manipulating images with the mouse

[Jason]

Hi,

I wish to create a little game where you drag pieces onto a board. I have
been playing around with a picture box:

Private Sub Picture1_DblClick()
Picture1.Left = Picture1.Left + 50
End Sub

Private Sub Picture1_DragOver(Source As Control, X As Single, Y As Single,
State As Integer)
Picture1.Left = Picture1.Left + 20
End Sub

I can move the picture when i double click it but not when i drag, dont
understand why though. I own three books on VB but none of them seem very
helpful on this matter, I rarely use graphics. Assuming i create a
collection of images representing the board and pieces, where should i
start? searches on the internet have turned up numerous examples of source
code, filled with windows api declarations and code i cannot easily follow,
so i would appreciate a little guidance for a graphics/animation beginner.

All i want to do is move the images in relation to the mouse, detect which
part of an image(the board) one of the pieces is over or perhaps i should
split the board into a grid made up of individual images and detect which
image the mouse is over if that is easier .

Can anyone provide a simple example, which demonstrates the principle of
moving one image over anotehr and getting the neccessary information about
the events, or point me to easy to follow resources?

Thanks for any help in advance.

[Kate]

>

Can anyone provide a simple example, which demonstrates the principle of
moving one image over anotehr and getting the neccessary information about
the events, or point me to easy to follow resources?

Thanks for any help in advance.

I have an application that might mimic some parts of what you're
looking for. I'm a beginner at this, and not heavy into graphics
either, so I'm not sure what jargon to use that will give you an idea
of what I can provide--I'll just describe what mine does, and if you
want more let me know:

On a form, user clicks command buttons to create recognizable shapes
(platforms of various sizes, benches, etc). These shapes appear on a
picture box, and user can then drag them around, arrange them into
configurations, delete them, etc. The shapes snap onto each other, so
there's no guessing about the proper placement. If necessary, the
shapes can change their appearance depending on what they are
connected to.

I used User Controls to do this, and although it didn't work exactly
the way I thought it would it is still satisfactory. There's a bit of
indirection involved, but once you get used to it you can make them do
just about anything you want. I wouldn't say this process is easy to
follow, it took me quite a while to figure out--and can probably be
done in a better way using a lot of that API you mentioned, but I
managed with just a couple of those calls. Anyway, let me know if you
want some specific examples of the above, and perhaps others can
improve on any processes I outline.

[Jason]

"Kate" <ka**@curio.com> wrote in message
news:2c**************************@posting.google.c om...

Can anyone provide a simple example, which demonstrates the principle of
moving one image over anotehr and getting the neccessary information about the events, or point me to easy to follow resources?

Thanks for any help in advance.

I have an application that might mimic some parts of what you're
looking for. I'm a beginner at this, and not heavy into graphics
either, so I'm not sure what jargon to use that will give you an idea
of what I can provide--I'll just describe what mine does, and if you
want more let me know:

On a form, user clicks command buttons to create recognizable shapes
(platforms of various sizes, benches, etc). These shapes appear on a
picture box, and user can then drag them around, arrange them into
configurations, delete them, etc. The shapes snap onto each other, so
there's no guessing about the proper placement. If necessary, the
shapes can change their appearance depending on what they are
connected to.

I used User Controls to do this, and although it didn't work exactly
the way I thought it would it is still satisfactory. There's a bit of
indirection involved, but once you get used to it you can make them do
just about anything you want. I wouldn't say this process is easy to
follow, it took me quite a while to figure out--and can probably be
done in a better way using a lot of that API you mentioned, but I
managed with just a couple of those calls. Anyway, let me know if you
want some specific examples of the above, and perhaps others can
improve on any processes I outline.

Hi thanks for your message,

I did a search on the internet for user controls, is this related to them?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...s/default.aspx

because if it is I think user controls are only available in .Net and I am
using VB 6. Can you explain that bit about indirection again, might have
gone over my head :).

i suspect what you describe sounds more complicated than what I am trying to
achieve. All I want is to tile some bordered images in a picture box to
create a board, such as in a chess or checkers board. since my original
post I have learned about a windows api call known as BitBlt in the GDI dll
and I am trying to figure out how to use that properly. any explanations
welcome.

the next thing is to create images representing pieces and enable them to be
dragged and placed with the mouse to their appropriate positions within the
picture box. Again any example code for visual basic 6, which achieves
something similar or demonstrates related principles, is most welcome.

thanks.

[Larry Serflaten]

"Jason" <ja***********@btinternet.com> wrote

the next thing is to create images representing pieces and enable them to be
dragged and placed with the mouse to their appropriate positions within the
picture box. Again any example code for visual basic 6, which achieves
something similar or demonstrates related principles, is most welcome.

Here is an example of dragging. Click the mouse on the form to start dragging.
It draws a black box where the drag started from, and a red square where it
ends. While dragging it shows an icon, but that should be an icon of the piece
being moved. You have to imagine the board is shown, the example only does
the drag part....

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...usinternet.com

HTH
LFS


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[Jason]

"Larry Serflaten" <Ab***@SpamBusters.com> wrote in message
news:40********@corp.newsgroups.com...

"Jason" <ja***********@btinternet.com> wrote

the next thing is to create images representing pieces and enable them to be dragged and placed with the mouse to their appropriate positions within the picture box. Again any example code for visual basic 6, which achieves
something similar or demonstrates related principles, is most welcome.
Here is an example of dragging. Click the mouse on the form to start

dragging. It draws a black box where the drag started from, and a red square where it ends. While dragging it shows an icon, but that should be an icon of the piece being moved. You have to imagine the board is shown, the example only does
the drag part....

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...usinternet.com

HTH
LFS

thank you, i think this is going to be useful to me.

[Kate]

> I did a search on the internet for user controls, is this related to them?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...s/default.aspx

because if it is I think user controls are only available in .Net and I am
using VB 6. Can you explain that bit about indirection again, might have
gone over my head :). It is related, but I use VB6. I tried a few things using GDI but it
was well over my shallow head so I just muddled around with more
manual work.
i suspect what you describe sounds more complicated than what I am trying to
achieve. All I want is to tile some bordered images in a picture box to
create a board, such as in a chess or checkers board. since my original
post I have learned about a windows api call known as BitBlt in the GDI dll
and I am trying to figure out how to use that properly. any explanations
welcome.
the next thing is to create images representing pieces and enable them to be
dragged and placed with the mouse to their appropriate positions within the
picture box. Again any example code for visual basic 6, which achieves
something similar or demonstrates related principles, is most welcome.

There are probably many ways to accomplish this, but what I required
in my pieces was a lot of ability to interact and make decisions for
themselves, based on what they discovered about their placement each
time they were moved.

Take a look here: this tiny example program really gave me a solid
starting point in investigating user controls for my application.

http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~saul/vb_examples/
[look under the heading Active X Controls, then download the sample
program
"Follow Me"]

Do you know yet how you are going to create the images to represent
pieces?