bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
ok, i want to know who the timer control works in vb.net. i've done some googling and found samples of it being used, but they never fully explained it, so all i could possibly do is copy and paste their code, etc. etc... but can someone explain to be how to set the intervals, and then how to use it, or "call" it. i don't know if any of you ever use vb, but any help would be appreciated. ------------------ proverbs 25:7 www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs |
jestermax Member Posts: 1064 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: 06-21-2006 |
i have like 5 years experience with visual basic 6, lol. the timers probably work very similar so i might be able to help. in vb6 there was a timer function that you put the code that you want to be executed when the timer goes off... anyone else want to jump in? lol i don't know the .NET IDE that well |
HanClinto Administrator Posts: 1828 From: Indiana Registered: 10-11-2004 |
Yeah, timers in VB.Net work almost exactly like they did in VB6. A timer has 2 main properties that you're interested in, and 1 event. The first property that you already mentioned is "Interval" -- this is an integer that specifies how long of a delay it will take between ticks. The second property is "Enabled" -- it's a boolean (true/false) that lets you know if the timer is running or not. Think of it as an on/off switch. The event is OnTick (or something close to it). It's just like the OnClicked event for buttons, or the OnLoad event for forms, except that it fires every so many milliseconds if the timer is enabled.
--clint |
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jestermax Member Posts: 1064 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: 06-21-2006 |
there we go  i thought it was something like that but i don't have vb6 or vb.net on my laptop to write it up |
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bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
ok. thanks. i'll play around with it a bit more to see if i can get it working for me. i'll post my results. ------------------ proverbs 25:7 www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs |
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bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
ok. do i set the interval in the control i'm trying to user the timer in, or in the timer_click event? also where do i enable it. when i try to call the timer_click event it says something's not declared, or you can't call it directly use the "RaiseEvent" thing to use it. maybe i can google come samples and look at how they did it and now maybe it might make sense to me. i'm just glad i'm trying to learn any of the c varients out there...i see all those brackets and i just close out the ide  .------------------ proverbs 25:7 www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs |
dartsman Member Posts: 484 From: Queensland, Australia Registered: 03-16-2006 |
The interval is set in the timer control's property window. It will say "Interval" and you need to enter an integer value. This is the frequency at which the timer will be "fired" in milliseconds. The Enabled value is set in the timers' control property window as well. Make sure this is set to true. Double-Click the Timer Control, and that will bring you to the function (code). This function is fired at every X milliseconds (where X is the interval). The timer control will be located in the section below the form, above the output window. Where other controls such as menus, save/open file dialogs, etc... ------------------ |
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bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
ok, i used msdn's code and changed it to do what i was trying to do, which is make a counter. basically change the labels text to the labels text + 1 every second. it keeps adding, but it doesn't do it every second, and the interval is at 1000. well here's the code: <BLOCKQUOTE><table width=80% border=0 bgcolor="#FFFFF" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="2"><TR><TD><font size="3" face="Courier" color="#000000"><pre> Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load End Sub Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click i think it was the "initialize timer" sub that i was missing. does anyone know why it wouldn't add +1 every second though? ------------------ proverbs 25:7 www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs [This message has been edited by bennythebear (edited August 06, 2006).] |
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dartsman Member Posts: 484 From: Queensland, Australia Registered: 03-16-2006 |
Just a theory but, It could be that it's not really that "precise" in calculating the tick. I know in C/C++ there are possible errors with timing using different methods, and so try to use the QueryPerformance(Counter/Frequency) rather then timeGetTime, or other timing methods available. You should google timing methods for vb, you should be able to find someone who's done some profiling of some different methods and look for the most precise. ------------------ |
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bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
thanks for the advice. ------------------ proverbs 25:7 www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs |
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HanClinto Administrator Posts: 1828 From: Indiana Registered: 10-11-2004 |
Timers are acceptable for situations that don't need to be precise. Frame-rate based games will run choppy if they use timers, but if you're just trying to animate a progress bar or do some other dinky task, then timers work very well. Timers are also simple enough that you can learn how to easily make games by using them, but they're not a good long term solution. My first game in VB was made using timers and moving picture boxes around the screen. It worked, but didn't work well, and it helped me learn a lot about performance and how to improve it. --clint |
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jestermax Member Posts: 1064 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: 06-21-2006 |
do NOT use timers for anything important, lol. for that you need to use a main loop and some timing code (vb gives you some easy ways to grab the time). on a side note, vb is a blast to code. its easy, fast and you can do some nifty stuff with it. |