Render effect when its dialog changes

[NinthDesertDude]

I've instantiated an effect from an assembly and displayed a dialog so the user can tweak the effect settings. I then stored the effect token and used it to render the effect later without re-displaying the dialog.

 

The effect is of type Effect.

The effect token is of type ConfigEffectToken.

Therefore, the effect can't make use of properties.

 

I would like to know if it's possible to render the effect whenever a control in the dialog is changed, or alternatively, when the corresponding effect token changes.

Edited November 21, 2017 by Joshua Lamusga

[toe_head2001]

8 hours ago, Joshua Lamusga said:

I would like to know if it's possible to render the effect whenever a control in the dialog is changed, or alternatively, when the corresponding effect token changes.

Sure, just call FinishTokenUpdate() in the control's ValueChanged Event.

[NinthDesertDude]

@toe_head2001 Ah, I didn't know about that event. It all works perfectly fine, except that I have to replicate the things that paint.net usually passes to effects in order for them to work, including Selection, EffectSourceSurface, and so on.

//Creates and displays the dialog.
using (var dlg = customEffect.CreateConfigDialog())
{
    dlg.Selection = new PdnRegion(Selection.GetRegionData());
    dlg.EffectSourceSurface = Surface.CopyFromBitmap(bmpCurrentDrawing);
    dlg.ShowDialog();                                
}

So now the issue becomes: how do I pass in Services? The dialog's services are null, as seen by the fact that any time I try to instantiate one of Pyrochild's dialogs, he tries to use services to search for updates, which crashes. If I call brush factory from brush filter, I also get that the static bitmap for brush factory's rendering is "in use" somehow; of course that never occurs in normal usage of the plugin. So now I have three other questions:

1. How do I instantiate Services or in some way get the dialog to use it?
2. Is there an explanation for why I'm hitting concurrency errors when calling other effects? I pay attention to the EffectFlags.
3. How can I shield my program from these exceptions? I tried registering at the AppDomain level; no luck since it's in another assembly.

Edited November 21, 2017 by Joshua Lamusga

[toe_head2001]

1 hour ago, Joshua Lamusga said:

Ah, I didn't know about that event.

oh... I was not clear. Sorry for the confusion.

I was not referring to the EffectTokenChanged event. You shouldn't need to handle that at all.

 

I meant the event(s) for when your control(s) change.

For example, when a checkbox is clicked:

private void myCheckBox_CheckedStateChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    FinishTokenUpdate();
}

 

[NinthDesertDude]

Quote

I meant the event(s) for when your control(s) change.

I can't plunge through the Form and register a handler on every control. I've loaded this effect from a completely different assembly; I have no access to its source code. I depend on the effect API to work with it. The "confusion" is the only reason I found a working solution.

 

So by a happy accident, the original problem was solved. Do you have thoughts on the three questions I posed?

[toe_head2001]

2 hours ago, Joshua Lamusga said:

1. How do I instantiate Services or in some way get the dialog to use it?

You need to set the Effect property; the dialog gets Services from it.

using (var dlg = customEffect.CreateConfigDialog())
{
    dlg.Selection = new PdnRegion(Selection.GetRegionData());
    dlg.EffectSourceSurface = Surface.CopyFromBitmap(bmpCurrentDrawing);
    dlg.Effect = customEffect;
    dlg.ShowDialog();                             
}

 

2 hours ago, Joshua Lamusga said:

2. Is there an explanation for why I'm hitting concurrency errors when calling other effects? I pay attention to the EffectFlags.

What sort of concurrency errors? I think if it does not have the EffectFlags.Configurable flag, then you have to do the rending in a separate thread. I never investigated as to why. It seems to work though.

[NinthDesertDude]

Quote

You need to set the Effect property; the dialog gets Services from it.

The dialog was created from the effect in the using statement. I tried this anyway, but it didn't change anything.

 

Quote

What sort of concurrency errors? I think if it does not have the EffectFlags.Configurable flag, then you have to do the rending in a separate thread. I never investigated as to why. It seems to work though.

I've been rendering in a separate thread with Parallel.For() using 64x64 rectangles unless the EffectFlags request single threaded or calling render once, in which case I render on the same thread.

 

Thanks for the help, though.