Problem with Animated GIFs

[Phil]

I thought it would be nice to display some animated GIFs on some of my
forms. I put a PictureBox control on a form, and loaded my GIF file in. It
animates, but not properly. It seems very jerky and dwells on some frames
longer than it should. Searching for this problem, I have found several
people who have stated that animated GIFs don't work in a PictureBox at all,
and you have to use the ImageAnimator. I assume they must be referring to an
older version, because I do get some animation, it's just not quite right. I
am using VB2005 Express.
I thought it might be a problem with running under the IDE, but I still get
the same problem if I build the project and run the release exe.
I looked up ImageAnimator in the help, and it is not especially helpful, but
there was some sample code. I tried this, and I get exactly the same
problem. The image displays and animates, but the timing seems all wrong. If
I use the image preview in Windows XP the image displays fine, so I don't
think it's a problem with the GIF file itself.
Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.
TIA
Phil.

[Cor Ligthert[MVP]]

Phil,

You are sure that you set the properties of the picturebox right

By instance this ones let it look on every screen different

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib....sizemode.aspx

Cor

"Phil" <N/Aschreef in bericht news:13******** *****@corp.supe rnews.com...

>I thought it would be nice to display some animated GIFs on some of my
forms. I put a PictureBox control on a form, and loaded my GIF file in. It
animates, but not properly. It seems very jerky and dwells on some frames
longer than it should. Searching for this problem, I have found several
people who have stated that animated GIFs don't work in a PictureBox at
all, and you have to use the ImageAnimator. I assume they must be referring
to an older version, because I do get some animation, it's just not quite
right. I am using VB2005 Express.
I thought it might be a problem with running under the IDE, but I still
get the same problem if I build the project and run the release exe.
I looked up ImageAnimator in the help, and it is not especially helpful,
but there was some sample code. I tried this, and I get exactly the same
problem. The image displays and animates, but the timing seems all wrong.
If I use the image preview in Windows XP the image displays fine, so I
don't think it's a problem with the GIF file itself.
Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.
TIA
Phil.

[Linda Liu [MSFT]]

Hi Phil,

Based on my understanding, you'd like to display some animated GIFs on some
of your forms. But you find that the animated GIF is slower when it is
displayed in a WinForm than in the image preview in the Windows Explorer.
If I'm off base, please feel free to let me know.

I performed some tests and did reproduce the problem. When I display an
animated GIF in a PictureBox on a WinForm, the animation is a little slower
than displayed in the Internet Explorer.

I guess WinForm limits the maximum frames displayed per second. I have
seached in our inner database, but unfortunately, I haven't found any
information about it so far.

I will consult this issue in our inner discussion group and as soon as I
get any news, I will get it back to you.

In addtion, although my animated GIF is displayed slower in a WinForm, but
the animation is smooth. As you have mentioned, the animated GIF you're
using seems jerky when it is display in a form. Could you please send me
the animated GIF? To get my actual email address, remove 'online' from my
displayed email address.

Thank you for your cooperation and patience!

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Phil]

You are sure that you set the properties of the picturebox right

By instance this ones let it look on every screen different

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib....sizemode.aspx

I set SizeMode to AutoSize, but I'll try setting the size manually and see
if that makes any difference.
That wouldn't explain the problem when using ImageAnimator though, as in
that example it was drawing directly on the form.

[Phil]

>You are sure that you set the properties of the picturebox right

>>
By instance this ones let it look on every screen different

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib....sizemode.aspx

I set SizeMode to AutoSize, but I'll try setting the size manually and see
if that makes any difference.

I tried setting SizeMode to Normal, and it makes no difference.

[Phil]

Within the IDE or when running the program?

It makes no difference whether I run the program from within the IDE or
compile it, and run the exe.

In the IDE, I don't see any
animation at all.

I don't see any animation when using the form designer. That is not a
problem. I am only concerned with the runtime behaviour.

When running the program, it is displayed correctly.

Not for me :(

>(VB 2005 Express)

That is what I am using too.

[Armin Zingler]

"Phil" <N/Aschrieb

>

Within the IDE or when running the program?

It makes no difference whether I run the program from within the IDE
or compile it, and run the exe.

In the IDE, I don't see any
animation at all.

I don't see any animation when using the form designer. That is not
a problem. I am only concerned with the runtime behaviour.

When running the program, it is displayed correctly.

Not for me :(

(VB 2005 Express)

That is what I am using too.

What else does the application do? Does it do any other job while you are
watching the image? Maybe you are using System.Windows. Forms.Timer that does
things from time to time?

Have you already tried it in a new project?
Armin

[Phil]

What else does the application do?

Nothing yet. First thing I tried when it didn't work was to create a new
project to ensure nothing else might be interfering.

[Phil]

I tried calling UpdateFrames twice in my Paint event handler, and now it

is displaying the new frame correctly.

Actually that seemed to work once, but is now not working again. :-(

[Phil]

"Phil" <N/Awrote in message news:13******** *****@corp.supe rnews.com...

>I tried calling UpdateFrames twice in my Paint event handler, and now it
is displaying the new frame correctly.

Actually that seemed to work once, but is now not working again. :-(

What does seem to fix it though is calling
Threading.Threa d.Sleep(10)

before calling UpdateFrames.