Display text from my vb app, over a 3rd party full screen DDRAW game.

[tintino]

I want my vb app to display some info into a full screen 3d game, that uses DDRAW. This is a Sierra game.

Problem:
If i use DrawStateText api (kernel32) , the game immediately repaints over. If i try to do this in a fast timer, it works but flickers, or course.

If i put my app on top, (set permanently on top) it works, but the moment i click on my app, the game detects that it lost focus and minimizes, exiting from full screen mode.

About the game:
The game uses DDRAW.dll
The game runs in 800x600 resolution, in both window mode and full screen mode. In full screen mode, it changes the screen resolution to 800x600. In window mode, the client area of the window it runs in, is 800x600.

Someone has suggested to me to CreateWindowEx () some window... but what kind of window can i create ? What style bits ?

Or is there a way to make the game NOT paint a certain portion of the full screen window? Maybe using some CLIP or REGIONS API's ?

[RothHear]

hey dude when u find a way to do this give me a email i have been looking :/

[tintino]

i've been looking .... for 2 years

[Jacob Roman]

If you want to draw over a program that uses DirectX, then you gotta use DirectX yourself for rendering, only not using the handles (hDC and hWnd) of your own form, rather instead, you use the other window's hDC and hWnd. I believe that can be done using the GetWindow, GetDC, and FindWindow API's to obtain the handles. Once you have them, use DirectX to render the text or anything you want, and it should draw over.