PictureBox Transparent

Thanks but that doesnt work. What that does is colour the back of the picturebox to match that of the form. If i have many picture boxes on the screen to create a larger image, there is still a rectangle surrounding the main image. The image itself has a transparent background, so what i am seeing is the picturebox's background. How can the picturebox's background, not the actual images, be transparent? Are there any controls i can download?

TCanuck : What do you mean by :
there is still a rectangle surrounding the main image

This is perhaps a dumb comment / question from my side, but Did you perhaps set the Picturebox's BorderStyle to something different than None

Because, no matter how I try, I cannot replicate the same behaviour you've found.

I made 2 GIFs, both with Transparent Backgrounds. I added 2 Pictureboxes to my form, then, in each Picturebox, added each respective picture. With one Picturebox ( The Arrow ), I set the BorderStyle to None.
With the second Picturebox ( The Doughnut ), I set the BorderStyle to FixedSingle

I did not add any code.

And this is what I got at run time :

Have a look here, it explains why the flickering occur :
http://www.dev-archive.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1584245&postcount=4

For method 1, Try putting this in your Constructor :
SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer, True)
SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint, True)
SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, True)

OK, try this :
Public Sub New()
MyBase.New()

SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer, True)
SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint, True)
SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, True)
End Sub

Hmm...
Could you perhaps attach your project

The only reason I can see why the zip may be so big is because of the EXE files included in it, is that so

Just remove the EXE files, and see if you can upload it then :)

Hello, I am posting this so that my problem resets to the top of the forum. Please help!

You don't have to register and i wouldn't expect you to. All you need to do is:
1.) Scroll down to the Select Your Download section and click "Free".
2.) Scroll down till you see the characters (numbers and letters) and enter them in the box below and press Download via Level(3) #4.
3.) Select your download location and whala.

Thanks for taking the time to download the project and please take as much time as you need to investigate and solve this problem. Next time, i will make sure to delete the obj and debug folders and make sure that my graphics aren't using up so much space. Thanks again.

Hello again TCanuck42! :)

OK, firstly, I didn't have much time over the weekend ( car troubles again - but that's besides the topic ).

I ended up doing this :
Public Class isJadefortD5
Public chardir As String
Public currplayerpic As PictureBox

Private Sub isJadefortD5_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles Me.KeyDown
Call MovePlayer(player, e.KeyCode, Me)
CheckCols(e.KeyCode)
End Sub

Private Sub isJadefortD5_KeyUp(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles Me.KeyUp
If pANI.Enabled = True Then Call StopMovePlayer(player)
End Sub

'Public Sub New()
' MyBase.New()

' SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer, True)
' SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint, True)
' SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, True)
' Me.InitializeComponent()
'End Sub
' Set the value of the double-buffering style bits to true.
Public Sub EnableDoubleBuffering()
' Set the value of the double-buffering style bits to true.
Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer _
Or ControlStyles.UserPaint _
Or ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, _
True)
Me.UpdateStyles()
End Sub

Private Sub CheckCols(ByVal key As Long)
'up on home and trees
If key = Keys.Up And player.Top < 167 Then
player.Top = player.Top + 10
End If

'right on stumps
If key = Keys.Right And player.Left > 734 Then
player.Left = player.Left - 10
End If

'down on trees
If key = Keys.Down And player.Top > 431 Then
player.Top = player.Top - 10
End If

'up on tree to left
If key = Keys.Up And player.Left < 58 And player.Top < 289 Then
player.Top = player.Top + 10
End If

'left on path
If player.Left < 0 Then
player.Left = player.Left + 10
End If

End Sub

Public Sub MovePlayer(ByVal player As PictureBox, ByVal key As Long, ByVal parent As Form)

'check for keys
If key = Keys.Up Then
player.Top = player.Top - 10
CharDir = "up"
End If

If key = Keys.Down Then
player.Top = player.Top + 10
CharDir = "down"
End If

If key = Keys.Left Then
player.Left = player.Left - 10
CharDir = "left"
End If

If key = Keys.Right Then
player.Left = player.Left + 10
CharDir = "right"
End If

'transparent
player.Parent = parent

'start animation
If pANI.Enabled = False Then pANI.Enabled = True
currplayerpic = player

End Sub

Public Sub StopMovePlayer(ByVal player As PictureBox)
EnableDoubleBuffering()
'kill animation timer
If pANI.Enabled = True Then pANI.Enabled = False

'reset stand image

Select Case chardir
Case Is = "right"
player.Image = pRight.Image
Case Is = "down"
player.Image = pDown.Image
Case Is = "left"
player.Image = pLeft.Image
Case Is = "up"
player.Image = pUp.Image
End Select

End Sub


Private Sub isJadefortD5_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
EnableDoubleBuffering()
End Sub

Private Sub pANI_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles pANI.Tick
'EnableDoubleBuffering()
Static frame As Integer = 1

Select Case frame
Case Is = 1
If chardir = "right" Then currplayerpic.Image = rightani1.Image
If chardir = "left" Then currplayerpic.Image = leftani1.Image
If chardir = "up" Then currplayerpic.Image = backani1.Image
If chardir = "down" Then currplayerpic.Image = frontani1.Image
EnableDoubleBuffering()
frame = 2
Case Is = 2
If chardir = "right" Then currplayerpic.Image = rightani2.Image
If chardir = "left" Then currplayerpic.Image = leftani2.Image
If chardir = "up" Then currplayerpic.Image = backani2.Image
If chardir = "down" Then currplayerpic.Image = frontani2.Image
EnableDoubleBuffering()
frame = 1
End Select

End Sub
End Class

Now, on my work PC, it does not show any flickering, try it, perhaps you get the same result - if not, I think I may have pinpointed another ( or the same ) problem. :)

No need for the arguments :)

You see, the EnableDoubleBuffering is already Public, meaning it can be accessed everywhere in your program. You could just try a simple line like this :
isJadefortD5.EnableDoubleBuffering()
on the forms, and it should work OK.
I hope it helps !

OK, take a look at this :
Public Sub EnableDoubleBuffering(ByVal CurrentForm As System.Windows.Forms.Form)
' Set the value of the double-buffering style bits to true.
Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer _
Or ControlStyles.UserPaint _
Or ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, _
True)
Me.UpdateStyles()
End Sub

Then, the call(s) :
EnableDoubleBuffering(Me)

Is that what you're after

Hello again! I totally forgot about this :blush:

It seems there will always be some blinking :( At one stage I thought the results I'm getting was because of my Display cards, but that wasn't the case.
Have you considered using DirectX for smoother animations

Thanks for the continuous posts to help solve this issue. The link you posted proved very useful. I made a work around using the suggested double buffering techniques offered in that article but the blinking hasn't completely vanished. It has reduced so greatly that I have a hard time noticing it, so i feel for now, the problem has been corrected. Thanks again for all of your help! Next time, i definitely will use DirectX protocols for drawing and animation.