.NET Forum / .NET Framework / New Users / December 2004
How to make this better and faster?
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ham-z - 21 Dec 2004 12:50 GMT I have written the following Win app in VB.NET 2003 . The class is simply picture boxes that behave in a random order after they have been instantiated and added to a form. When I create 15 or more instances of my class, the whole program runs slowly in a way that I have to close the program. I have tried to create a new thread for each class, but that throws an exception , because a separated thread can't be added to a form from a child class.
My code is this ( please tell me if there are better ways for doing it) coplile with :
vbc [filename] /r:system.dll,system.windows.forms.dll,system.drawing.dll,microsoft.visualbasic.dll /t:winexe /main:form1
'----------------------------------- Start of CODE
Imports System.Math imports Microsoft.VisualBasic imports System.drawing imports system.windows.forms
Public Class Form1 Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
#Region " Windows Form Designer generated code "
Public Sub New() MyBase.New()
'This call is required by the Windows Form Designer. InitializeComponent()
'Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call
End Sub
'Form overrides dispose to clean up the component list. Protected Overloads Overrides Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean) If disposing Then If Not (components Is Nothing) Then components.Dispose() End If End If MyBase.Dispose(disposing) End Sub
'Required by the Windows Form Designer Private components As System.ComponentModel.IContainer
'NOTE: The following procedure is required by the Windows Form Designer 'It can be modified using the Windows Form Designer. 'Do not modify it using the code editor. <System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough()> Private Sub InitializeComponent() ' 'Form1 ' Me.AutoScaleBaseSize = New System.Drawing.Size(5, 13) Me.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.White Me.ClientSize = New System.Drawing.Size(384, 266) Me.Name = "Form1" Me.Text = "Form1"
End Sub
#End Region
Private Sub Form1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Click CreateOBJ() End Sub
Sub CreateOBJ() Dim myRec As Rec = New Rec(Me.CreateGraphics, Me) End Sub End Class
'--------------------------------------------------- Class Rec
Public Class Rec
Dim Gr As Graphics Dim X, Y As Integer Dim frm As Form WithEvents TIMER As New Timer Dim bmp As Bitmap Dim PB As PictureBox
Public Sub New(ByVal g As Graphics, ByVal form As Form) X = Rnd() * 100 Y = Rnd() * 200 Gr = g Me.frm = form ini() justAddX = True justAddY = True End Sub
' We could use the graphics object here to draw on the form. But since GDI+ ' lacks the ideal performance, we use picture boxes and add them to the ' spacified form instead of using the drawing object:
Sub ini() TIMER.Interval = Rnd() * 10 + 1 TIMER.Enabled = True PB = New PictureBox With PB .BackColor = Color.FromArgb(Rnd() * 150, Rnd() * 200, Rnd() * 230) .Left = X .Top = Y .Height = 6 .Width = 6 End With frm.Controls.Add(PB) End Sub
' Use these two boolean to know when to add or substarct numbers ' the movement of this class object. Dim justAddX, justAddY As Boolean
Private Sub TIMER_Tick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TIMER.Tick MoveMe() End Sub
' CuurentNum X , Y are the numbers added to the speed of X ,Y ' which creates a kind of change when the Rec hits the walls:
Dim CurrentNumX As Integer = 1 Dim CurrentNumY As Integer = 1
Sub MoveMe() If X > (frm.Width - PB.Width) - 10 Then justAddX = False CurrentNumX = Rnd() * 50 End If
If Y > (frm.Height - PB.Height) - 30 Then justAddY = False CurrentNumY = Rnd() * 40 End If
If X < 0 Then justAddX = True CurrentNumX = Rnd() * 80 End If
If Y < 0 Then justAddY = True CurrentNumY = Rnd() * 30 End If
If justAddX Then X += CurrentNumX Else X -= CurrentNumX End If
If justAddY Then Y += CurrentNumY Else Y -= CurrentNumY End If
PB.Left = X PB.Top = Y End Sub
End Class
'------------------------------------------------------- End of CODE------------
Dennis - 21 Dec 2004 13:04 GMT You might want to check into the API routine BitBlt. It copies rectangle shapes from and to graphics objects. It's very, very fast. You could draw your images directly on the form using the Paint event.
> I have written the following Win app in VB.NET 2003 . The class is simply > picture boxes that behave in a random order after they have been [quoted text clipped - 171 lines] > '------------------------------------------------------- End of > CODE------------ Herfried K. Wagner [MVP] - 21 Dec 2004 13:16 GMT "Dennis" <Dennis@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb:
> You might want to check into the API routine BitBlt. It copies rectangle > shapes from and to graphics objects. It's very, very fast. You could > draw > your images directly on the form using the Paint event. I doubt that this will be much faster than 'Graphics.DrawImage[Unscaled]'.
 Signature M S Herfried K. Wagner M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/> V B <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/faqs/
Dennis - 22 Dec 2004 13:25 GMT Are you saying that BitBlt is not any faster than .drawimage? It seems faster to me and I have read articles on the web that also say it's much faster.
> "Dennis" <Dennis@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb: > > You might want to check into the API routine BitBlt. It copies rectangle [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > I doubt that this will be much faster than 'Graphics.DrawImage[Unscaled]'. Herfried K. Wagner [MVP] - 22 Dec 2004 14:25 GMT "Dennis" <Dennis@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb:
> Are you saying that BitBlt is not any faster than .drawimage? It seems > faster to me and I have read articles on the web that also say it's much > faster. I didn't check it in all details, but I assume that 'DrawImageUnscaled' is approx. as fast as 'BitBlt' because it is a wrapper around 'BitBlt'.
 Signature M S Herfried K. Wagner M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/> V B <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/faqs/
Tommy - 23 Dec 2004 13:41 GMT Don't assume. DrawImageUnscaled is not a wrapper around BitBlt. DrawImageUnscaled just calls DrawImage. DrawImage calls the native function GdipDrawImageI, which isn't as fast as BitBlt. GdipDrawImageI uses GDI+, BitBlt uses GDI. GDI+ isn't hardware accelerated, GDI is.
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP] - 23 Dec 2004 14:03 GMT "Tommy" <tommy.carlier@telenet.be> schrieb:
> Don't assume. > DrawImageUnscaled is not a wrapper around BitBlt. DrawImageUnscaled > just calls DrawImage. DrawImage calls the native function > GdipDrawImageI You are right. IIRC what I said was written in "Professional C#" published by Wrox. ILDASM shows that 'DrawImageUnscaled' simply calls 'DrawImage', and 'DrawImage' is a wrapper around 'GdipDrawImageRectI'. Thank you for making me aware of that.
 Signature M S Herfried K. Wagner M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/> V B <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/faqs/
Tommy - 23 Dec 2004 15:40 GMT I don't use ILDASM, I use Reflector. It's much better than ILDASM, and it decompiles the assembly in the language you want (included languages: C#, VB.NET, IL, Delphi). http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet
Tommy - 23 Dec 2004 16:04 GMT I don't use ILDASM, I use Reflector. It's much better than ILDASM, and it decompiles the assembly in the language you want (included languages: C#, VB.NET, IL, Delphi). http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet
Cor Ligthert - 21 Dec 2004 13:18 GMT Ham,
Nice crossposting, however the in my opinion most right newsgroup for this question is not in it.
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.drawing
I saw your problem, however I think because the fact that the most is graphics you can place it the best in that newsgroup.
No problem at all that crossposting by the way.
Cor
"ham-z" <hamz-3e@/**/yahoo.com>.
>I have written the following Win app in VB.NET 2003 . The class is simply > picture boxes that behave in a random order after they have been [quoted text clipped - 172 lines] > '------------------------------------------------------- End of > CODE------------ Rulin Hong - 21 Dec 2004 15:10 GMT It's OK on my machine even when I created 200 instances of rec. My machine is: Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 2.40GHZ | AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 1G RAM
ham-z - 21 Dec 2004 17:13 GMT You got plenty of RAM.... mine is only 256 MB...though I can't figure out what 1 GB RAM might do for this ( almost no relation) comparing with 256.....
> It's OK on my machine even when I created 200 instances of rec. My machine > is: Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 2.40GHZ | AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 1G RAM Nick Malik - 21 Dec 2004 15:10 GMT OK, so you have a form that **VERY QUICKLY** moves boxes at random around the screen. Realize that your timer ticks are happening so quickly that the system will be queueing events and colliding with itself on each form, and that will only get worse with additional forms.
I'm not sure what you are trying to prove with this graphics exercise. If you want to see how fast graphics can move, than causing a timer conflict is probably not the best way to go about it. If you are trying to see how the OS handles PAINT events, then you may want to have a single form and stress it, rather than using a timer at all.
Also, your timer is declared in the object, not in the form. The means that every new object you create will create a new timer. This may be a trivial point, but I'd recommend that you move the timer to the form.
More importantly, to make your window perform, I'd suggest you change a single line. from: TIMER.Interval = Rnd() * 10 + 1 from: TIMER.Interval = Rnd() * 10 + 100
That will give you 10 Paint events per second per form, which is still plenty fast enough but is less likely to cause a pile-up.
 Signature --- Nick Malik [MSFT] MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not representative of my employer. I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a programmer helping programmers.
> I have written the following Win app in VB.NET 2003 . The class is simply > picture boxes that behave in a random order after they have been [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > vbc [filename] /r:system.dll,system.windows.forms.dll,system.drawing.dll,microsoft.visualba sic.dll
> /t:winexe /main:form1 > [quoted text clipped - 158 lines] > '------------------------------------------------------- End of > CODE------------ ham-z - 21 Dec 2004 17:24 GMT > OK, so you have a form that **VERY QUICKLY** moves boxes at random around > the screen. > Realize that your timer ticks are happening so quickly that the system > will > be queueing events and colliding with itself on each form, and that will > only get worse with additional forms. Nice hint, but my PB object is responsible for it's own movement. It should have a built-in timer in order to move
> I'm not sure what you are trying to prove with this graphics exercise. creating sth alive...look at this if you have MSDN 2003 installed: ms-help://MS.MSDNQTR.2003APR.1033/dndllpro/html/msdn_frogfly1.htm
> Also, your timer is declared in the object, not in the form. The means > that > every new object you create will create a new timer. This may be a > trivial > point, but I'd recommend that you move the timer to the form. How? each object is responsible for its own movement....
> More importantly, to make your window perform, I'd suggest you change a > single line. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > That will give you 10 Paint events per second per form, which is still > plenty fast enough but is less likely to cause a pile-up. Nice suggestion. Thanks anyway for help.
Frank Hileman - 21 Dec 2004 19:16 GMT I looked at the MSDN reference. This is a good example of all the problems you can have by using mutiple threads when they are not needed. It is a poor article. The author believes mutiple threads are needed to update internal state, even though the output is serialized to a single thread -- he is perpetuating common misunderstandings.
In a simulation of multiple actors, the simplest single threaded approach is to loop through all the actors when a Windows.Forms.Timer fires, updating their internal state, then force a paint event to occur (invalidate modified areas). The paint cannot occur faster than the timer in any circumstance, so intermediate state changes are wasteful. If you need the state changes to be dependent on the passage of time, you can use the Win32 high performance timer to accurately determine elapsed time from the beginning of the simulation, QueryPerformanceCounter (a wrapper class is in the sample I mentioned).
In the unlikely event the number of actors is so large that updating internal state causes the UI to become unresponsive, you can process a fixed, smaller number of actors on each timer tick, incrementing a processed actor counter, avoiding invalidation of the control until all have been processed. This is a second technique for avoiding multi-threading when it is not needed, while maintaining a responsive UI. If you use this approach, you should determine elapsed time, for the purpose of state changes, at the first tick after a complete update, so that all actors work with a consistent time base.
To get great drawing performance use multiple graphical objects drawn on a single control, instead of multiple controls.
Regards, Frank Hileman
check out VG.net: http://www.vgdotnet.com Animated vector graphics system Integrated Visual Studio .NET graphics editor
> creating sth alive...look at this if you have MSDN 2003 installed: > ms-help://MS.MSDNQTR.2003APR.1033/dndllpro/html/msdn_frogfly1.htm Frank Hileman - 21 Dec 2004 16:43 GMT What you need is a single control, not multiple PictureBoxes, that you draw on. Create a custom control class, double buffered, that draws everything you need. Multi-threading is unnecessary and will only cause tragedy.
To see the maximum performance you can get from GDI+ try the Scalability sample source in the VG.net Lite installation. It uses an optimized run-time engine layered on GDI+. You can create and time 1K-100K rectangles. The timing framework can be reused to benchmark other implementations.
Regards, Frank Hileman
check out VG.net: http://www.vgdotnet.com Animated vector graphics system Integrated Visual Studio .NET graphics editor
>I have written the following Win app in VB.NET 2003 . The class is simply > picture boxes that behave in a random order after they have been [quoted text clipped - 172 lines] > '------------------------------------------------------- End of > CODE------------
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