skinning....need a lil coding help...

[theonetrueace]

im creating a skinning engine for a project and i need a lil bit of help.....

i thought about using picture boxs but they dont support transparence properly....im going to be loading a set of bitmaps on to the form, which has no borders...im thinking im gonna need to create a custom control which will support transparency properly and do all the events that a picturebox does.....or can i just modify the picturebox somehow....

a lil code pertaining to your suggestions would be awsome.....or just a suggestion would be great.....thanks in advance...

AcE

[Andy]

you mean skins for apps like WinAmp? if so, I THINK you can goto the 'developers' section at winamp.com and they have open-source code for download. I could be wrong.

[PT Exorcist]

Don't use picture boxes, they will eventually screw things up. Instead use the OnPaint event and put all your drawing code there

[theonetrueace]

ok....using the onpaint event is fine and dandy....but how will i catch clicks and other events on the form with no controls, other than the form to click....i guess i could keep an eye on the cursor position but that seems like the long way around this problem......what u guyz think?

[MrPolite]

Originally posted by theonetrueace
ok....using the onpaint event is fine and dandy....but how will i catch clicks and other events on the form with no controls, other than the form to click....i guess i could keep an eye on the cursor position but that seems like the long way around this problem......what u guyz think?

dunno if this is a good way but you could define some variables of type Region and define the close button, minimize button, etc's location each in a separate region variable. If you have a variable like that for each button then you can do a hittest by calling Region.IsVisible (mouseX, mouseY)

[theonetrueace]

ok....so i have figured out alot in the last two hours...i have an interesting question....

considering a form's ability to use a region to determine borders...would it be posible to have a region which fades off....making a very nice userinterface....it would use an alpha layering system much like windows xp icons....which would require semi transparency....now whats a great format for this type of transparency...i can think of none better than png...ideas?

AcE