TV static noise animation-adding random generator

[GremlinSA]

Okay have no idea why it wont upgrade to 2010 .. I did it N.P. ...

Here is the VS 2010 ver of the same project ....

Hope this works ...

Gremmy...

[saratogacoach]

Hi,

Again, thanks. I am able to open these files and compile the project into an app.

Yes. If I choose random and set the interval to 120, I get the precise animation style and effect that looks like the Flash demo. Fantastic!

I will need to carefully look at the code, re-read what you've posted, to see what you've done to accomplish this, learn from it.

Much thanks!

Kind Regards,

[GremlinSA]

Great ... Glad it is what you were looking for....

The main reason for the first two styles was to provide a exact 50/50 spread and also where you can allow one step and count the changes..

The code is not too complicated and followed allot of what you already coded, with the difference of using a realizable picture box.

Also i rearranged some of it so that it runs better, and faster..

Note that there are no try catch blocks for incase ....... Only checking that is needed is that the text entry is numeric, however that can be taken care of with this small piece of code

    Private Sub TextBox1_KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.KeyPress
        If Not IsNumeric(e.KeyChar) Then
            e.Handled = True
        End If
    End Sub

If your dont understand something, just ask .. ill try to explain it to you in laymans terms ...

[saratogacoach]

Hi Gremmy,

Figured out where to place this additional code. It seems to work without error.

Private Sub TextBox1_KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.KeyPress
If Not IsNumeric(e.KeyChar) Then
e.Handled = True
End If
End Sub

I've been trying to do a few changes :

successful:
(1) increasing speed by increasing the dots changed per interval to 1000. Seems to better match the speed of the Flash and Delphi Windows demo's.

so far unsuccessful:
(2) trying to figure out (so far unsuccessfully) how to default to random and fill and (like in the Flash demo) clicking on the canvas screen to start and stop (toggle);

so far unsuccessful:
(3) setting up a 30 second default animation time-once started, runs for 30 seconds then stops.

Any suggestions, help much appreciated.

Kind Regards,

[GremlinSA]

ARG .. have to retype .. still getting random BANNED IP Problems...

Okay let me try again ...

#1 - dots changed per interval is calculated in this bit of code

        Dotcount = CInt(400 / (1000 / Timer1.Interval))

It works like this....

400 (dots) / (per) 1000 (ms) - the actual math used is a little more than that, in that it works out the number per frame.. but i took the numbers from your original spec..

so to make it 1000 per second.. change the above line too

        Dotcount = CInt(1000 / (1000 / Timer1.Interval))

#2 - Goto "Form1.vb Design" in VS .. where you now see the forms design ...
Click on the radio button that is labled 'Random'. Right click , Properties.. Scroll to Checked and set it to true. this will set random as default ...

#3 - this is a little harder than the others..

First at the top under all the other Private delcarations add

    Private StartTime As Date

(just above Public sub .....)

In the Button1_click and button3_click subs .. Just after the 'Timer1.Enabled = True' add

        StartTime = Date.Now

and the last one for this mod...

in the timer1_tick sub just after 'DrawPicture()' add

        If StartTime.AddSeconds(30) < Date.Now Then
            Timer1.Enabled = False
        End If

this should stop the code after 30 seconds..


Now to trigger on a canvas click.. add this sub (same like last time)

    Private Sub PictureBox1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles PictureBox1.Click
        Timer1.Interval = CInt(TextBox1.Text)
        Timer1.Enabled = Not Timer1.Enabled
        StartTime = Date.Now
    End Sub

that should be it ....

[saratogacoach]

Hi Gremmy,

Thanks again.

All of changes finally went in without an error message.

At first, the following code, adding it as a Sub, gave an error message:

Private Sub PictureBox1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles PictureBox1.Click
        Timer1.Interval = CInt(TextBox1.Text)
        Timer1.Enabled = Not Timer1.Enabled
        StartTime = Date.Now
    End Sub

error: Error 1 'Private Sub PictureBox1_Click(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs)' has multiple definitions with identical signatures.

I suspected this meant that there are conflicting items for PictureBox1, so I deleted:

Private Sub PictureBox1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles PictureBox1.Click

    End Sub

With that piece of code removed, the new one substituted for it, all seems to work OK.

Again, much thanks!

Kind Regards,

[saratogacoach]

Hi,

I've been learning a lot and very much appreciate your help. Great progress! Getting a little more familiar with the VB UI, code window and editor.

I have been reading online about using Tracker Bars. Two of these would be useful in Form1:

(1) one slider to let the user set the length of time for the animation, ranging from a default of 30 seconds on the left (minimum) to 60 seconds on the right (maximum).

(2) a second slider, instead of a text input box, for the timer interval, ranging from a minimum of, for example, 800 ms to a maximum of, for example, 1200 ms.

While I can import 2 track bars into Form1 design, I'm not sure how to set up the code for each of these sliders to control the variables for length of time and timer interval.

I would appreciate any code suggestions. (And, once I can add these 2 track bars, I would probably need to figure out how to not only delete the text input box, any other irrelevant controls, but also any other old code that would now conflict with these new controls to govern these variables. Big challenge.)

I would welcome any suggestions on adding these, their code, and making this work without conflicts/errors.

Thanks very much.

Kind Regards,

[dglienna]

Use both (for now). Have the SLIDER UPDATE EVENT in the Text Event, and vice-versa. When you move the slider, the text will update.

Also, set the upper and lower bounds of the slider, and use the same / as before, to come up with a % of the total range desired. Display the % in the textbox

[GremlinSA]

Right this time you can make the changes .. i will guide you along you way...

#1 - Remove the Textbox from the form ... Right click - 'delete' (you will get a few errors about textbox1 not been defined, dont worry about them right now)

#2 - Add a slider (trackbar) to the form, right click and select 'properties' .. Name it TBinterval... change the minimum value to 100 and maximum value to 1000

#3 - Now find in the code all the lines that have

Timer1.Interval = CInt(TextBox1.Text)

and change them to

Timer1.Interval = TBinterval.Value

The errors you had before should be clearing as you change each one ...

#4 - delete the sub 'Private Sub TextBox1_KeyPress' as it is no longer needed (all 5 lines up to 'End Sub') .. this should take care of the last error....

#5 - Add another Trackbar to the form, right click - 'properties' ... Name it TBTime... change the minimum value to 30 and maximum value to 60

#6 - now find in the code the line that has

If StartTime.AddSeconds(30) < Date.Now Then

and change it to

If StartTime.AddSeconds(TBTime.Value) < Date.Now Then

this should take care of the changes needed to ad the sliders into the project ..

no other code needs to be changed or removed ..

[saratogacoach]

Hi Gremmy,

Thanks again. I was able to make these changes successfully.

Continuing to better understand how to make things happen, add, delete, change controls and code.

Much thanks!

Kind Regards,

[SarahC]

Here's one that's 15 times faster - sorry it's a bit late being posted!

Option Strict On

Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing.Imaging
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Public Class Form1

    Public Class syncObject
        Public Sub New()
        End Sub
    End Class

    Public syncOb As New syncObject()

    Public Declare Sub AttachConsole Lib "Kernel32" (ByRef dwProcessId As Long)
    Private Const ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS As Integer = -1

    Private WithEvents timer As System.Windows.Forms.Timer
    Private frameCount As UShort = 0US

    Private gCanvasWidth As UShort = (500US \ 8) * 8
    Private gCanvasHeight As UShort = 300US

    Private gDelay As Integer = 1 'ms
    Private gProceed As Boolean = False
    Private gImage As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(gCanvasWidth, gCanvasHeight, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed)

    Private Sub Form1_FormClosing(sender As Object, e As System.Windows.Forms.FormClosingEventArgs) Handles Me.FormClosing
        gProceed = False
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.SetClientSizeCore(gCanvasWidth, gCanvasHeight)
        Me.Text = "Click the form to start and stop"
        SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint Or ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer Or ControlStyles.ResizeRedraw Or ControlStyles.UserPaint, True)
        AttachConsole(ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS)
        timer = New Timer()
        timer.Interval = 1000
        timer.Start()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles timer.Tick
        Console.WriteLine("FPS: " & frameCount)
        frameCount = 0
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Click
        If gProceed Then
            Me.FormBorderStyle=Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.Sizable
            Me.WindowState=FormWindowState.Normal
            gProceed = False
        Else
            Me.FormBorderStyle=Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None
            Me.WindowState=FormWindowState.Maximized
            gCanvasWidth =CUShort((Me.Width \ 8) * 8)
            gCanvasHeight= CUShort(Me.height)
            gImage = New System.Drawing.Bitmap(gCanvasWidth, gCanvasHeight, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed)
            gProceed = True
            Dim vThread As New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf GenerateStatic_Background)
            vThread.IsBackground = True
            vThread.Name = "Thread for generating static"
            vThread.Start(New Object)
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Delegate Sub DrawUpdate_Delegate(ByVal Arg As System.Object)
    Private Sub DrawUpdate(ByVal Arg As System.Object)
        gImage = DirectCast(Arg, System.Drawing.Bitmap)
        Me.Invalidate()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles Me.Paint
        SyncLock (syncOb)
            e.Graphics.DrawImageUnscaled(gImage, 0, 0)
        End SyncLock
    End Sub

    'Super fast speed static thread!
    Private Sub GenerateStatic_Background(ByVal Arg As System.Object)
        Dim vImg As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(gCanvasWidth, gCanvasHeight, PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed)
        Dim bounds As Rectangle = New Rectangle(0, 0, vImg.Width, vImg.Height)
        Dim m_BitmapData As System.Drawing.Imaging.BitmapData = vImg.LockBits(bounds, Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed)
        Dim total_size As Integer = m_BitmapData.Stride * m_BitmapData.Height
        vImg.UnlockBits(m_BitmapData)
        Dim ImageBytes(total_size) As Byte
        Dim vGen As New System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider
        Dim vSeed(3) As Byte
        vGen.GetBytes(vSeed)
        Dim vRand As Random = New Random(BitConverter.ToInt32(vSeed, 0))
        While gProceed
            frameCount += 1US
            If frameCount Mod 5 = 1 Then System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(gDelay)
            SyncLock (syncOb)
                m_BitmapData = vImg.LockBits(bounds, Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format1bppIndexed)
                vRand.NextBytes(ImageBytes)
                Marshal.Copy(ImageBytes, 0, m_BitmapData.Scan0, total_size)
                vImg.UnlockBits(m_BitmapData)
            End SyncLock
            Try
                Me.Invoke(New DrawUpdate_Delegate(AddressOf DrawUpdate), CType(vImg, System.Object))
            Catch e As Exception
            End Try
        End While
    End Sub


End Class