Tag Archives: Software Sagacity

C# DirectX – Capturing Frame Screenshots

September 4, 2014 Andrew Palczewski 1 Comment

Screen capture in DirectX is an inconspicuous element of the rendering pipeline that can provide many auxiliary benefits to 3D applications. Through creative use of the screen capture functionality, the operation can be extended to not just video creation, but also multi-stage graphics and post-processing. At its core is the code that enables capture of the current frame in the rendering process.

When programming screenshots, the most important element is placing the code at the correct point in the render loop. A poorly integrated screenshot function can cause instability and system crashes in the 3D application due to race conditions or memory overwrite.
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C# DirectX – Automatic Graphics Card Fallback

August 27, 2014 Andrew Palczewski Leave a comment

When developing 3D graphics applications, one of the recurrent challenges that plagues developers is balancing great graphics with end-user compatibility and reach. The more complex the graphics techniques utilized by the application, the fewer end-users will be able to actually run the software. With the explosion of mobile technology on slow and low-power hardware, 3D graphics are even further limited than they were years before.

In order to achieve a compromise between compatibility and graphics quality, a technique called Shader Fallback enables developers to switch to lower-quality graphics when necessary. This enables users with high-powered PCs to run the software at its maximum specifications, while simultaneously providing users on slim hardware with functional access the content and interface of the application.
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Improving Rendering Speed in the C# PictureBox

May 21, 2014 Andrew Palczewski 4 Comments

Windows Forms’ most versatile control is arguably the PictureBox. By overriding the OnPaint method, the PictureBox can be used to recreate the functionality of most other controls. One challenge, however, is using the PictureBox for animations or graphics applications that require a quick frame rate. Below are a few methods for pulling the maximum possible FPS from the C# PictureBox control.
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