Question

I’m writing a simple game – snake. I would like to have background and my snake on it. I think that the best way is use two pictureBox (one with background and second – transparent with snake on it).

This is a good way? And how can I put several small images (snake’s segments) on one picture box in different places (just copy pixel’s (one after one) from image to pictureBox or maybe there is fastest way – putting all image in correct place)? I have pictureBox with background (parent) and and another, transparent (child) on it now.

The result should be look something like that:

I’ve made something like that (thanks to @dotTutorials), but my snake’s segments are a little bit bigger than original images and cookie is smaller. Where can be a problem?

Drawing Code:

public Bitmap PrinPlayground()
{

    char[,] tempPitch = play.getPitch();

    Graphics g = pb2.CreateGraphics();
    Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(512, 512);
    Graphics BBG = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap);

    Bitmap head = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.head;
    Bitmap body01 = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.body01;
    Bitmap tail = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.tail;
    Bitmap cookie = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.cookie;

    BBG.Clear(Color.Transparent);

    for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++)
        for (int j = 0; j < 16; j++)
        {
            if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'H')
            {
                BBG.DrawImage(head, new Point(32*j, 32*i));
            }
            else if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'B')
            {
                BBG.DrawImage(body01, new Point(32*j, 32*i));
            }
            else if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'T')
            {
                BBG.DrawImage(tail, new Point(32 * j, 32 * i));
            }
            else if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'C')
            {
                BBG.DrawImage(cookie, new Point(32 * j, 32 * i));
            }
        }
    g.DrawImage(bitmap, new Point(0,0));
    return bitmap;
}

Result:

Answer 1

The best way to achieve this is definitely to use the ‘Graphics’ class. Please look further into the GDI, and the namespace System.Drawing.

If you want to use a Picturebox representing the game space, you can easily implement graphics to a picturebox as well, by calling the member CreateGraphics.

I hope this helps you! 🙂
Please notice that when you get into serious game development, you’ll have to find a better alternative than GDI. I personally prefer the XNA library

Example usage of GDI [This written fast, and should not be copy – pasted. However; It is a good point of origin :)]

    Graphics g = pictureBox1.CreateGraphics();
    Bitmap BB = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Width, pictureBox1.Height);
    Graphics BBG = Graphics.FromImage(BB);

    Bitmap Background = (Bitmap)Bitmap.FromFile("BackgroundPicture.png");
    Bitmap Head = (Bitmap)Bitmap.FromFile("SnakeHead.png");
    Bitmap Tail = (Bitmap)Bitmap.FromFile("SnakeTail.png");

    Point snakeLocation = new Point((BB.Width / 2) - (Head.Width / 2), (BB.Height / 2) - (Head.Height / 2));


    while (true) {
        #region Update
        // update method here!
        snakeLocation.X += 1;
        #endregion

        #region Draw
        BBG.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);
        BBG.DrawImage(Background, new Point(0, 0));

        BBG.DrawImage(Head, snakeLocation);
        BBG.DrawImage(Tail, new Point(snakeLocation.X - Head.Width, snakeLocation.Y));

        g.DrawImage(BB, new Point(0, 0)); // draw to screen
        #endregion
    }

UPDATE: The DrawImage method also accepts a RectangleF input. A RectangleF consits of 4 datatypes, float X, float Y, float Width and float Height.

With a RectangleF you can easily specify the size of the drawn image. Take a look at the code below:

public Bitmap PrinPlayground() {

            char[,] tempPitch = play.getPitch();

            Graphics g = pb2.CreateGraphics();
            Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(512, 512);
            Graphics BBG = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap);

            Bitmap head = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.head;
            Bitmap body01 = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.body01;
            Bitmap tail = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.tail;
            Bitmap cookie = CookieSnake.Properties.Resources.cookie;

            BBG.Clear(Color.Transparent);

            for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++)
                for (int j = 0; j < 16; j++) {
                    if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'H') {
                        BBG.DrawImage(head, new RectangleF(new Point(32 * j, 32 * i), new SizeF(/*Adjust the size after your pleasure*/32, 32)));
                    }
                    else if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'B') {
                        BBG.DrawImage(body01, new RectangleF(new Point(32 * j, 32 * i), new SizeF(32, 32)));
                    }
                    else if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'T') {
                        BBG.DrawImage(tail, new RectangleF(new Point(32 * j, 32 * i), new SizeF(32, 32)));
                    }
                    else if (tempPitch[i, j] == 'C') {
                        BBG.DrawImage(cookie, new RectangleF(new Point(32 * j, 32 * i), new SizeF(/*Half the size of the head [Adjust after your needs!]*/32 / 2, 32 / 2)));
                    }
                }
            g.DrawImage(bitmap, new Point(0, 0));
            return bitmap;
        }
    }