Flickering Text

[Jenova]

I am using a timer control to display time but and i am using it at interval = 1. However the text always flickers. Is there anyway i can stop this.

Any Ideas?

Thanks

Jenova

[RhinoBull]

What txt and where? Also, what happens when timer fires?

[Jenova]

I'm using a timer to display the time in a label. However the text in the label flickers rapidly when i set the timer interval to 1. I would like to keep the timer at interval 1 as well.

If i had to guess i would more than likely need to double buffer it. But i am not sure how to do that.

[bushmobile]

why do you need to display the time every millisecond? Just set the timer to 1000.

[RhinoBull]

Try using LockWindowUpdate to prevent flickering:

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function LockWindowUpdate Lib "user32" (ByVal hwndLock As Long) As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Timer1.Interval = 1
    Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    [B]LockWindowUpdate Me.hWnd[/B]
    Label1.Caption = Time
    [B]LockWindowUpdate False[/B]
End Sub

[Frans C]

It has no use to set a timerinterval to 1. I don't think a refresh rate lower then 30ms can be achieved with the normal timer control.

There is also no use in changing the label's caption, if the caption doesn't change.

eg

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Dim strTime As String
    strTime = Format(Time, "hh:mm:ss")
    If Label1.Caption <> strTime Then
        Label1.Caption = strTime
    End If
End Sub

[Jenova]

If i set the timers interval to a second it will delay the display of the time by a second that is why i have it at one. Thank you for all of your help. But i got it.

Private Declare Function DrawText Lib "user32" Alias "DrawTextA" ( _
                         ByVal hdc As Long, _
                         ByVal lpStr As String, _
                         ByVal nCount As Long, _
                         lpRect As RECT, _
                         ByVal wFormat As Long) _
                         As Long
                         
Private Declare Function SetRect Lib "user32" ( _
                         lpRect As RECT, _
                         ByVal X1 As Long, _
                         ByVal Y1 As Long, _
                         ByVal X2 As Long, _
                         ByVal Y2 As Long) _
                         As Long
 
 
Const DC_TEXT = &H8
Const BF_BOTTOM = &H8
Const BF_LEFT = &H1
Const BF_RIGHT = &H4
Const BF_TOP = &H2
Const DT_CENTER = &H1
 
Private Type RECT
    Left As Long
    Top As Long
    Right As Long
    Bottom As Long
End Type
 
Private Sub Form_Paint()
    Dim R As RECT
    SetRect R, 0, 0, Me.ScaleWidth, 20
    DrawText Me.hdc, Time, Len(Time), R, DT_CENTER
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    Me.Refresh
End Sub

Regards

Jenova

[bushmobile]

I couldn't get your code to work, but the use of API is a little over the top here. Why not just do (with AutoRedraw set to True):

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    Me.Cls
    Me.Print Time
End Sub

[RhinoBull]

AutoRedraw causes flickering more often then never... Did you try using LockWindowUpdate as I suggested yet?

[Jenova]

Rhinobull:

Yes i did . Unfortunatly it still flickered alot. But i never thought about doing it through API so i looked through the API viewer and saw draw text and tried that and it worked. Thanks

Bush Mobile:

Set the form scalemode to Pixels and not twips then it will work. your example works great too. i always have a habit of going over the top. Thanks alot

The only problem now is getting it in the label as i will be formating the label caption i.e. colour and size etc. Any ideas

Jenova

[bushmobile]

like this?

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    Me.Cls
    Me.ForeColor = vbRed
    Me.FontBold = True
    Me.Print Time
End Sub

[Jenova]

Yes but when i resize the form the text has to stay in the centre of the form also the text needs to be sized at font 18. I know that is easy (Font size) but the only problem that i would face would be trying to center (by center io mean in the middle from top to bottom and left to right) the text in the middle of the form when the user tries to resize it.

That is why i chose to use a label as it may be easier. I don't know anyway apart from the API way to do this. But your example works just as good as the API example so i would rather just use that

[bushmobile]

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    With Me
        .Cls
        .ForeColor = vbRed
        .FontBold = True
        .FontSize = 18
        .CurrentX = (.ScaleWidth - .TextWidth(Time)) \ 2
        .CurrentY = (.ScaleHeight - .TextHeight(Time)) \ 2
        Me.Print Time
    End With
End Sub