Fill surface with 32x32 tiles?? (DirectX)

[Oafo]

How can I draw a bunch of 32x32 images onto one single surface? Also, how do I put a surface into a PictureBox? I'm trying to make a map editor but I've been stuck on this for about 2 days now. All I need to know how to do is fill the entire map (which is 255x255 tiles or 8160x8160 pixels) with tiles. I know that all of the map won't be visible at the same time, but that's just how big it is. Please don't point me to that DirectX7 in VB4 site, I've been there but his program runs in full screen mode and mine is in windowed. Please help! Thanks.

[Allanon]

Hi
If what you mean is take like several bitmap files and draw them onto one screen, the best way to do that would be to place them all in 1 bitmap before hand to simplify things, like if you have a picture of a guy walking, you would store all the frames of him walking in one bitmap file.

  Dim dx As New DirectX7
  Dim lpDD As DirectDraw7
  Dim ddsPrimarySurface As DirectDrawSurface7
  Dim ddsSurface As DirectDrawSurface7
  Dim ddsd As DDSURFACEDESC2
  Dim ddClip As DirectDrawClipper

    ' create directdraw 
    Set lpDD = dx.DirectDrawCreate("")
    ' setting to window mode
    Call lpDD.SetCooperativeLevel(frmMain.hWnd, DDSCL_NORMAL)
    ddsd.lFlags = DDSD_CAPS
    ddsd.ddsCaps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE
    ' create primary surface where you will blt to
    Set ddsPrimarySurface = lpDD.CreateSurface(ddsd)
    ' now set up DirectDrawSurfaceDescription for a surface we will load the bitmap into
    ddsd.lFlags = DDSD_CAPS
    ddsd.ddsCaps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_OFFSCREENPLAIN
    ddsd.lFlags = DDSD_HEIGHT Or DDSD_WIDTH
    Set ddsSurface = lpDD.CreateSurfaceFromFile(BITMAP FILE, ddsd)
   ' now set a clipper so we stay within the picturebox
    Set ddClip = lpDD.CreateClipper(0)
   ' this is how you get it to blt in a picture box
    ddClip.SetHWnd picture1.hWnd
    ddsPrimarySurface.SetClipper ddClip

now after you have set up directx you can blit it into a picture box by

  call ddsPrimarySurface.blt(DestRect, ddsSurface, SourceRect, DDBLT_WAIT)

then to be able to scroll the map and draw all the tiles
if you've gone through and done an MapArray(# of X tiles, # of Y tiles) and filled each spot with what type of tile you want blitted there, you can make something like

yy = 0
xx = 0
' the DestRect will be where its suppose to be placed, according to the OffSets, since we have a clipper, we'll just start blitting at whatever values the offsets are at
' so
DestRect.top = YOffset 
DestRect.left = XOffset
  for x = CurrentXSpot to CurrentXSpot + 
HowManyTilesCanBeDisplayedHorizontally, NOTE you'll need to check and make sure it doesn't exceed the # of X tiels
   yy = 0
    for y = CurrentYSpot to CurrentYSpot + TilesVertically
       ' then just blit it here
       ' tricker part, where you'll need to figure how many pixels over you need to adjust, see below FIRST
        ' SourceRect, should be the rectangle you want to blt, say the guy
        DestRect.top = DestRect.top + TILE_HEIGHT
        DestRect.left = DestRect.left + TILE_WIDTH
        DestRect.right = DestRect.left + TILE_WIDTH
        DestRect.bottom = DestRect.top + TILE_HEIGHT
        ' Source Rect would be what tile you wanted blitted at the cordinates
        call ddsPrimarySurface.blt(DestRect, ddsSurface, SourceRect(CurrentXSpot, CurrentYSpot), DDBLT_WAIT)
    yy = yy + 1
    next y
    xx = xx + 1
next x

to make an offset
everytime say you press the right arrow key, you can have the XOffSet move 1 pixel, so you need a variable

' these should be globals for your form
dim XOffSet as integer, YOffSet as integer

so to move the pixel over everytime you press right arrow key
XOffSet = XOffSet - 1 ' to move right
' you'll need to see if XOffSet equals a whole tile
if XOffSet = -TILE_WIDTH then ' when moving right
  XOffSet = 0
  CurrentXSpot = CurrentXSpot + 1 ' so we moved over a bit
end if
' thats just to move right, but you get the idea, and you should be able to figure out the rest going left, up and down
' also you would want to make sure they don't keep going past the boundaries of the map

Hope that helps you

[Oafo]

Thanx Allanon, I'll try that out.