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Thread: RainMeter in VB6?

  1. #1

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    RainMeter in VB6?

    Hi All,

    I am a big fan of RainMeter and how it is used for "Desktop Customization", specially for graphics rendering and multi threading for multiple animations.

    Is there a way to mimic RainMeter using VB6 and use that for applications to build a fancy GUI, such as "Futuristic & Sci-Fi GUI"?

    I want to make something interactive like this using VB6

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrs6...DCDMzqIFX4aI1i

    Update:
    Another (stronger) Example:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY0m...ODiJJH&index=6

    Thanks in advance
    Last edited by mohmag; Sep 4th, 2020 at 11:40 AM.

  2. #2
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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    Hi mohmag. Welcome to the forum!

    I never heard of RainMeter, is this what you mean: https://www.google.com/search?q=rain...=1920&bih=1086 ?

    If so, it is possible but is going to require a fair amount of effort. Not being experienced with advanced graphics in vb6 I wouldn't know where to begin here. Do you have any experience with graphics programming?

    yours,
    Peter Swinkels

  3. #3

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    Peter,

    Sure I do have good experience in graphics programming, but I need much more in this regard. For example I need to address the following topics:

    1. Building Muti-threaded interactive and responsive GUI.
    Like when you have many regions in the form and all of them are animated at the same time without blocking each other, such as a vertical-scrolling text and a spinning graph and a real-time chart all running on one form.
    2. Advanced Graphics libraries
    Such as real-time graphs, charts, diagrams, transparent pictures, neon text, animations, etc.
    3. Advanced Forms-transitions:
    Such as Sliding, scrolling, dissolving, etc.
    4. High-performance and smoothness:
    To make the GUI feel natural.

    And so on.

    You can look to this example here to imagine what I mean:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrs6...DCDMzqIFX4aI1i

    Appreciate any help in this regard.

    Thanks

  4. #4
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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    1. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...sual-basic-6-0
    2-4. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...me-development

    I think your best bet would be investigating game development in vb6 even though you're not making a game as that usually involves advanced graphics too. I am going to leave it at that because this is way beyond my level of experience.

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    You only have one thread for the GUI you would have to use some timing mechanism to allow each of your graphics to update one after the other very quickly to make them appear to all be moving at once.

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    DataMiser,

    Of course I have tried to do that many times using the "usual" VB6 techniques, such as Timer objests and DoEvents, but there is always flickering and non-smoothness in the animations.

    I want to be able to create a smooth, multi-regions, simultaneous high-graphics application such as the quality I mentioned in the URL posted above.

    I really wonder how such GUI was implemented? Which tools have been used? Is this a real interactive GUI or just a continuous loop of animation that can't accept user input or update the information displayed?

    Thanks
    Last edited by mohmag; Sep 4th, 2020 at 10:32 AM.

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    Well I wasn't referring to do events, but code where each object gets updated one step at a time and all objects get updated that one step before any get updated a second step. There are methods to get rid of flickering but like some of the others here advanced graphics is not my area of expertise. Personally if I wanted to create an advanced graphical multi threaded app I would nto be looking at VB6 as the tool to do it in.

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    DataMiser,

    "Personally if I wanted to create an advanced graphical multi threaded app I would nto be looking at VB6 as the tool to do it in"

    Which tools do you suggest then? And is there any open-source examples of such GUI?

    Thanks

  9. #9
    Lively Member Grant Swinger's Avatar
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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    For something like this C++ is the language of choice. That's what most games and graphics intensive software are written in. I'd suggest looking at the Rainmeter source code first to get an idea as what's involved.

    You can download it here: https://github.com/rainmeter/rainmeter. You'll need Visual Studio 2019.

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    Grant Swinger,

    I did that already, I even tried to compile it but it gives me errors at some point.

    I was wondering why the same can't be done in VB6 as we are much more familiar with its programming model?

    Why can't we use low-level APIs and libraries to achieve such amazing results?

    What is missing?

    Thanks

  11. #11
    Lively Member Grant Swinger's Avatar
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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    The "programming model" of Classic VB was intended to make easier for less skilled developers to write CRUD business applications, not things like Rainmeter. While there is nothing stopping you from calling low-level APIs and libraries in VB6 it is not much easier than just doing it in C++. In some ways it's harder since you'll be fighting the limitations of the language. That's why VB was never used in professional game development. It had nothing to offer game developers.

    Why not just learn C++?

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    Grant Swinger,

    Thanks for your contribution.

    I don't mind at all to learn C++, actually I know the basics, but I need to see a full open-source example implemented for this very specific purpose (Futuristic Sci-Fi GUI) complete with all libraries used to build such amazing approach.

    I don't think the problem is in learning C++, but it is in how to use C++ to build huge libraries and integrating them together in order to produce such interactive, multithreaded, simultaneous, smooth GUI.

    I wish I can find such open-source example to learn from.

    Thanks

  13. #13

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    Re: RainMeter in VB6?

    Grant Swinger,

    While searching for answers to my questions, I believe I found some clues and tools that use C++ for game development. One of the popular tools is called "Unreal Engine", that uses both C# and C++ to develop complete 3D games.

    Also I found another similar engine for game dev called "Unity".

    Still I didn't find an example or a tutorial on how to build a "Futuristic Sci-Fi" GUI, but this could be the beginning of the thread to the solution.

    The idea here isn't about C++ only, but the "Unreal Engine" is a complete integrated IDE, equipped with tons of specialized libraries that can be invoked using C# style and C++ OOP programming model to build sophisticated games.

    Still digging, but I was hoping to find something similar implemented in VB6.

    Thanks

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