Problem with Animated GIFs

[Phil]

I thought it would be nice to display some animated GIFs on some of my
forms. I put a PictureBox control on a form, and loaded my GIF file in. It
animates, but not properly. It seems very jerky and dwells on some frames
longer than it should. Searching for this problem, I have found several
people who have stated that animated GIFs don't work in a PictureBox at all,
and you have to use the ImageAnimator. I assume they must be referring to an
older version, because I do get some animation, it's just not quite right. I
am using VB2005 Express.
I thought it might be a problem with running under the IDE, but I still get
the same problem if I build the project and run the release exe.
I looked up ImageAnimator in the help, and it is not especially helpful, but
there was some sample code. I tried this, and I get exactly the same
problem. The image displays and animates, but the timing seems all wrong. If
I use the image preview in Windows XP the image displays fine, so I don't
think it's a problem with the GIF file itself.
Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.
TIA
Phil.

[Cor Ligthert[MVP]]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

Phil,

You are sure that you set the properties of the picturebox right

By instance this ones let it look on every screen different

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib....sizemode.aspx

Cor

"Phil" <N/Aschreef in bericht news:13c0rc08fd dcp56@corp.supe rnews.com...

>I thought it would be nice to display some animated GIFs on some of my
>forms. I put a PictureBox control on a form, and loaded my GIF file in. It
>animates, but not properly. It seems very jerky and dwells on some frames
>longer than it should. Searching for this problem, I have found several
>people who have stated that animated GIFs don't work in a PictureBox at
>all, and you have to use the ImageAnimator. I assume they must be referring
>to an older version, because I do get some animation, it's just not quite
>right. I am using VB2005 Express.
I thought it might be a problem with running under the IDE, but I still
get the same problem if I build the project and run the release exe.
I looked up ImageAnimator in the help, and it is not especially helpful,
but there was some sample code. I tried this, and I get exactly the same
problem. The image displays and animates, but the timing seems all wrong.
If I use the image preview in Windows XP the image displays fine, so I
don't think it's a problem with the GIF file itself.
Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.
TIA
Phil.
>

[Linda Liu [MSFT]]

RE: Problem with Animated GIFs

Hi Phil,

Based on my understanding, you'd like to display some animated GIFs on some
of your forms. But you find that the animated GIF is slower when it is
displayed in a WinForm than in the image preview in the Windows Explorer.
If I'm off base, please feel free to let me know.

I performed some tests and did reproduce the problem. When I display an
animated GIF in a PictureBox on a WinForm, the animation is a little slower
than displayed in the Internet Explorer.

I guess WinForm limits the maximum frames displayed per second. I have
seached in our inner database, but unfortunately, I haven't found any
information about it so far.

I will consult this issue in our inner discussion group and as soon as I
get any news, I will get it back to you.

In addtion, although my animated GIF is displayed slower in a WinForm, but
the animation is smooth. As you have mentioned, the animated GIF you're
using seems jerky when it is display in a form. Could you please send me
the animated GIF? To get my actual email address, remove 'online' from my
displayed email address.

Thank you for your cooperation and patience!

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

You are sure that you set the properties of the picturebox right
>
By instance this ones let it look on every screen different
>
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib....sizemode.aspx
>

I set SizeMode to AutoSize, but I'll try setting the size manually and see
if that makes any difference.
That wouldn't explain the problem when using ImageAnimator though, as in
that example it was drawing directly on the form.

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

>You are sure that you set the properties of the picturebox right

>>
>By instance this ones let it look on every screen different
>>
>http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib....sizemode.aspx
>>

I set SizeMode to AutoSize, but I'll try setting the size manually and see
if that makes any difference.

I tried setting SizeMode to Normal, and it makes no difference.

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

Within the IDE or when running the program?

It makes no difference whether I run the program from within the IDE or
compile it, and run the exe.

In the IDE, I don't see any
animation at all.

I don't see any animation when using the form designer. That is not a
problem. I am only concerned with the runtime behaviour.

When running the program, it is displayed correctly.

Not for me :(

>(VB 2005 Express)

That is what I am using too.

[Armin Zingler]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

"Phil" <N/Aschrieb

>

Within the IDE or when running the program?

>
It makes no difference whether I run the program from within the IDE
or compile it, and run the exe.
>

In the IDE, I don't see any
animation at all.

>
I don't see any animation when using the form designer. That is not
a problem. I am only concerned with the runtime behaviour.
>

When running the program, it is displayed correctly.

>
Not for me :(
>

(VB 2005 Express)

>
That is what I am using too.

What else does the application do? Does it do any other job while you are
watching the image? Maybe you are using System.Windows. Forms.Timer that does
things from time to time?

Have you already tried it in a new project?


Armin

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

What else does the application do?

Nothing yet. First thing I tried when it didn't work was to create a new
project to ensure nothing else might be interfering.

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

I tried calling UpdateFrames twice in my Paint event handler, and now it

is displaying the new frame correctly.

Actually that seemed to work once, but is now not working again. :-(

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs


"Phil" <N/Awrote in message news:13c3a55hsd t1450@corp.supe rnews.com...

>I tried calling UpdateFrames twice in my Paint event handler, and now it
>is displaying the new frame correctly.

>
Actually that seemed to work once, but is now not working again. :-(
>

What does seem to fix it though is calling
Threading.Threa d.Sleep(10)

before calling UpdateFrames.

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs


"Phil" <N/Awrote in message news:13c0rc08fd dcp56@corp.supe rnews.com...

>I thought it would be nice to display some animated GIFs on some of my
>forms. I put a PictureBox control on a form, and loaded my GIF file in. It
>animates, but not properly. It seems very jerky and dwells on some frames
>longer than it should. Searching for this problem, I have found several
>people who have stated that animated GIFs don't work in a PictureBox at
>all, and you have to use the ImageAnimator. I assume they must be referring
>to an older version, because I do get some animation, it's just not quite
>right. I am using VB2005 Express.
I thought it might be a problem with running under the IDE, but I still
get the same problem if I build the project and run the release exe.
I looked up ImageAnimator in the help, and it is not especially helpful,
but there was some sample code. I tried this, and I get exactly the same
problem. The image displays and animates, but the timing seems all wrong.
If I use the image preview in Windows XP the image displays fine, so I
don't think it's a problem with the GIF file itself.
Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.
TIA
Phil.

It seems this may be a known problem.
I found this article

http://visualbasic.about.com/od/usingvbnet/a/GDIP10.htm

which says:
"... the ImageAnimator class in .NET doesn't handle timing the display of
the individual images very well. GDI+ uses the event processing provided by
Windows Forms and the Windows message pump. That's just not good enough to
keep the animation from being jumpy and even skip frames entirely. "

[Hoop]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

On Aug 13, 9:41 am, "Phil" <N/Awrote:

I thought it would be nice to display some animated GIFs on some of my
forms. I put a PictureBox control on a form, and loaded my GIF file in. It
animates, but not properly. It seems very jerky and dwells on some frames
longer than it should. Searching for this problem, I have found several
people who have stated that animated GIFs don't work in a PictureBox at all,
and you have to use the ImageAnimator. I assume they must be referring to an
older version, because I do get some animation, it's just not quite right. I
am using VB2005 Express.
I thought it might be a problem with running under the IDE, but I still get
the same problem if I build the project and run the release exe.
I looked up ImageAnimator in the help, and it is not especially helpful, but
there was some sample code. I tried this, and I get exactly the same
problem. The image displays and animates, but the timing seems all wrong. If
I use the image preview in Windows XP the image displays fine, so I don't
think it's a problem with the GIF file itself.
Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.
TIA
Phil.

Hi,
Can you use AxAnimation in Express? It would be in the Tools/Choose
ToolBox items, and select the Com tab.
Thats what I am currently using. Also, there is a project in Code
Project named .NET Animation Control that you can add, I have tried
that also and it works. I do use .avi files though.
Jeff

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

Hi,
Can you use AxAnimation in Express? It would be in the Tools/Choose
ToolBox items, and select the Com tab.

I have AXBrowse.AXBrow ser but not AXAnimation.
Presumably this is something that is part of some other application and
needs to be installed separately.

Thats what I am currently using. Also, there is a project in Code
Project named .NET Animation Control that you can add, I have tried
that also and it works. I do use .avi files though.

I would like to be able to use AVI files too, so I may check that out.

Thanks,
Phil.

[Phil]

Re: Problem with Animated GIFs

What does seem to fix it though is calling
Threading.Threa d.Sleep(10)
>
before calling UpdateFrames.

It might seem odd that adding a delay should prevent the animation from
skipping frames, but this could be explained if there is a rounding error in
the handling of time in ImageAnimator.

I would guess that the way it works is that the Animate method stores the
current time, and then sets up a timer to trigger the FrameChange event.
Each time the FrameChanged event is fired, it would update the stored time,
and set a new timer for the next frame.
If the precision of the variable used to store this time and the precision
of the variable used to store the timer interval are different, it is
possible either for the event to be raised slightly too early or for
UpdateFrames to think it is not yet time for the next frame.

If someone from Microsoft is reading, perhaps they could get someone to look
at the code for ImageAnimator, to see if this might be what's happening. If
so, it should be a simple fix, to make it round up instead of down where the
rounding is occuring.

What puzzles me though is that putting a delay in the Paint event handler
before calling UpdateFrames fixes the problem, but putting the delay in the
FrameChanged event handler before calling Invalidate does not work.

[Phil]

Displaying AVIs (was RE: Problem with Animated GIFs)

>Also, there is a project in Code
>Project named .NET Animation Control that you can add, I have tried
>that also and it works. I do use .avi files though.

>
I would like to be able to use AVI files too, so I may check that out.

I found this. It is called CGAnimation, and is written in C#. I loaded into
C# and I got a message that it was written for an older version of visual
studio. It seemed to convert it OK, and I was able to build the DLL.
I added this to my toolbox in VB, and was able to get it working, although
I've found a couple of problems with it. Firstly it doesn't display properly
in the designer. This isn't a major problem, but is annoying. Secondly the
Transparent property does not seem to work correctly. It will correctly use
the form's background colour, but if the form has a background image, it
does not display it correctly.
Also, it seems OK with an AVI, but does not seem to work with an animated
GIF. This may be by design, I'm not sure.
Does anyone have any experience using this control? Is it worth trying to
convert this to VB and trying to debug it, or is there a better way of
displaying AVI files?

Thanks,
Phil.