap function & will add more info next time updated. When you send a bitmap to create a rgn & apply it to a window, the function does not return the rgn handle. This is by design. Per MSDN, when a rgn is applied to a window, you are not to ref that rgn & are not to destroy it. So, how do you save a rgn you applied to a window, 2 ways: 1) return the rgn w/o applying it to the window, save it & then apply it or 2) save rgn after being applied by returning the rgn via ImportRegion function (rgn_FromWindow) and supplying the window hWnd for the 2nd parameter. Hope this helps.
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11/19/2005 7:58:18 PM: silver_fox_vb
k its fast ( faster than the usual ) but its not very accurate it doesn't get the whole region i made a pic on PS made the bg color the same as the color u did loaded it it removed most of the color but it left some on the corners i donno if its cuz the color on the corners were a little diffrent ( cuz of the effects i applied ) so if u can thnk of something else that might have caused that tell me
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11/19/2005 11:10:59 PM: LaVolpe
^^ Replied off line -- want to see the picture. My guess is the color is not what is expected; rather "blended".
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11/19/2005 11:16:13 PM: LaVolpe
Silver Fox: as far as accuracy goes. I've tested this with single pixel lines to ensure it was accurate down to the pixel. But willing to entertain the idea that my logic could be off. We'll see after testing your sample image.
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11/20/2005 3:49:40 AM: silver_fox_vb
k here is a link to the image http://www.almarwa.org/form.bmp nothing fancy just a RRectangle with bevel and a gradient overlay ( it was just to try cuz i was working with regions before and had the same problem ) so tell me wat the prob is
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11/20/2005 9:10:44 AM: LaVolpe
^^A blended bitmap. The routines are 100% ACCURATE. Blended bitmaps have blended pixels around the edges that are no longer the "transparent" color; therefore those pixels are not excluded from the region. This is same reason why GIFs are not ideal for shaping a window around.
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11/21/2005 4:04:52 AM: Avi
LaVolpe is right of course, I had my share of wasted time on those blended pixels that PS creates (rightfully and beautify for most purposes).
Anyway… SUPERB submission! Thanks for sharing.
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11/21/2005 5:35:18 PM: silver_fox_vb
yeh i thought so even when i tried to get it in mspaint and filling the bg color it left the colors on the corners and i kinda found a sol for makin this stuff on ps just make an outline it would be 1px wide but it would do the job exactly thnx lavolpe for tryin it out and good submesion :D
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12/10/2005 9:49:04 AM: Nathan A. Huebner
I wish I would have had this when I was doing web design two years ago. I had to shape 1700 furniture images for a web site just like you did, by hand. It took me around 3 days. This code is amazing, I gave it 5 globes.
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2/1/2006 8:12:34 AM: Matt DeKok
I don't get it. All this does is give the image a blue background.
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2/1/2006 11:14:36 AM: LaVolpe
^^ Replied off line. We may have a previoulsy undetected bug. Waiting.
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2/1/2006 4:24:17 PM: Kenneth Foster
LaVolpe, Could you include a save region button. I'm not having any luck saving it on my end. Thanks.Yes I've read the above comments.
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2/1/2006 8:40:07 PM: LaVolpe
^^ Replied off line & will add an example when I re-upload this. Have added about every conceivable region function to the class now. Changes coming later tonight; early AM at the latest.
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2/3/2006 12:10:32 PM: _Merlin_
Nice going Keith! It sure took you a lot of work seeing you started the project on: 11/17/2005 and the last update was on: 2Feb/2130
But still I think it is worth the fivers you are getting ;)
Merlin is the name, and logic is my game...
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2/3/2006 12:16:41 PM: LaVolpe
Some old habits die hard. 2130 is military/European time :) BTW project actually started in 03 when I first began playing with regions.
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2/3/2006 1:31:35 PM: LaVolpe
Side note for gamers. If you try to use the region collision routine, keep in mind that it is pixel collision. So, let's say a ball is centered in a large star. No collision 'cause no pixel intersection. However, moving that ball through the star on a 2D plane will cause a collision as the 2 shapes meet.
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2/4/2006 9:44:10 AM: LaVolpe
^^ Should have explained it better. The above statement applies when the star is an outlined shape, but if the star was a solid shape, obviously you would have a collision.
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3/17/2006 9:11:41 PM: Option Explicit
Finally had a chance to spend a few hours looking at the latest version of this post. This should be recognized as one of the all time great contributions to PSC. What an incredible, exhaustive resource on a very important subject for a graphically-oriented programming language. The quality of this submission is something that brain-dead little imbeciles like NHGames, who voted one globe, will never be able to appreciate because they lack the mental capacity to comprehend its value. Thanks for this classic.
P.S. It would be interesting to write a routine to automatically calculate the exclusion rectangle for the RegionFromBitmap routine. Maybe I'll try my hand at it sometime :)
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12/6/2006 9:16:50 PM: bluewaterit
I keep getting 'No public user control detected' when I try and compile the OCX. What am I missing?
Thanks for an excellent piece of butonship. :-)
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12/8/2006 11:38:01 AM: LaVolpe
^^ Discussed off-line. Resolved.
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