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Tom Grills · Guest

I may be chasing windmills here but I figured I'd ask....

I have a game that uses DirectX and is full-screen. I am trying to develop
a notification message that will pop up over the game screen when, for
example, I receive a specific email or a background app has finished
processing. (I don't want to have to Alt-Tab to keep checking on status or
emails and I want to do something more elegant than an audible solution).
So far, I have tried to draw into the DC of the game window and also the DC
of the screen using GetDC and, although I have succeeded in drawing a
rectangle in the view area, I cannot get rid of the flicker when the game
screen repaints.... So obviously, trying to draw into the DC of the game,
or even the screen context, does not provide an acceptable solution. I have
thought about intercepting the WM_PAINT message for the game, but I can't
guarantee that my draw would be AFTER the game draw, so it seems that avenue
is a dead end. Now, I now it is POSSIBLE to accomplish this as I have seen
it done in other games using DirectX (my attempts to contact the developers
of those apps have, understandably, met with a reluctance on their part to
provide direction).

I'm throwing this out in here to see if there are any other avenues I can
try. Maybe creating some sort of transparent overlay window which is the
topmost window that will draw my image in its position while the game draws
behind it? If anyone can provide some ideas (and perhaps some code
snippets) as to what may work, I'd greatly appreciate it...

Many Thanks,

TomG

Nicholas Sherlock · Guest

Tom Grills wrote:

Chris Trueman · Guest

Do you mean something like Outlooks tray popup? This pops up over the
DirectX games I play as does my Yahoo IM notification. So while I don't
have a solution for you, a couple of apps certainly do it.

Chris.

Herre de Jonge · Guest

If you can't solve it by using a notification window, maybe you
should think about using different signals. The first ones that
come to mind are:
- audible signals
- keyboard lights: You can even binary encode the number of mail
messages you have to a maximum of 7 Wink

Problem would be that
you don't keep checking your keyboard lights during a game. Sad