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Finally! building a front end from scratch
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unclet:
I think you can load all the pictures in an imageList control in VB and then access the images via this list (ie: array) for display purposes.   I think the ImageList control is part of the "Microsoft Windows Common Controls (SP3)" component ..... I think

Although, I am not sure how fast loading all screenshots for each emulator would take at start up time.   There are a lot of screenshots for Mame and tons of screenshots for GBA .... not to mention all the other 40 emulators out there.
(+_+):

--- Quote from: SavannahLion on June 12, 2007, 07:59:19 pm ---I don't know if VB6 would have been my first choice to develop a FE in either. For RAD designs, it's usually the first language I turn to however, mostly because I still remember quite a bit of it.

In the long run though, it's not a very satisfactory language. You'll find as your programming prowess increases (is that possible with VB?) you'll start hitting the upper limits of what the language is capable of doing. For some reason, moving to a different language is an almost impossible feat for a lot of people.

For me it took a lot, to finally drop VB and force myself to a new language.

VB isn't bad, but it leads into a dangerous trap where people simply don't use a different language.

--- End quote ---

I'd have to disagree with you there. I've been programming now for 12 years and unless there is a real reason to code in a specific language, such as for real time systems for example, there is no need to adopt any one language over another. It really boils down to how well you or your team knows a specific language since it puts you on a much faster track to getting the program written. I've written my front end in VB and have been able to accomplish everything I set up to do and more. VB is notorious for giving programmers a bad wrap due to it's deceiving simplicity and the fact that it is/was a good starting place for beginner developers. Because of this every TD&H claims to be an experienced programmer. The result being, the market becomes flooded, lots of crappy code is written, VB salaries are reduced and thus making VB seem weak. Some languages are better suited for certain tasks but it doesn't mean that it cannot be accomplished in a different language. We used to use Powerbuilder for some of our products. It makes database programming much easier because of its data window features. But you can still write industrial database applications in Java, C, C++, C#, Delphi and VB.

MaMeNnO, unless you are interested  in learning a newer language and are willing to go through the learning curve, I'd stick with whatever language you are most comfortable with.
(+_+):

--- Quote from: MaMeNnO on June 26, 2007, 09:31:38 am ---I've been terribly lazy with my front end... I really should get going on with it.

--- Quote from: liquid8 on June 11, 2007, 08:26:37 pm ---Good luck :) It's a lot of work. I also would have started with a language you already know, but VB can make the development cycle quicker, and if you are doing a sort of "how-to" that might be the language to use.

A couple things I'd look into:


--- Quote --- Are you not having problems with form flicker when changing things on the control or form?
--- End quote ---

You most likely will run into this when you get further into graphics development. VB is not really graphical friendly. For VB6, enable double buffering for the form:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemwindowsformscontrolclasssetstyletopic.asp

or

http://www.bobpowell.net/doublebuffer.htm

This can have a negative effect on cpu usage, but for smooth scrolling is probably necessary...



I would look into gdi+ - not sure if there's a reference for it for VB6, but .NET and C can both use it. It gives you MUCH better control of graphics (and you can do more cool things) ;)


--- End quote ---
I don't want to include to fancy looking things. Just a preview of the ingame image and a custom background is enough. What I do notice is that when I go through the list for the first time it's really slow (pictures can't catch up fast enough). The second time it can. Seems like pictures get cached or something.

Is there a way to cache the pictures when I start the front-end?


--- End quote ---

I ran into this exact same problem. While scrolling through your game list, only show the game screenshot during your mouse up/key up event. I had to do the same thing for the .wav file that I play since it wouldn't playing quickly enough even though I'm reading it from a resource file. BTW, I put all images and sounds in my resource file except for the dynamic ones.

(+_+):

--- Quote from: unclet on June 26, 2007, 12:47:02 pm ---I think you can load all the pictures in an imageList control in VB and then access the images via this list (ie: array) for display purposes.   I think the ImageList control is part of the "Microsoft Windows Common Controls (SP3)" component ..... I think

Although, I am not sure how fast loading all screenshots for each emulator would take at start up time.   There are a lot of screenshots for Mame and tons of screenshots for GBA .... not to mention all the other 40 emulators out there.

--- End quote ---

Very true. Just load the image file on your keyup event. If it was data from ini files or registry data, then I'd load it up into a data structure of some sort just once up front. For countless images, I'd defer to reading on an as needed basis.
gonzo90017:
Hey (+_+) Any plans on releasing your frontend?
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