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Advanced GDI programming

Started by dimovich 9 replies 2.5k views
Original Post
dimovich
dimovich
What books about -Advanced GDI programming- are there and worth reading ?
We're doing this for a living, George. We are not amateurs.
Schwammerl-Bob
Schwammerl-Bob
What do you mean if you say "advanced" ? GDI isn´t that complicated really. If you are interested in doing complex user interfaces you might want to have a look at MFC, VCL, qT or anything similiar.

Probably you can find all you need to know about GDI on MSDN. If not, you can surely ask for help on specific topics here.
njpaul
njpaul
Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus, by Andre LaMothe, has a few chapters on that topic, but quickly switches to DirectX for the rest of the book. Should be able to pick that book up pretty cheap. I think I found it for $15.
dimovich
dimovich
Hmm... I think I'll stick for now with "Tricks of Win programming Gurus". If I have some questions, I will surely post them here :)...

(If you want to read, and don't feel like spending money, you can download this book, and a few others at: http://rapidshare.de/files/2506351/GameProgramming1.rar.html)
We're doing this for a living, George. We are not amateurs.
dimovich
dimovich
Ok. Let me put it another way. I want to do some graphics effects in GDI ( like object burning, motion blur etc. ). I'm sure I can find decent algorithms out there, but how to implement all this as effectively as possible in GDI ?
We're doing this for a living, George. We are not amateurs.
benishor
benishor
that means software render. gdi will only offer you in this case a canvas to draw onto. you will have to make your own software rendering library. for speed check out mmx and sse instructions.
---novocaine thru yer veinz
Monder
Monder
You're probably not gonna find resources explaining how to do those sort of effects using GDI. However the API you use is pretty irrelevant, the technique is what matters, so if you want to do motion blur, go read up on motion blur techniques and work out how to implement one using GDI.

Though GDI isn't exactly renowned for it's speed. I'd suggest dumping it and using something more suitable.
dimovich
dimovich
Hmm... I'm really concerned about the game size... I try to make it under 100 KB, and I'm not sure I can do this by using OpenGL or DirectX (even DirectDraw). Though I will try. For now, I want to ask you how to make under GDI an effect of fire that gets out of the program window... ? I mean out of the rectangle that you can get with GetWindowRect(...). I know the fire algorithm, but don't know how to draw outside the window.
We're doing this for a living, George. We are not amateurs.
Vectorg
Vectorg
You draw outside the window by getting a global device context, kinda like a screen saver might work. You will have to manage the entire screen in your code, and replace the areas that are overdrawn.
Corsix
Corsix
Quote:
Original post by dimovich
Hmm... I'm really concerned about the game size... I try to make it under 100 KB, and I'm not sure I can do this by using OpenGL or DirectX (even DirectDraw).
I've got a DX9 and DirectInput 8 framework into 8kb, so I don't see your concerns
dimovich
dimovich
I think I'll stick with GDI.
We're doing this for a living, George. We are not amateurs.

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