Custom Control Loses Device Context

[Dennis]

I'm using VS 2003 my project uses COM interop and the Tao Framework.

I have a custom control derived from UserControl. It implements many
functions similar to the Tao's SimpleOpenGLControl, for example I also have a
MakeCurrent() method. Inside of the overriden method for CreateParams() I
also set the CS_OWNDC bit so that my control has a private DC. During
instantiation of my control I make a call to User32.dll to GetDC(IntPtr
handle) passing this.Handle as the argument and hold that as a member
variable, m_hDC, of my class. Then using Tao I then get the Rendering
Context with a m_hRC = Wgl.wglCreateContext(m_hDC);

My application is to take data from a COM object's Connection Point.
Basically it looks like this ReceivedData(SAFEARRAY(BYTE)* buffer). Using VS
to create the event handler for me I get in C#

private void myObj_ReceivedData(ref Array buffer)
My custom control has a method called SetData(byte[] data) so inside of my
event handler the code looks like this

private void myObj_ReceivedData(ref Array buffer)
{
myGlCtrl.SetData((byte[])buffer);
}
Now here is my problem. When the event handler is triggered my control
throws out errors. When I step into SetData() I fall into a position where
I'm watching the m_hDC and it all of the sudden doesn't match the
User32.GetDC(this.Handle) function call. When this happens I can't
successfully MakeCurrent. When I make calls to Marshal.GetLastWin32Error()
I've had it return #6, "The handle is invalid." and also #170, "The requested
resource is in use." I'm not sure which handle the error is referring to but
I do know that my control's Handle is constant and did not change.

Shouldn't the device context remain the same value since it is a private DC?

I also know that my control does draw. Because as a test I was at first
using a timer on my application that randomly filled a byte[] at every 500ms.
Inside the timer1_Tick(...) event handler I made the
myGlCtrl.SetData(m_data) call and it drew fine. But when I switched my
application to the COM object as the data source things went bad.

Is there another step I need to perform when getting data from the COM object?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,

Dennis

[Dennis]

It appears that my COM object's connection Point is coming in on a seperate
thread other than my UI thread.

Since this is using OpenGL that is invalid for my rendering context. There
can be only one ACTIVE rendering context per thread.

I believe I've found the solution. I had to use modify my code slightly so
that my SetData routine did no GL commands and only manipulated the data.
Then I used Invoke to get the other thread to start my Rendering on the UI
thread.

I hope this may help someone else in the future. I now I've spent to much
time with it.
Dennis

"Dennis" wrote:

I'm using VS 2003 my project uses COM interop and the Tao Framework.

I have a custom control derived from UserControl. It implements many
functions similar to the Tao's SimpleOpenGLControl, for example I also have a
MakeCurrent() method. Inside of the overriden method for CreateParams() I
also set the CS_OWNDC bit so that my control has a private DC. During
instantiation of my control I make a call to User32.dll to GetDC(IntPtr
handle) passing this.Handle as the argument and hold that as a member
variable, m_hDC, of my class. Then using Tao I then get the Rendering
Context with a m_hRC = Wgl.wglCreateContext(m_hDC);

My application is to take data from a COM object's Connection Point.
Basically it looks like this ReceivedData(SAFEARRAY(BYTE)* buffer). Using VS
to create the event handler for me I get in C#

private void myObj_ReceivedData(ref Array buffer)
My custom control has a method called SetData(byte[] data) so inside of my
event handler the code looks like this

private void myObj_ReceivedData(ref Array buffer)
{
myGlCtrl.SetData((byte[])buffer);
}
Now here is my problem. When the event handler is triggered my control
throws out errors. When I step into SetData() I fall into a position where
I'm watching the m_hDC and it all of the sudden doesn't match the
User32.GetDC(this.Handle) function call. When this happens I can't
successfully MakeCurrent. When I make calls to Marshal.GetLastWin32Error()
I've had it return #6, "The handle is invalid." and also #170, "The requested
resource is in use." I'm not sure which handle the error is referring to but
I do know that my control's Handle is constant and did not change.

Shouldn't the device context remain the same value since it is a private DC?

I also know that my control does draw. Because as a test I was at first
using a timer on my application that randomly filled a byte[] at every 500ms.
Inside the timer1_Tick(...) event handler I made the
myGlCtrl.SetData(m_data) call and it drew fine. But when I switched my
application to the COM object as the data source things went bad.

Is there another step I need to perform when getting data from the COM object?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,

Dennis