   Bmps or what else?
  Hi,Except for bmps can you use anything else with api functions in vb6?Bmps take up a lot of space. I had a few hundred bmps in THE program I created so far. I had to leave them on the cd because downloading them took too long.When I look at other cds I see that many have picture formats that are not even recognized by my computer, and that take up less space. How is this done?Are they using some other language not vb6?Thanks   
  You could try using this lib: FreeImage For images; we usually use PNGs and JPGs (PNG for anything with Alpha, palletized (256 or 16 color) images, or images where JPG artefacts look bad, JPG for backgrounds and other large, non-alpha'ed images).For even better compression (but slower decompression), you can look at JPEG2K.  Allan   ;  Thank you,That has helped a little. And I'm not done with freeimage yet. But now my next question is: Can I use JPG's with vb6's api functions (blitting for instance)?You mention compression/decompression. Can I also keep the images as JPG'S and convert them to bmps? How would I do that? Probably because I know so little but all this converting/decompressing sounds like a terribly slow process. Would I do it for all the files at the beginning of the game, or for each one individually?As far as I know vb6 is used in gamming isn't it?   ;Quote:Original post by CloudierCan I use JPG's with vb6's api functions (blitting for instance)?Yes, with a bit of hacking.A little over 6 years ago, I wrote this article (for my now dead DirectX4VB website). Its a bit of a hack, but it should work with getting JPEG/GIF (and the other formats LoadPicture() supports) into a BMP suitable for DirectDraw (or whatever else).Quote:Original post by CloudierAs far as I know vb6 is used in gamming isn't it?I started back in the late 90's on VB4 and spent several years writing games in VB6. It can be done, but its definitely not the most common route anymore. Especially now we have the wonderful world of .NET [smile]I'm not 100% sure, but I think VB6 is now out of its support period with Microsoft (as with the rest of VS6), so you're only gonna be finding less and less information for it [sad]hthJack   ;  It's worth noting that VB.NET 2005 is free in the "Express" editions that Microsoft offers. That should provide you with a wealth of image loaders (being able to use the same APIs that C# does) if you're still really stuck on VB.It's also a more modern language, and teaches far fewer bad habits than VB6.   