I feel so stupid asking this..

All I want to do is load an image into a window, then places transparent BMP's over it. I will be changing the images every 5 seconds, but there all hard coded graphics from set files. Whats the best way to do this?

And I dont want smooth animation, it must clearly change from one graphics to the next.

Ok, I figured out I can do it with directdraw, can someone read this and suggest if Im doing it right, it looks good, and it all moves smoothely.

<code>

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'DirectX Inits
'Registry constants
Private Const KEY_READ = 131097
Private Const REG_SZ = 1
Private Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
'Registry API's
Private Declare Function RegConnectRegistry Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegConnectRegistryA" (ByVal lpMachineName As String, ByVal hKey As Long, phkResult As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function RegCloseKey Lib "advapi32.dll" (ByVal hKey As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function RegQueryValueEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegQueryValueExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpValueName As String, ByVal lpReserved As Long, lpType As Long, ByVal lpData As String, lpcbData As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function RegOpenKeyEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegOpenKeyExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String, ByVal ulOptions As Long, ByVal samDesired As Long, phkResult As Long) As Long
'Module level variables
Dim objDX As New DirectX7
Dim objDD As DirectDraw7
Dim objDDSurf As DirectDrawSurface7
Dim objDDPrimSurf As DirectDrawSurface7
Dim PrimaryViewSurface1 As DDSURFACEDESC2
Dim PrimaryViewSurface2 As DDSURFACEDESC2
Dim ddClipper As DirectDrawClipper
Dim bInit As Boolean
'DirectX Inits END

Private Sub Form_Load()
init
End Sub

Sub init()

Dim sMedia As String
'Initialization procedure

'The empty string parameter means to use the active display driver
Set objDD = objDX.DirectDrawCreate("")
'Notice that the show event calls Form_Resize

'Indicate this app will be a normal windowed app
'with the same display depth as the current display
Call objDD.SetCooperativeLevel(Me.hWnd, DDSCL_NORMAL)

'Indicate that the ddsCaps member is valid in this type
PrimaryViewSurface1.lFlags = DDSD_CAPS
'Create a primary surface
PrimaryViewSurface1.ddsCaps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE
'Now we create the primary surface, this is like a canvas for the Blt to paint on.
Set objDDPrimSurf = objDD.CreateSurface(PrimaryViewSurface1)

'Now we repeat the creation procedure for the second surface, that will actually contain our graphic
PrimaryViewSurface2.lFlags = DDSD_CAPS
PrimaryViewSurface2.ddsCaps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_OFFSCREENPLAIN
Set objDDSurf = objDD.CreateSurfaceFromFile("c:\LOCATION\images\PIC.bmp", PrimaryViewSurface2)

Set ddClipper = objDD.CreateClipper(0)
ddClipper.SetHWnd picture1.hWnd
objDDPrimSurf.SetClipper ddClipper

'Confirm to the blitter that everything worked OK
bInit = True

'Ok now were ready to blit this thing, call the blt procedure
blt

End Sub
Private Sub Form_Resize()
'The following two lines can be used to make a picture always fit a given area, taken out for testing
' picture1.Width = Me.ScaleWidth
' picture1.Height = Me.ScaleHeight
blt
End Sub

Sub blt() ' blt'ing the second surface, onto the first is like sticking a stamp onto an envelope

'Has it been initialized? If not let's get out of this procedure
If bInit = False Then Exit Sub
'Some local variables
Dim ddrval As Long
Dim r1 As RECT
Dim r2 As RECT

'Gets the bounding rect for the entire window handle, stores in r1
objDX.GetWindowRect picture1.hWnd, r1

r2.Bottom = PrimaryViewSurface2.lHeight
r2.Right = PrimaryViewSurface2.lWidth

ddrval = objDDPrimSurf.blt(r1, objDDSurf, r2, DDBLT_WAIT)

End Sub
Private Sub Picture1_Paint()
'This procedure is called during runtime when the form
'is moved or resized.
objDD.RestoreAllSurfaces
init
End Sub
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