Drawing in a separate thread

Question

Hi,

This is what I'm trying to accomplish (Windows 8 Store App using C# and XAML):

1. Fill out Canvas with some elements.

2. Spawn a new thread.

3. Animate the elements in Canvas in the thread. Should I use an infinite loop to do that?

4. Terminate the thread when the user presses a button.

The biggest question for me is how to spawn a new thread with an infinite loop in it and at the same time to be responsive to UI.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Leszek

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Wiki: wbswiki.com
Website: www.wisenheimerbrainstorm.com

Answer 1

Hi,

it is not a good idea to create a new thread to move your objects because they ar bound to the ui thread. If you would try to manipulate the positon of a element inside the canvas from an other thread, you would have to dispatch back to your ui thread. If I get you right, you try to implement a "gameloop" so you could Loop a Storyboard or  use a timer for this, or use CompositionTarget.Rendering for what you are trying to do. A imho good Silverlight example can be found here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nikola/archive/2009/08/19/exposed-5-methods-to-create-game-loop-which-is-the-best.aspx

Not all Version will work with winrt, but the CompositionTarget.Rendering is  imho the way to go.

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lh

Answer 2

Thanks Lars. CompositionTarget.Rendering  is what I was looking for.

Leszek

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Wiki: wbswiki.com
Website: www.wisenheimerbrainstorm.com