Programming - Games VB DirectX tutorial Restoring

Restoring Lost Surfaces:

We have Learn about Surfaces but there is one problem with them , when your application got minimize all the surfaces and devices you initlialize will be lost and you will see nothing.In this Section We will show the solution of this problem.

Its a continuation of the previous program. We will change the Constructor of form1 class, Showsurface( ) method and add a new method of ' GFocus ' .

Let Start with Constructor.

Public Sub New( )
MyBase.New( ) ' Calling the Base Clas constructor

'This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
InitializeComponent( )

Me.Show( )
AddHandler Me.GotFocus, AddressOf GFocus
dddevice = Nothing
dddevice = New Device( )

dddevice.SetCooperativeLevel(Me, CooperativeLevelFlags.FullscreenExclusive) 'create a new instance of our GameGraphics class and pass the form into it

Init()
GameLoop()

End Sub

As you see the method is same as previous we just add one line ' AddHandler Me.GotFocus, AddressOf GFocus ' . This adds handler to the GotFocus event ( we will define GotFocus Handler later) When the application Lost focus the device and surfaces lost , so the next time the form comes up we have to reinitialize the device. This is where the GotFocus event must be added to the form.

now GotFocus Handler.

Public Sub GFocus(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
ending()
Dim newform As New Form1()
End Sub

Its a small and easy event, When the form lost and then got focus this event will be call. As first line will Destroy all the objects of devices,surfaces and then calling constructor of the form1 by making instance of form1. As the constructor call it initialize the surfaces and devices by calling Init( ).

Now ShowSurface ( ) method.

Public Sub ShowSurface()
Try
ssurface.ColorFill(Color.White)
psurface.Flip(ssurface, FlipFlags.Wait)
Catch e As Exception
Init()
End Try
End Sub

We add just Try and Catch Block in this Method to Catch the Exception of Lost Surface.

The Explanation of Exception is this, first time this function will work without try catch but when it lost focus , it will lost all the surfaces and again when it got focused by the user, it try to fill the surface ( 1st line ) and then flip the surface ( 2nd line ). This will throw Exception that the Surface is not present. To handle this problem Use try catch block and in Catch , reinitialize the surfaces and devices.

Now when you run the program you will see a White screen, When you minimize it by pressing ' Alt + Tab ' and then again focuz this window , YOU WILL STILL SEE THE SAME WHITE SCREEN.

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see also:	Same tutorial for C# Same tutorial for C++ Basic computer language
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Programming - Games - 2D - using DX9 and visual basic

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