Form_Load - Slow Painting

[MrGTI]

This is a very minor issue, but i have a form with a background image and a few controls, but when i open this form, the form is painted in blocks/sections, and it looks very poor during that 1 or 2 seconds.

How can i make the form load itself first, and then show itself, without the delay to paint itself that it currently has??

[Pirate]

Try this in the form's constructor .

SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer, True)

[MrGTI]

I tried that in the Form_Load and the InitializeComponent routines, and the choppy appearance still occurs.

While it's drawing the form on the screen, you can see through it in sections. I've got a fast computer. Any ideas?

[MrGTI]

Any ideas ??

[Pirate]

Does this happen while the image is there ? or do you think it's because there are a lot of controls ?

[MrGTI]

First the image appears on the screen - but it's got holes in it where the controls are supposed to be. Then the controls appear, and the form is complete.

This all happens in a second or two, but the effect is strange to see happen, because it basically paints only a portion of the form on the screen at a time.

I even tried placing a Me.Hide/Me.Visible=False at the begining of the Form_Load event, and then reversing this at the end of the event.

[Pirate]

Try these two links . They might give you some tips , hopefully .
http://www.syncfusion.com/FAQ/WinFor...73c.asp#q1023q http://www.syncfusion.com/FAQ/WinForms/FAQ_c3c.asp

[MrGTI]

The form does have a series of labels, and they are the items that are not being drawn quickly enough to avoid the holes in the form. They also all have transparent background colours.

So i tried playing with the backcolor and Flatstyle of the controls (which was Flatstyle.Standard, not system). I even coloured the labels (backcolor=White), but you see can see right through the form when it loads.

In VB6 we could do a variety of things to allow the form to load before it appears. But so far i haven't been able to find a way to load the form before drawing it.

[Pirate]

Umm what about starting that form in a thread different than the UI thread . I believe this would give you positive result .

[MrGTI]

It's worth a shot i guess. Can you even open a form in a thread and still have it modal to the current form? I'd guess yes, but i never tried.

[Pirate]

Yes , I believe . I've seen a splash screen example done by threading . It's pretty cool but it's in C# in Codeproject.com . You wanna have a look ?

[MrGTI]

I just tried it, and it didn't work in both ways. The form was still painted choppy and broken, and the new form was not modal.

Unless i'm doing it wrong,.....

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        'Call zzz()
        Dim t As New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf zzz)
        t.Priority = System.Threading.ThreadPriority.AboveNormal
        t.Start()
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub zzz()
        Dim xx As New Form2
        xx.ShowDialog(Me)
    End Sub

[Pirate]

This might give you a clue .It's splash screen examples but sure should handles such problems .

http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/Pr...plash%7Cscreen
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/ap...plash%7Cscreen

[MrGTI]

My problem is with an About form, not a splash form, but some of the same concepts still exist. I will review the C# code and see if i can find a solution in the way they do it.

[Atte]

hi, did you ever find a solution to this problem (Form_Load - slow painting)...? i would be more than interested to hear.....

[jasonnovak]

There are a couple of posts about it in this blog that may help, here's one of the days:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000177.html

[anna7]

Hi!

I have a similar problem. Any solution, please?

regards

[BruceG]

Well, this is an old thread, but I am having a similar issue (i.e., when the form loads, you can initially see "holes" where the controls are supposed to be). Much of the code in the form load event has to do with loading comboboxes and other startup tasks. I still experience the issue (although not as bad) when moving the code to the Activated event.

Can anyone offer a solution?