Load .GIF in Win32

Loading .gif’s in Win32 is really easy through a GDI+ pathway.

The short of it is something like this:

#include <windows.h>
#include <gdiplus.h>
using namespace Gdiplus;
// .. main()
Image *image = new Image( "image.gif" );

Functions are located here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms534462(v=vs.85).aspx

An example is here: https://github.com/superwills/eternity/blob/master/eternity/GDIPlusTexture.cpp#L133, or here.

Goldwave downmix to mono

You have to do File | Save As… then hit the Attributes button at the bottom

There’s a really simple dialog in File | Batch Processing… / Convert which lets you downmix a bunch of files at once also.

 

 

Visual Studio 2015 Static Variables Declarations

A bit of a weird issue, when you declare a static variable in VS 2015 you can initialize it in the member declaration:

// Unit.h
struct Unit
{
  static const char Character = 'P'; // class-level var
  char symbol; // member var
  Unit()
  {
    symbol = Character; // init with static var
  }
};

Something weird happens with the compiler sometimes however. On multiple compile/runs, the variable of the static const char Character, when changed, doesn’t bake properly into the exe.

To fix this, just split the declaration and initialization into a corresponding .cpp,

// Unit.h:
struct Unit
{
  static const char Character; // class-level var, init in .cpp
  char symbol; // member var
  Unit()
  {
    symbol = Character; // init with static var
  }
};

// Unit.cpp
const char Unit::Character = 'P';

Windows 10 NVIDIA Control Panel: “Your changes cannot be applied right now.”

There’s an odd thing that can happen in Windows 10 when you try to change your monitor settings with the NVIDIA Control Panel. When you try to change some multi-display settings, you may get the following dialog, stating:

“Your changes cannot be applied right now. This may be due to any of the following reasons:

• A video is playing or a video application is running
• A game or 3D application is running in full-screen mode
• A command prompt window is running in full-screen mode
• You have rotated your desktop with the Rotate Display page
• The Display Optimization Wizard is running

You can try to apply your changes again after resolving the conflict.”

I resolved this by closing Skype of all things. Even though you wouldn’t suspect a program like Skype would violate the above constraints, it does.