Program over-top of fullscreen

[JBD2]

Is there a way I can have a form show up over top of a full-screen game or something, without disrupting the game, but so there's like a pop-up, so that when I receive an IM in the background or something, it has a pop-up that doesn't interupt my game. Is there a way I can do this?

[RobDog888]

You should ask Jacob Roman since he should know how to do that with DirectX.

[penagate]

Does setting it to always on top (HWND_TOPMOST) using SetWindowPos() not work?

[baja_yu]

Set the border style of a form to None and then when you maximize it it will go over everything (even the taskbar). Then you can combine it with Always on Top to make it stay over everything. You can also implement the blocking of opening the start menu, task swtiching and so on to create a full game effect.

[penagate]

Baja he wants a popup over a game

[baja_yu]

Oh... my bad. I thought he wanted to MAKE a game.

[JBD2]

I don't know if anybody has heard of it before, but there is a program called "Xfire" www.xfire.com, anyways it has in game instant messaging, so it shows a popup and what person said it, and when you press a hotkey, it brings up an instant message thing overtop of your game, but anyways the popup is what I want to do, and make it so that you can see it overtop of the game, yet still be playing the game, and when you press a hotkey (I know how to do this) it brings something up, anyways I've attatched a picture of xfire to show you what I mean.

[baja_yu]

So what is your problem exactly? what cant you get to work?

[JBD2]

Will the always on top method work though? Like MSN's popups used to mess up full screen games, but xfire made it work perfect, so I'm wondering if the always on top will work.

[baja_yu]

I guess the only way to see is to try. Make a timer, set it to 30 seconds or so, and have it pop up a new window and on load (of that popup) set it Always On Top. Then start the game and the timer.

[JBD2]

Ok, thanks I'll try it and let you know.

[JBD2]

Ok I tried this code:

Private Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Long, _
  ByVal X As Long, ByVal Y As Long, ByVal cx As Long, ByVal cy As Long, ByVal wFlags As Long) As Long
Private Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1
Private Const HWND_NOTOPMOST = -2
Private Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Private Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
Form1.Visible = False
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Form1.Visible = True
Call SetWindowPos(Form1.hwnd, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE)
End Sub

And it showed up over other windows, but not the full screen game.

[baja_yu]

Did it at least flash for a moment?

[JBD2]

I didn't see anything until I alt-tabbed out of the game, but it was overtop of other windows.

[Johnny English]

i found this on allapi.net, but it will only print text and it flickers

you can probably use the same method and BitBlit on to the same hDC as your game
but i cant think of a way to get your whole form on top ?

'This Project needs
'- two timers, interval=100
'- a button
 
'in general section
Private Type POINTAPI
    x As Long
    y As Long
End Type
 
Private Declare Function GetActiveWindow Lib "user32" () As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindowDC Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function Ellipse Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal X1 As Long, ByVal Y1 As Long, ByVal X2 As Long, ByVal Y2 As Long) As Long
 
Private Declare Function TextOut Lib "gdi32" Alias "TextOutA" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal nCount As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (lpPoint As POINTAPI) As Long
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Timer1.Interval = 100
    Timer1.Enabled = True
    Timer2.Interval = 100
    Timer2.Enabled = True
    Command1.Caption = "Draw Text"
End Sub
'This will draw an Ellipse on the active window
Sub Timer1_Timer()
    Dim Position As POINTAPI
    'Get the cursor position
    GetCursorPos Position
    'Draw the Ellipse on the Screen's DC
    Ellipse GetWindowDC(0), Position.x - 5, Position.y - 5, Position.x + 5, Position.y + 5
End Sub
Sub Command1_Click()
    'KPD-Team 1998
    'URL: [url]http://www.allapi.net/[/url]
    'E-Mail: [email][email protected][/email]
 
    Dim intCount As Integer, strString As String
    strString = "Cool, text on screen !"
    For intCount = 0 To 30
        'Draw the text on the screen
        TextOut GetWindowDC(0), intCount * 20, intCount * 20, strString, Len(strString)
    Next intCount
End Sub
Private Sub Timer2_Timer()
    'Draw the text to the active window
    TextOut GetWindowDC(GetActiveWindow), 50, 50, "This is a form", 14
End Sub
 
Close this window

[Johnny English]

you can also try SetParent

this puts the whole form inside the game window, BUT it will flicker
works ok for notepad tho

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function SetParent Lib "user32" (ByVal hWndChild As Long, ByVal hWndNewParent As Long) As Long
 
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Me.ZOrder 0
    Timer1.Interval = 1000
    Timer2.Interval = 100
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Dim hwnd As Long
 
    hwnd = FindWindow("Notepad", vbNullString)
    If hwnd = 0 Then Exit Sub
 
    SetParent Me.hwnd, hwnd
 
    Timer1.Enabled = False
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer2_Timer()
    Me.Refresh
End Sub

[JBD2]

Is there anyway to stop the flickering?

[|2eM!x]

Why dont you use spy++ to watch XFire and see what messages it sends

[JBD2]

I've tried to use spy++ before, I always get confused on how it works, could you explain it to me a bit?

[|2eM!x]

you find the window of XFire messanger with it (by its name). Then you right click on it and click messages

you will see a whole lot of stuff there, but try and remember the number on the left and quickly start up your game and ask a friend to message you. Then shrink the game and pause spy++ and read along until you see something that might be of interest

[JBD2]

I'll try it out some time.