FlatRedBall
  • 🖥️Downloading FlatRedBall
  • 🏗️Building FlatRedBall From Source
    • Linking Games to FlatRedBall Engine Source
    • Linking FNA
  • ❓Need Help?
  • ✨FlatRedBall Features
  • 🎓Tutorials
    • Introduction To FlatRedBall
    • Quick Start Guide
    • Beefball - A Full FlatRedBall Tutorial Project
      • Creating a FlatRedBall Project
      • Creating an Entity
      • Creating a Screen
      • Controlling an Entity
      • Creating the Screen Collision
      • Advanced PlayerBall Controls
      • Creating the Puck Entity
      • Adding Multiple Players
      • Scoring and Restarting Rounds
      • Scoring Hud
      • Scoring Hud Logic
      • Adding Dashing
    • Platformer Tutorials
      • Platformer Basics
        • Creating an Entity
        • Controlling a Platformer Entity
        • Movement Values
        • Double Jump
      • Checkpoint and Level End
      • Climbing Ladders
      • Doors
      • GroundCollidedAgainst and Movement Values
      • Moving Platforms
      • Multiple Players
      • NPC Dialog
      • Breaking Blocks
        • New Project Setup
        • Creating Level1 Map
        • Creating the Block Entity
        • Block Removal
      • Dealing Damage
        • New Project Setup
        • Enemy Entity
        • Shooting Bullets
        • Damaging the Enemy
      • Enemy Movement
        • New Project Setup
        • Enemy Entity
        • Enemy Input Logic
        • Detecting Platform Edges
      • Ground Type and Water Movement
        • New Project Setup
        • Creating Level1 Map
        • Adding Ice and Water
        • Platformer Movement Values
      • Animation and Platformer Values
        • New Project Setup
        • Creating AnimationLayers
        • Modifying Platformer Values
      • Wall Sliding and Jumping
    • Damage Dealing
      • Setup
      • Team Index
      • Damage Events
      • IDamageArea Removal
      • Melee Damage
    • Entity Variants Using Inheritance
    • FlatRedBall.Forms
      • Getting Started with FlatRedBall.Forms
        • Setup
        • Working with Common Controls
        • Forms vs Gum in Code
      • Forms and Xbox360GamePad
      • Data Binding (BindingContext)
        • BindingContext Property
        • Binding FlatRedBall.Forms
        • Parent and Children Binding using BindingContext
        • ListBox Templates
      • Styling Forms
      • Defining New Forms Types
        • Adding New Types to FlatRedBall.Forms Library
      • Accessing Forms Events in Gum Runtimes
    • Top Down Games
      • Top Down Basics
        • Setup
        • Input Device
        • CurrentMovement
      • Enemy Movement
        • Enemy Pathfinding
        • Direct Enemy Control
      • GroundVelocity
      • Animation
      • Sorting
    • Post Processing
    • Rock Blaster - A Full FlatRedBall Tutorial Project
      • Introduction
      • Setup
      • Game Skeleton
      • Player Entity
      • Player Behavior
      • Rock Entity
      • Collision
      • Rock States
      • HUD
      • Multiple Players
      • Health
      • Health Part 2
      • Destroying Entities
      • Cleaning Up
    • Code-Only Projects (No Editor)
      • Creating a FlatRedBall Project
      • Adding a Circle
      • Loading Textures and Using Sprites
    • Code Tutorials
      • 3D Camera Setup
      • Adding FlatRedBall to a MonoGame/FNA Project
      • Adding WPF to an Existing Game
      • async and await
      • CLR Profiler
      • Collision Jitter
      • Culling
      • Customizing Cursor Visuals
        • Windows Desktop
        • windows-rt
      • Depth Buffer Z Fighting
      • Dictionaries and Enum Keys
      • FlatRedBall XNA in Windows Form
      • Improving Performance
        • CustomActivity Performance
        • Identifying Screen Creation Performance Issues
        • Rendering Performance
        • Manually Updated Objects
          • Introduction
          • Measuring Automatic Updates
          • Measuring Sprite Automatic Updates
          • Manual Particle Systems
      • Object Sorting
      • Pix
      • Rendering Sprites with Shaders
      • Tile-Based Movement
      • Velocity
    • Distribution
      • App Icon
      • Emptying bin Folder Using Probing Path
      • itch.io
      • Release Build
      • Steam
    • FlatRedBall and Velcro Physics
      • Using Velcro Physics with the FlatRedBall Editor
      • Code-Only Velcro Projects
    • FlatRedBall Editor Plugins
      • Introduction to FlatRedBall Plugins
      • Creating a Plugin Project
      • Creating a Plugin Class
      • Adding UI to FlatRedBall
      • Using MVVM
      • Creating a NamedObjectSave-Editing Plugin
      • Adding File Format Support
      • Adding Code Files to a Game Project
      • Errors
      • Exporting a Plugin
    • Additional FlatRedBall Editor Tutorials
      • How to Create a First Person Camera
      • How to Play Sounds
      • How to Share Reference Data Between Screens and Entities
    • Math Tutorials
      • Circle Collision
      • Determining required magnitude for trajectory
      • Introduction to Collision
      • Power of Two
      • Rectangle Collision
      • rotation
      • statistics
      • trigonometry
      • vector
      • matrix
      • interpolation
    • Overworld Tutorials
      • Spinning Mode 7
        • New Project Setup
        • Adding Camera Code
        • Fading In and Out
  • 🎞️Videos
  • 📐FlatRedBall Editor
    • Display Settings
    • Entities
      • BaseEntity
      • Constructor
      • ConvertToManuallyUpdated
      • CreatedByOtherEntities
      • CustomActivity
      • CustomDestroy
      • CustomInitialize
      • Destroying Entities
      • Entity Performance
      • Export Entity
      • Implements IClickable
      • Implements ICollidable
      • Implements IDamageArea
      • Implements IDrawableBatch
      • Implements IGumCollidable
      • Implements IVisible
      • Implements IWindow
        • SlideOnClick
      • Import Entity
      • Inheriting from FlatRedBall Types
      • LayerProvidedByContainer
      • MoveToLayer
      • PooledByFactory
      • Top Down Movement
        • TopDownSpeedMultiplier
      • Use Global Content
    • Events
      • ResolutionRrOrientationChanged
    • Factories
      • CreateNew
      • EntitySpawned
      • Initialize
      • SortAxis
    • Files
      • File Types
        • Animation Chain List (.achx)
        • Comma Separated Values (.csv)
          • Combining .csvs With Entities
          • CreatesDictionary
          • Cross Referencing CSVs
          • Instantiating Custom Types
          • OrderedList
          • SetCreatedClass
            • generate-data-class
          • uniformrowtype
        • Effect (.fx, .fxb)
        • Font (.fnt)
        • JSON (.json)
        • Model (.fbx)
        • MP3
        • Node Network (.nntx)
        • OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods)
        • ShapeCollections (.shcx)
        • SplineList (.splx)
        • Texture2D (.png)
        • Wave (.wav)
      • Accessing Files in Code
      • Adding File Objects to Managers
      • Destroy on Unload
      • File Build Tool
      • Folders
      • Global Content Files
      • IsDatabaseForLocalizing
      • IsManuallyUpdated
      • IncludeDirectoryRelativeToContainer
      • LoadedAtRuntime
      • LoadedOnlyWhenReferenced
      • Name
      • Platform Inclusions
      • Project Specific Files
      • RuntimeType
      • SourceFile
      • UseContentPipeline
      • Wildcard Files
    • FileVersion (.gluj)
    • Generated Code
    • Global Content Files
      • LoadAsynchronously
      • Reload
      • Setting Files At Runtime
    • Live Edit
      • Render Targets
    • Menu
      • Content
        • Additional Content
          • Using Runtime Types as Objects
          • creating-runtime-objects
          • runtime-object-charateristics
          • simple-line-of-text-tutorial
        • Introduction
        • pipeline-settings
      • File
        • New Project
      • Edit
        • Find File References
      • Plugins
        • Install Plugin
        • Manage Plugins
      • Project
        • View Projects
      • Settings
        • Camera Settings
        • File Associations
        • File Build Tools
        • Performance Settings
      • Update
        • Introduction
        • glue-reference-menu-frbdk
        • glue-reference-menu-libraries
    • Multi-Platform
      • Synced Projects
      • Changing Main Project Type
      • Android
        • Distribution
        • Setup
      • iOS
        • Certificates and Profiles
        • Copying Projects to Mac
        • Using Xamarin Build Host
      • Switch (Nintendo)
      • Web
    • Objects
      • Object Types
        • AxisAlignedRectangle
        • Camera
        • CameraControllingEntity
        • Circle
        • CollisionRelationship
        • Layer
          • DestinationRectangle
          • Is2D
        • Polygon
        • PositionedObjectList
        • RenderTarget2D
        • ShapeCollection
        • SoundEffectInstance
        • Sprite
        • Text
        • TileNodeNetwork
      • AddToManagers
      • AttachToCamera
      • AttachToContainer
      • CallActivity
      • Collidable Objects
      • EntireFile
      • ExposedInDerived
      • HasPublicProperty
      • IgnoresPausing
      • IncludeInIClickable
      • IncludeInICollidable
      • IsContainer
      • LayerOn
      • Map
      • SetByDerived
      • SourceFile
      • SourceType
    • Plugins
      • glue-gluevault-component-pages-rendertargetrenderer
      • glue-gluevault-component-pages-simple-command-console
      • glue-gluevault-component-pages-squid-gui-integration
      • kalldrexx-interactive-debugging-console
    • Profiling
    • Screens
      • AsyncLoadingState
      • BaseScreen
      • Constructor
      • Creating a New Screen
      • CustomDestroy
      • CustomInitialize
      • DefaultLayer
      • GameScreen
      • IsActivityFinished
      • IsLoadingScreen
      • LoadStaticContent
      • MoveToScreen
      • PauseAdjustedCurrentTime
      • Set as StartUp Screen
      • UnloadsContentManagerWhenDestroyed
    • States
      • InterpolateToState
      • InterpolateToState vs InterpolateBetween
      • State Categories
      • State Classes
      • States and Inheritance
      • Tunneling Category Variables
    • Variables
      • CreatesEvent
      • HasAccompanyingVelocityProperty
      • IsShared
      • Proper Variable Naming
      • SetByDerived
      • Type
      • Variable Order
    • Visual Studio Project (.csproj)
  • 🏃Animation Editor
    • Frame Time
    • Animation Shapes and Collision
  • Tiled
    • Tiled Basics
      • Introduction
      • Creating a GameScreen
      • Adding Collision
      • Colliding Entities Against TileShapeCollections
      • Working with Multiple Levels
      • Creating Entities from Tiles
      • Creating Entities from Object Layers
      • Accessing Tiled Properties
      • Working with Tiled Shapes
    • Tiled Files in Entities
    • TileEntityInstantiator
    • Using TiledObjects.Generated.xml
    • LayeredTileMap
      • Collisions
      • Destroy
      • FromTiledMapSave
      • Z
    • MapDrawableBatch
      • AddTile
      • CoordinateAdjustment
      • GetBottomLeftWorldCoordinateForOrderedTile
      • MergeOntoThis
      • NamedTileOrderedIndexes
      • PaintTile
      • PaintTileTextureCoordinates
      • ParallaxX
      • Paste
      • Properties
      • RemoveQuads
      • RenderingScale
      • SortAxis
    • TiledMapSave
    • TileShapeCollection
      • AddCollisionAtWorld
      • AddCollisionFrom
      • AddCollisionFromTilesWithProperty
      • AddMergedCollisionFromLayer
      • AddMergedCollisionFromTilesWithProperty
      • AdjustRepositionDirectionsOnAddAndRemove
      • CollideAgainst
      • CollideAgainstClosest
      • GetRectangleAtPosition
      • InsertCollidables
      • LastCollisionAxisAlignedRectangles
      • Rectangles
      • RemoveFromManagers
      • RemoveSurroundedCollision
  • 🟩Gum
    • Tutorials
      • Introduction and Setup
      • Screens in Gum
      • Gum Objects in Code
      • Events on Gum Objects
      • Events on Gum Objects Part 2
      • Exposed Variables
      • States
      • Adding Code to Gum Objects
    • Accessing Gum Screens in Code
    • Adding Components to Layers
    • Adding Gum Screens to FlatRedBall
    • Animations in Code
    • Components in FlatRedBall Entities
    • Converting Gum Coordinates
    • Creating Components in Code
    • GraphicalUiElement as IWindow
    • Gum Resolution
    • Gum Properties Tab
    • Gum Animations
      • How to Play Gum Screen Animations
      • Named Events
      • Setting Gum Animationchain Achx in Code
  • 🦴Spine
    • Setup
    • Atlas
    • Changing Spine Textures at Runtime
    • SpineDrawableBatch
      • Event
      • PlayAnimation
      • SetCollision
      • Skeleton
  • ⏸️Aseprite
    • AnimationChainList
  • 🏫API Documentation
    • FlatRedBall Engine
      • AI
        • LineOfSight
          • VisibilityGrid
        • Pathfinding
          • PositionedNode
          • Link
            • Cost
            • NodeLinkingTo
          • NodeNetwork
            • GetPath
            • UpdateShapes
            • Visible
          • TileNodeNetwork
            • AddAndLinkTiledNode
            • AddAndLinkTiledNodeWorld
            • OccupyTileWorld
            • SetCosts
      • Audio
        • AudioManager
          • AreSoundEffectsEnabled
          • CurrentlyPlayingSong
          • MasterSongVolume
          • MasterSoundVolume
          • Play
          • PlaySong
          • PlaySongs
          • StopSong
        • PositionedSound
        • Sound
      • Camera
        • AbsoluteRightXEdge
        • AbsoluteRightXEdgeAt
        • AddLayer
        • AddSpriteToBillboard
        • AspectRatio
        • AttachTo
        • BackgroundColor
        • CameraCullMode
        • ClearMinimumsAndMaximums
        • ClearsDepthBuffer
        • DestinationRectangle
        • DrawsShapes
        • DrawsToScreen
        • DrawsWorld
        • FarClipPlane
        • FieldOfView
        • FixAspectRatioYConstant
        • ForceUpdateDependencies
        • GetViewport
        • IsSpriteInView
        • KeepSpriteInScreen
        • Layer
        • Layers
        • Main
        • MaximumX
        • Orthogonal
        • OrthogonalHeight
        • OrthogonalWidth
        • PixelsPerUnitAt
        • Position
        • PositionRandomlyInView
        • RelativeXEdgeAt
        • RemoveLayer
        • RotationMatrix
        • SetBordersAtZ
        • SetLookAtRotationMatrix
        • SetSplitScreenViewport
        • UpdateViewProjectionMatrix
        • UpVector
        • UsePixelCoordinates
        • UsePixelCoordinates3D
        • View
      • Content
        • ContentLoadBatch
        • AnimationChain
          • AnimationChainListSave
        • ContentManager
          • AddUnloadMethod
          • FileAliases
          • IsAssetLoadedByName
          • Load
          • LoadFromGlobalIfExists
          • Multiple Content Managers
        • Math
          • Geometry
            • ShapeCollectionSave
        • Polygon
          • PolygonSave
        • Scene
          • CameraSave
          • SceneSave
        • SpriteEditorScene
          • Camera
      • Debugging
        • Debugger
          • CommandLineWrite
          • GetFullPerformanceInformation
          • TextBlue
          • WriteAutomaticallyUpdatedObjectInformation
      • Entities
        • CameraControllingEntity
        • IDamageable
        • IDamageArea
      • FlatRedBallServices
        • AddDisposable
        • AddManager
        • CornerGrabbingResize
        • Draw
        • ForceClientSizeUpdates
        • Game
        • GetManagerInformation
        • GlobalContentManager
        • GraphicsOptions
        • Initialize
        • IsLoaded
        • Load
        • Owner
        • Random
        • RenderAll
        • Unload
        • Update
        • WindowHandle
      • Graphics
        • Animation
          • AnimationChain
            • Clone
            • FrameToFrame
            • TotalLength
          • AnimationChainList
          • AnimationController
          • AnimationFrame
            • RelativeX
            • ShapeCollectionSave
            • Texture
          • IAnimationChainAnimatable
            • Animate
            • Animation and Timing
            • AnimationChains
            • AnimationSpeed
            • CurrentChainName
            • CurrentFrameIndex
            • JustChangedFrame
            • JustCycled
            • UseAnimationRelativePosition
        • BitmapFont
          • BMFC File
          • BitmapCharacterInfo
          • FNT File
          • Glyphs
          • LineHeightInPixels
          • RenderToTexture2D
        • BlendOperation
        • ColorOperation
          • Add
          • Color
          • ColorTextureAlpha
          • InterpolateColor
          • Modulate
          • Texture
        • GraphicsOptions
          • Filtering
          • IsFullScreen
          • ResolutionHeight
          • SetFullScreen
          • SetResolution
          • SizeOrOrientationChanged
          • TextureFilter
          • TextureLoadingColorKey
          • UseMultisampling
        • IColorable
          • Alpha
          • BlendOperation
          • Blue
          • ColorOperation
        • IDrawableBatch
          • Z
          • RenderState
        • IVisible
          • IgnoresParentVisibility
        • Layer
          • Layer Membership Details
          • LayerCameraSettings
          • Remove
          • RenderTarget
          • SortType
          • Sprites
          • UsePixelCoordinates
        • LayerCameraSettings
          • OrthogonalWidth
          • TopDestination
        • Particle
          • EmissionSettings
            • Drag
            • PixelSize
            • ScaleX
          • Emitter
        • PostProcessing
          • SwapChain
        • RenderBreak
        • Renderer
          • Draw
          • LastFrameRenderBreakList
          • RenderBreaksAllocatedThisFrame
        • Text
          • AdjustPositionForPixelPerfectDrawing
          • ColorOperation
          • DisplayText
          • GetWidth
          • Font
          • HorizontalAlignment
          • InsertNewLines
          • MaxWidth
          • MaxWidthBehavior
          • NewLineDistance
          • NumberOfLines
          • ScaleX
          • SetColor
          • SetPixelPerfectScale
          • VerticalAlignment
          • Width
        • TextManager
          • AddManuallyUpdated
          • AddText
          • AddToLayer
          • FilterTexts
          • RemoveText
        • Texture
          • RenderTargetSprite
          • ImageData
            • ApplyColorOperation
            • Fill
            • FromTexture2D
      • Gui
        • Cursor
          • Camera
          • ClickNoSlideThreshold
          • CustomUpdate
          • GetRay
          • IngnoreInputThisFrame
          • IsInWindow
          • IsOn
          • IsOn3d
          • PrimaryClick
          • PrimaryClickNoSlide
          • PrimaryPushTime
          • ScreenX
          • SecondaryClick
          • SetControllingGamepad
          • SetJoystickControl
          • TransformationMatrix
          • WindowOver
          • WidowPushed
          • WorldPosition
          • WorldX
          • WorldXAt
          • WorldYAt
          • XForUi
        • GuiManager
          • AddDominantWindow
          • BringsClickedWindowsToFront
          • BringToFront
          • GamepadsForUiControl
          • MakeRegularWindow
          • RemoveWindow
          • SortZAndLayerBased
          • Windows
        • IClickable
        • IInputReceiver
          • IWindow
            • CallClick
            • Enabled
          • ReceiveInput
      • Input
        • AnalogButton
        • AnalogStick
          • IsMaxPositionNormalized
        • DelegateBased1DInput
        • DelegateBased2DInput
        • DelegateBasedPressableInput
        • I1DInput
        • I2DInput
        • IMouseOver
        • InputDeviceBase
        • InputManager
          • ClearAllInput
          • InputReceiver
        • IPressableInput
        • Keyboard
          • Clear
          • ControlPositionedObject
          • Get2DInput
          • GetKey
          • GetStringTyped
          • IgnoreKeyForOneFrame
          • KeyDown
          • KeyPushed
        • Mouse
          • GrabbedPositionedObject
          • IsOn3D
          • ModifyMouseState
          • Restricting Mouse to Screen Bounds
          • SetScreenPosition
        • TouchScreen
          • LastFrameGestures
          • ReadsGestures
        • Windows
          • WindowsInputEventManager
        • Xbox360GamePad
          • ButtonDown
          • ButtonMap
          • ButtonPosition vs Button
          • ButtonPushed
          • ControlPositionedObject
          • CreateDefaultButtonMap
          • Deadzone
          • DeadzoneType
          • FakeIsConnected
          • GamepadLayout
          • IgnoreButtonForOneFrame
      • Instructions
        • DelegateInstruction
        • IInstructable
          • Call
          • Cnstructions
          • Set
        • Instruction
        • InstructionList
          • ExecuteAndRemoveOrCyclePassedInstructions
        • InstructionManager
          • Add
          • AddSafe
          • Instructions
          • MoveThrough
          • MoveTo
          • MoveToAccurate
          • ObjectsIgnoringPausing
          • PauseEngine
          • Pulse
          • RotateToAccurate
        • Reflection
          • LateBinder
          • PropertyCollection
        • MethodInstruction
        • StaticMethodInstruction
      • IO
        • Csv
          • CsvHeader
          • CsvFilemanager
            • Cells with Multiple Lines
            • Color
            • CsvDeserializelist
            • Rows with Lists
          • RuntimeCsvRepresentation
            • FromList
            • GenerateCsvString
        • FileManager
          • BinarySerialize
          • CloneObject
          • FromFileText
          • GetAllFilesInDirectory
          • GetUserFolder
          • InitializeUserFolder
          • RelativeDirectory
          • SaveEmbeddedResource
          • SaveText
          • Standardize
          • UserApplicationDataForThisApplication
          • XmlDeserialize
          • XmlSerialize
      • Localization
        • LocalizationManager
      • Managers
        • IManager
      • Math
        • IAttachableRemovable
        • AttachableList
          • FindByName
          • MakeOneWay
        • Collision
          • CollisionManager
            • Relationships
            • Update
        • Geometry
          • AxisAlignedCube
            • CollideAgainstBounce
          • AxisAlignedRectangle
            • Axis Alignment And Rotation
            • CollideAgainstMoveSoft
            • Color
            • GetRandomPositionInThis
            • KeepThisInsideOf
            • LastMoveCollisionReposition
            • Left
            • RepositionDirections
          • Capsule2D
          • Circle
            • CollideAgainst
            • CollideAgainstBounce
            • CollideAgainstMove
            • IsPointInside
            • LastCollisionTangent
            • LastMoveCollisionReposition
            • ProjectParentVelocityOnLastMoveCollisionTangent
            • Visible
            • Z
          • Colliding a List of Shapes Against Itself
          • FloatRectangle
          • ICollidable
          • IScalable
            • Scale
          • Line
            • Color
            • LastCollisionPoint
            • RelativePoint1
            • SetFromAbsoluteEndpoints
          • Point
          • Polygon
            • AbsolutePointPosition
            • Clone
            • CollideAgainstBounce
            • CollideAgainstMove and Attachments
            • CollideAgainstMove
            • Color
            • CreateEquilateral
            • CreateRectangle
            • ForceUpdateDependencies
            • IsPointInside
            • LastMoveCollisionReposition
            • OptimizeRadius
            • Points
            • Position
            • ProjectParentVelocityOnLastMoveCollisionTangent
            • ScaleBy
            • Thin Polygon Problem
            • VectorFrom
            • Visible
            • Z
          • Segment
            • ClosestPointTo
          • Shape
          • ShapeCollection
            • AttachTo
            • AxisAlignedRectangles
            • CollideAgainst
            • CollideAgainstBounceWithoutSnag
            • CollideAgainstMove
            • CollideAgainstMoveWithoutSnag
            • LastCollisionAxisAlignedRectangles
            • SortAscending
            • Visible
          • ShapeManager
            • AddToLayer
            • Remove
            • ShapeDrawingOrder
          • ShapeMerger
          • Shapes and 2D Collision
          • Sphere
        • IAttachable
          • Attachment Updates in the Engine
          • Detach
          • ParentRotationChangesPosition
          • ParentRotationChangesRotation
          • TopParent
        • IRotatable
          • RotationMatrix
        • MathFunctions
          • AbsoluteToWindow
          • AngleToAngle
          • AngleToVector
          • GetPointInCircle
          • GetPositionAfterTime
          • RegulatAngle
          • RotatePointAroundPoint
          • RoundFloat
          • RoundToInt
          • WidowToAbsolute
        • Paths
          • Path
        • PositionedObjectList
          • Add
          • AttachTo
          • Clear
          • GetFirstAfter
          • GetFirstAfterPosition
          • SortXInsertionAscending
        • Splines
          • Spline
            • GetPositionAtLengthAlongSpline
      • Performance
        • Measurement
          • Section
            • GetAndStartContextAndTime
            • Save
            • ToStringVerbose
      • PositionedObject
        • Acceleration
        • AttachTo
        • Children
        • Clone
        • Drag
        • ForceUpdatedependencies
        • ForceUpdatedependenciesDeep
        • Initialize
        • KeepTrackOfReal
        • LastPosition
        • Mirrored properties
        • ParentRotationChangesPosition
        • ParentRotationChangesRotation
        • Position
        • RelativePosition
        • RelativeRotationZ
        • RelativeVelocity
        • RemoveSelfFromListsBelongingTo
        • RotationZ
        • SetRelativeFromAbsolute
        • TimedActivity
        • TopParent
        • UpdateDependencies
        • Velocity
        • Z
      • Screens
        • Screen
          • ContentManagerName
          • CustomDestroy
          • IsActivityFinished
          • MoveToScreen
          • PauseThisScreen
        • ScreenManager
          • Activity
          • CurrentScreen
          • Start
      • Sprite
        • Alpha
        • AnimateSelf
        • AnimationChains
        • AnimationSpeed
        • Bottom
        • BottomTextureCoordinate
        • Changing a Sprite's Origin
        • ColorOperation
        • CurrentChainName
        • CurrentFrameIndex
        • IgnoreAnimationChainTextureFlip
        • Inheriting from the Sprite Class
        • JustCycled
        • LeftTextureCoordinate
        • PixelSize
        • Position
        • RightTextureCoordinate
        • SetAnimationChain
        • SetScaleXRatioToY
        • Sorting and Overlapping
        • Sprite vs Texture2d
        • Texture Coordinates
        • Texture
        • TextureAddressMode
        • TextureCoordinate
        • TextureFilter
        • TextureScale
        • TimeIntoAnimation
        • TopTextureCoordinate
        • UseAnimationRelativePosition
        • Vertices
        • VerticesForDrawing
        • Visible
      • SpriteList
      • SpriteManager
        • AddDrawableBatch
        • AddManagedInvisibleSprite
        • AddManualSprite
        • AddParticleSprite
        • AddPositionedObject
        • AddSprite
        • AddToLayer
        • AddZBufferedDrawableBatch
        • AddZBufferedSprite
        • AutomaticallyUpdatedSprites
        • Camera
        • ConvertToAutomaticallyUpdated
        • ConvertToManagedInvisible
        • ConvertToManuallyUpdated
        • ConvertToZBufferedSprite
        • DrawableBatches
        • ManagedPositionedObjects
        • ManualUpdate
        • MaxParticleCount
        • MoveToBack
        • OrderedSortType
          • Z
        • OrderedSprites
        • RemoveDrawableBatch
        • RemoveLayer
        • RemovePositionedObject
        • RemoveSprite
        • RemoveSpriteOneWay
        • SortTexturesSecondary
        • SortYSpritesSecondary
        • UnderAllDrawnLayer
      • TimeManager
        • Accumulating Time
        • CurrentScreenSecondsSince
        • CurrentTime
        • Profiling
        • SecondDifference
        • SecondsSince
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On this page
  • Introduction
  • Creating a CustomListBoxItem in Gum
  • Using the Custom ListBoxItem (InventoryListBoxItem)
  • Binding to Item ViewModels
  • Binding InventoryListBoxItem Text
  • Modifying the Selected ViewModel
  • Conclusion

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  1. Tutorials
  2. FlatRedBall.Forms
  3. Data Binding (BindingContext)

ListBox Templates

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Last updated 1 year ago

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Introduction

The ListBox type includes the ability to customize individual items using templates. Two properties exist on the ListBox for customization:

  • VisualTemplate - this allows the usage of any Gum object as an item in a list box

  • FrameworkTemplate - this allows the usage of a FrameworkElement as an item in a list box. Note that the type of FrameworkElement must inherit from ListBoxItem

The following screenshot shows an example of a customized ListBoxItem. It contains a list box which displays levels with images and a check box.

Although the appearance of each item in the ListBox is different from the default appearance, the ListBox itself is still a standard ListBox with a custom VisualTemplate. VisualTemplates can be used for any type of modification to the ListBoxItem. Common examples include:

  • Adding additional Text instances for more information, such as the name and price of an item as separate Text instances

  • Adding images or icons to an object, such as a preview image in a level selection list box

  • Adding additional controls to a list box, such as a check box for multi-selection

VisualTemplate vs. FrameworkTemplate

Most of the time games only need a VisualTemplate and do not need to use a FrameworkTemplate. Therefore, this tutorial convers the usage of VisualTemplate which should cover almost all cases. FrameworkTemplate can be used for rare situations where the same visual is used for list box items which have different functionality. Most of the time this different behavior can be achieved with a VisualTemplate and data binding.

Creating a CustomListBoxItem in Gum

By default the ListBox creates one ListBoxItem for every instance in its Items property. The ListBoxItem is defined in the Gum project under the Controls folder as shown in the following screenshot:

The first step in replacing this ListBoxItem in our ListBox is to create a new component in Gum. The easiest way to do this is to copy/paste the existing ListBoxItem as a starting point. You can create a copy by using the CTRL+C, CTRL+V hotkeys or by right-clicking on the component and selecting the Duplicate option.

This component can be structured however you want. There are no requirements for what it must contain, how it must be named, or what states it must contain. By copying the existing ListBoxItem, we bring over the ability for the ListBox to be selected. Even this is optional, so if you do not want your ListBoxItem to respond to selections visually, you can remove the states or modify them to have no impact on appearance.

For this tutorial we will be creating a new ListBoxItem which has two Text instances:

  • InventoryNameTextInstance

  • InventoryCountTextInstance

Note that by default ListBoxItems attempt to assign a Text object by the name of TextInstance. By changing our Text names, our new ListBoxItem no longer supports default Text display. If you are creating a new ListBoxItem which is intended to be used as a default ListBoxItem throughout your entire game, you should consider keeping a Text instance with th ename TextInstance. In this case we are creating a ListBoxItem to be used in a specific case so this name isn't required.

Using the Custom ListBoxItem (InventoryListBoxItem)

To use the newly-created ListBoxItem, first you need a screen with a ListBox. For example, the following screenshot shows a single ListBox in the MainMenuGum screen.

Once this ListBox is added, the following code can be used to populate the ListBoxInstance, including using the new InventoryListBoxItem as the template:

void CustomInitialize()
{
    var listBox = Forms.ListBoxInstance;
    listBox.VisualTemplate = new FlatRedBall.Forms.VisualTemplate(
        // Gum objects (such as InventoryListBoxItem) create generated
        // types with the name "Runtime" appended.
        () => new InventoryListBoxItemRuntime());
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    {
        listBox.Items.Add(i);
    }
}

Running the game shows something similar to the following screenshot:

The ListBox contains ten (10) instances of the InventoryListBoxItemRuntime Gum component - one for each integer added to listBox.Items. The VisualTemplate assignment tells the ListBox that each Item should result in a new InventoryListBoxItemRuntime being created.

Binding to Item ViewModels

The code above shows how to create instances of the InventoryListBoxItemRuntime component based on the contents of the ListBox.Items collection. This approach is good for testing how a custom ListBoxItem appears in your ListBox, but it won't work for a full game.

Typically each item in a ListBox needs more information than an integer. In the case of inventory, each item in the list box needs at least a name and count.

We'll create a new class which contains this information. We also want to create a class which will notify the ListBoxItem any time a property changes. To make this simpler, FlatRedBall provides a ViewModel class which can be used as the base for your custom classes. By using ViewModel, and the Get/Set methods, any changes to properties are automatically broadcasted to UI. In other words, this enables changing a property on the ViewModel-inheriting class, and that updating the UI immediately.

The term "ViewModel" comes from the MVVM pattern which is a common way to display and manage data in C# front ends such as WPF, .NET MAUI, and Avalonia. Classes which inherit from ViewModel are often referred to generally as "view models", and should have the "ViewModel" or "VM" suffix for clarity.

We can create a new ViewModel for our new custom list box items as shown in the following code:

public class InventoryItemViewModel : ViewModel
{
    public string InventoryName
    {
        get => Get<string>();
        set => Set(value);
    }
    
    public int InventoryCount
    {
        get => Get<int>();
        set => Set(value);
    }
    
    [DependsOn(nameof(InventoryCount))]
    public string InventoryDisplay => $"x{InventoryCount}";
}

Each InventoryItemViewModel will correspond to an individual InventoryListBoxItemRuntime. We also need to create a ViewModel for the entire screen. This ViewModel contains a list of InventoryItemViewModels in an ObservableCollection. Our ViewModel for the entire screen should match the name of the screen, so we will create a class called MainScreenViewModel.

// Even though we aren't using Get<> and Set (see below) yet, we should
// still inherit from ViewModel so that we have access to these methods if
// we need them as our game grows.
public class MainScreenViewModel : ViewModel
{
    // The Get<> and Set methods aren't used here because we do not intend to ever
    // change the ListBoxItems instance after it has been created. If we did, we would
    // want to use the Get<> and Set syntax    
    public ObservableCollection<InventoryItemViewModel> ListBoxItems { get; private set; }
        = new ObservableCollection<InventoryItemViewModel>();
}

Finally we can modify our MainMenu.cs class to use the MainScreenViewModel for its items, as shown in the following code:

public partial class MainMenu
{
    // Declare the ViewModel as a member variable so we can access it
    // in CustomActivity:
    MainScreenViewModel viewModel;

    void CustomInitialize()
    {
        var listBox = Forms.ListBoxInstance;
        listBox.VisualTemplate = new FlatRedBall.Forms.VisualTemplate(
            // Gum objects (such as InventoryListBoxItem) create generated
            // types with the name "Runtime" appended.
            () => new InventoryListBoxItemRuntime());

        viewModel = new MainScreenViewModel();
        viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
        {
            InventoryName = "Iron Ore",
            InventoryCount = 20
        });
        viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
        {
            InventoryName = "Gold Ore",
            InventoryCount = 5
        });
        viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
        {
            InventoryName = "Ruby",
            InventoryCount = 2
        });
        viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
        {
            InventoryName = "Normal Pickaxe",
            InventoryCount = 1
        });

        // Assign the entire screen view model:
        Forms.BindingContext = viewModel;
        // Bind the Items in the ListBox to the Items in the ViewModel:
        listBox.SetBinding(nameof(listBox.Items), nameof(viewModel.ListBoxItems));
    }
    ...

If we run our game now, the ListBox shows four items (one for each InventoryItemViewModel instance). Notice that we do not directly add items to the ListBox.Items. Instead, we bind the listBox.Items to the viewModel.ListBoxItems. This results in the ListBox automatically keeping in sync with the ViewModel.

We can observe this behavior by adding code to the MainMenu's CustomActivith to add a new item whenever the space bar is pressed.

void CustomActivity(bool firstTimeCalled)
{
    if(InputManager.Keyboard.KeyPushed(Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.Keys.Space))
    {
        viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
        {
            InventoryName = "New Item",
            InventoryCount = 1
        });
    }
}

Note that removing items from the view model also results in removal of the matching item in the ListBox.

Binding InventoryListBoxItem Text

Next we'll update our binding so that the Text instances in our InventoryListBoxItem display the name and count properties from our InventoryItemViewModel. To do this, open InventoryListBoxItemRuntime.cs and modify the contents as shown in the following code.

public partial class InventoryListBoxItemRuntime
{
    partial void CustomInitialize () 
    {
        this.InventoryNameTextInstance.SetBinding(
            nameof(InventoryNameTextInstance.Text), 
            nameof(InventoryItemViewModel.InventoryName));

        this.InventoryCountTextInstance.SetBinding(
            nameof(InventoryCountTextInstance.Text), 
            nameof(InventoryItemViewModel.InventoryDisplay));
    }
}

Now if we run our application, each item displays the information from each InventoryItemView.

Modifying the Selected ViewModel

Next we'll keep track of the selected item. We can do this by creating a new property on the MainScreenViewModel which has

public class MainScreenViewModel : ViewModel
{
    // The Get<> and Set methods aren't used here because we do not intend to ever
    // change the ListBoxItems instance after it has been created. If we did, we would
    // want to use the Get<> and Set syntax    
    public ObservableCollection<InventoryItemViewModel> ListBoxItems { get; private set; }
        = new ObservableCollection<InventoryItemViewModel>();

    // New: This property will be bound to the selected item in the ListBox
    public InventoryItemViewModel SelectedItem
    {
        get => Get<InventoryItemViewModel>();
        set => Set(value);
    }
}

We can bind to the SelectedItem in MainMenu.CustomInitialize. Modify the code to add the "New" code shown here:

void CustomInitialize()
{
    var listBox = Forms.ListBoxInstance;
    listBox.VisualTemplate = new FlatRedBall.Forms.VisualTemplate(
        // Gum objects (such as InventoryListBoxItem) create generated
        // types with the name "Runtime" appended.
        () => new InventoryListBoxItemRuntime());

    viewModel = new MainScreenViewModel();
    viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
    {
        InventoryName = "Iron Ore",
        InventoryCount = 20
    });
    viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
    {
        InventoryName = "Gold Ore",
        InventoryCount = 5
    });
    viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
    {
        InventoryName = "Ruby",
        InventoryCount = 2
    });
    viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
    {
        InventoryName = "Normal Pickaxe",
        InventoryCount = 1
    });

    // Assign the entire screen view model:
    Forms.BindingContext = viewModel;
    // Bind the Items in the ListBox to the Items in the ViewModel:
    listBox.SetBinding(nameof(listBox.Items), nameof(viewModel.ListBoxItems));

    // New: Bind the SelectedObject of the ListBox to the SelectedItem in the ViewModel:
    listBox.SetBinding(nameof(listBox.SelectedObject), nameof(viewModel.SelectedItem));
}

Just like all other properties, the SelectedObject/SelectedItem properties stay synced, so we can use the ViewModel's SelectedItem in code. For example, we can modify CustomActivity to increase inventory on the selected item when the Enter key is pressed:

void CustomActivity(bool firstTimeCalled)
{
    if(InputManager.Keyboard.KeyPushed(Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.Keys.Space))
    {
        viewModel.ListBoxItems.Add(new InventoryItemViewModel
        {
            InventoryName = "New Item",
            InventoryCount = 1
        });
    }

    // New: Add an item to the selected item's count when Enter is pressed
    if(InputManager.Keyboard.KeyPushed(Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.Keys.Enter))
    {
        if(viewModel.SelectedItem != null)
        {
            viewModel.SelectedItem.InventoryCount++;
        }
    }
}

If we run the code, select an item, and press Enter, the inventory count increases.

Conclusion

This tutorial shows how to bind a ListBox and ListBoxItems to view models. Interacting with the view models (adding or removing items, modifying properites on the view models) automatically update the view.

For more information on the specific syntax of ViewModels (such as Get/Set and DependsOn), see the page.

🎓
BindingContext Property
Customized ListBoxItems used for level select in Battlecrypt Bombers
Creating a duplicate ListBoxItem
InventoryListBoxItem in Gum
ListBoxInstance in MainMenuGum
Custom InventoryListBoxItem in ListBox
Items added to a ListBox by modifying the ViewModel's ListBoxItems
Inventory items displaying information
Increasing inventory by pressing Enter while an item is selected