Random Picture Location...

I am needing help with randomizing the locations of a few pictures...

I have a chess type design board, and I need the program to randomly put 5 pictures in different places on the board, each time the user loads the program... Also, if able, I want the program to decide which pictures to display, and how many of that kind, but always display 5 pictures on the board...

An example on how to do this would be really helpfull!

-Andre

So where exactly do you have the problem?

You have stated exactly what you need and you know exactly what you need to do... Where exactly are you failing to be able to do it???

Or do you just want some poor slob to write the code for you so you don't have to do it yourself ;)

:D

Why not just generate random numbers to calculate the location coordiantes for each image on the form?

My problem is I dont know where to start..and i was looking for help... There is a lot more to my program than this small detail. If you dont have any help, please dont respond cause it then turns this into a chit chat thread.

Well I do have something that will help but probably not in the way you were hoping.

The problem as I see it is the ability to take a problem and break it down into smaller and manageable pieces... a common problem programmers face at one time or another.

So rather than giving you a fish I will try and teach you HOW to fish ;)


You have stated the requirements of your program :

• Chess Type Board (ie grid, could use 2 dimensional array)
• Randomly place "pictures" on the board
• Randomly decide which pictures & how many

So lets tackle each part :

Chess Type Board
Obviously you would use a grid where the width of your board divided by the number of squares would tell you how many pixels per square and allow you to dimension the array.

What you would end up with then is something like this :

Code:

---

Dim iBoard() as Integer

iWidth = 10
iHeight = 10

iSquareWidth = PictureBox.Width / iWidth
iSquareHeight = PictureBox.Height / iHeight

Redim iBoard(iWidth,iHeight)

---

So placing an item on the board would go like this :

Code:

---

iXPos = 3
iYPos = 2

imgGraphic.Left = (iXPos - 1) * iSquareWidth
imgGraphic.Top = (iYPos - 1) * iSquareHeight
iBoard(iXPos-1, iYPos-1) = 1 ' Indicates piece here

---

The rest you can work out yourself.

Randomly Place Pictures on the Board
Obviously this means you require a random seed and to generate random numbers and also check that nothing is there already.

Code:

---

iPieces = 5

Randomize
For iItem = 1 to iPieces
  iXPos = Int(Rnd * iWidth) + 1
  iYPos = Int(Rnd * iHeight) + 1
  Do
    If iBoard(iXPos-1,iYPos-1) <> 0 Then
      iXPos = Int(Rnd * iWidth) + 1
      iYPos = Int(Rnd * iHeight) + 1
    Else
      PlacePiece(iXPos,iYPos) ' See above
      Exit Do
    End If
  Loop
Next iItem

---

So now you have the number of pieces you require, making sure they are not on top of each other and in random positions

Randomly decide which pictures & how many
This means you are now using not just 0 (Nothing) and 1 (Something) but instead would be setting the value of iBoard to be the type of picture.

So above you would include the Type of picture (indicated with an integer) and keep track of how many you have left by making an array where each element corresponded to the number of the board type and the value said how many were left to place.

Conclusion
So you see that there isn't really any problem at all... all you need to do is break it down into seperate pieces, place each of those pieces into a function or a subroutine and then call those subroutines when you require them.

Start with something simple and then expand and modify your own code to include things like type and how many.


I hope it helps