interesting question

[RazerWriter]

Okay, how do i got about this?

I want a fullscreen dx form with visible and active main menus shown over at the top without any title bar and the border style set to zero. I would also like to show dialogs and forms on this dx window. How would I do this in FULLSCREEN?

I've found a way to do it in windowed mode... observe:
- Before creating the d3d device, create a direct draw device to set display mode to 640x480.

this allows me the use main menus and other forms freely over a dx9 form with fullscreen display. Except I want a real fullscreen form using d3d with main menus visible. Any comments about this?

 

[ThePentiumGuy]

when you initialize your device:

Public Sub InitializeDevice()

dddevice = New Device 'create new instance of the device
dddevice.SetCooperativeLevel(targetform, CooperativeLevelFlags.FullscreenExclusive) 'set the cooperation level
dddevice.SetDisplayMode(800, 600, 32, 85, False) 'set the display mode
InitSurfaces() 'initialize surfaces
End Sub

i hope this helps, btw i dont really know anything about dX but i copied this from www.directx4.net

 

[AndreRyan]

This won't work, you cannot directly use a GDI/GDI+ based graphical object (in this case a Menu) on a DirectX Form, DirectX will simply ignore it and draw over it.

Try creating the Device in Normal, Nonexclusive, set the forms borderstyle, in you're Form_Load put:

'...

Me.Width = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width
Me.Height = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height
Me.Top = 0 : Me.Left = 0

'...

Now the window covers everything but is operating in Normal so you can use GDI/GDI+. Create a clipper to prevent DD drawing over the menu and everything should be fine.