DirectDraw-Multiple 'frame' animation from single bmp?

[nem33]

I am wondering how to do this in directx9 for VB.NET..
I have an image with multiple 'frames' of animation in it...
When I draw my .bmp surface I want to 'scroll' through the multiple frames within the .bmp by making DirectX only draw certain widths and heights in my .BMP
I used to do this using GDI..somthing like...

Public Sub Timer1_Tick
Dim Graphic As Graphics
Dim bmap As Bitmap
Graphic.DrawImage(bmap, rectangle,BitMapX , BitMapY, 67, 70)
BitmapX = BitmapX + 35
BitMapY = BitMapY + 15
End Sub
..or whatever..just an example...
For my code so far using DX9 I can draw a bitmap to a screen, move it around and such...But I cannot find a way to define what area of the bitmap to draw and how best to 'loop' through a series of defined draw areas within my bitmap, thus creating an animation from only one picture. Thank you for any help in advance.

 

[Nerseus]

Are you using Direct3D or DirectDraw? If you're using DirectDraw, the Draw and DrawFast methods on the surface objects take a number of overloads that specify source and destination rectangles or points, or just ints (if I remember right).

If you're using Direct3D and you're using the sprite class, you can do pretty much the same thing.

If you're using Direct3D and you're NOT using the sprite class, you'll have to calculate the texture coordinates yourself.

-Nerseus

 

[nem33]

Thanks--
I am using directDraw and I found a method to draw certain parts of a bitmap..
I created a rectangle and used it's .top .left .bottom .right properties to specify the source of the image I want to use. Then I passed the DirectDraw 'draw' code to a timer at an interval of 100ms which updates the properties of the rectangle .top .left etc..using If Then...
Thanks for the help.

 

[nem33]

I'll post my code here in case anyone has this question in the future...

I made a public variable..

 Dim rmain As Rectangle

Then after loading the bitmap with all predrawn frames into a back surface I put this code into the mousedown event..

 Public Sub Form1_MouseDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal f As MouseEventArgs) Handles MyBase.MouseDown
        
     If f.Button = MouseButtons.Right Then
            If f.Y < 300 Then 'this would be for determining direction to face the sprite.
                rmain.Width = 35 'rectangles width
                rmain.Height = 95 'height

                rmain.X = 100 'this is where the leftmost x coordinate will pull from the bitmap
                rmain.Y = 0 'same for y coord, with zero being complete top of my image.
                Render()
                Timer1.Enabled = True 'Timer code below
            End If
'then you would put rest of code for determining direction of sprite here
               'If f.Y > 300 then ....etc..

End Sub

The timer interval is 100ms, poor resolution but it works. Every 100ms it updates the source rectangles x,y coords..

 Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
        If rmain.X = 100 Then
            rmain.X = 130 'sends rectangle over 30 pixels to the next fram in the bitmap
        ElseIf rmain.X = 130 Then
            rmain.X = 160 'and so on..
        ElseIf rmain.X = 160 Then
            rmain.X = 190
        ElseIf rmain.X = 190 Then
            rmain.X = 100
        End If
        Render()
    End Sub

Then..

 Public Sub Render()
        BackSurface.ColorFill(Color.Black) 'refresh screen
        BackSurface.DrawFast(500, 356, CharSurface, rmain, DrawFastFlags.Wait) 
        FrontSurface.Draw(BackSurface, DrawFlags.Wait) 'flip backsurface to screen.
End Sub

The 500,356 in the, BackSurface.DrawFast(500, 356, CharSurface, rmain, DrawFastFlags.Wait) is the point you want to draw the sprite on the screen..Supposed to be close to dead center on an 800x600 form but it should be worked out to dynamically position the sprite according to the user size of the form/resolution. The rmain in that tells us where to 'cut' the image from the loaded bitmap using the invisible rectangle.
Then you cant forget to stop the timer from rendering when user releases right mouse button so...

 Public Sub Form1_MouseUp(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As MouseEventArgs) Handles MyBase.MouseUp
        If e.Button = MouseButtons.Right Then
            Timer1.Enabled = False
        End If
    End Sub

I dont know if this is the best way to do it, but it gives an idea of how one could accomplish this. Any comments on this from someone who knows what they're doing? =)
-j