Remnantmods

So my goal is to create this using a 32'' lcd tv. Basically use the tv to have a 3rd screen on my computer and use it as a dedicated twitter feed, and possibly other sorts of feeds/streams. I've been doing some not so thorough searching on the net for other people who did something similar. Didn't really find anything but I didn't really use good terms to describe "live feed twitter screen". I was able to find some C# libraries that wrap around the twitter API so I am all set on that part. The hard part is going to be setting up the tv so that my computer will allow me to use it vertically, like in the picture, then create the twitter feed UI. I'm not 100% sure how I plan to do that. I could either use some native rendering API, use the graphics class in .Net, or create custom controls. I will most likely go with using the graphics class in .Net because using a native rendering API is too much work for such a simple application, and creating custom controls that are as in depth as that is a bit annoying.

• [Step 1 - Setup Tv]
  
  I'm going to start by setting up my current 32'' lcd tv to my pc via hdmi. I have a spare tv I can pick up from my mom's house which will be used for the final product (and turned on it's side). Lets hope there won't be any win32 voodoo involved with this.
  
  Turns out my mom sold that tv so I will have to find a spare one for around the price of dirt fucking cheap... In the mean time I used my good 32'' tv but will not rotate it on it's side until I have a final version done. Even then it will only be temporary. I decided that using the tv as a third monitor in portrait mode would be a lot easier than trying to write some sort of driver so windows would allow me to draw/get input from the screen but not actually use it as a full on monitor w/ desktop.
• [Step 2 - Create Application]
  
  Once the tv is setup I will begin creating the live feed application. Since I already have plans to display other information besides twitter feed I will design the application to load modules from a folder that all use some base framework. This way modules can be developed and added to the application later on without major reconstruction of the main app. The gui canvas will also be created dynamically from some sort of xml file that describes which modules to draw, where, and how big they should be.
  
  Core widget library create, all widgets will extend the core library and the main application will search for widget modules inside a Widgets folder. I decided to allow multiple widgets on the screen canvas as well as displaying them in either portrait or landscape mode. Not sure how I will handle the scaling of that for the widgets though.
  
  Got the tv setup, basic application framework and the start of the twitter widget. Next step is to choose a new twitter wrapper library and add the main functionality to this widget.
• [Step 3 - ????????]
• [Step 4 - Profit]

fair sure there's a keyboard shortcut to rotate the screen... alternatively, should be in the settings somewhere

XZodia wrote:fair sure there's a keyboard shortcut to rotate the screen... alternatively, should be in the settings somewhere

Alot of computers have that option but I assume he'd want to do it through application code for maximum compatibilty. Don''t want to write specific code only to have to re-write it all to make it handle the other computers out there.

Rightclick desktop -> Screen Resolution

There is an "Orientation" dropbox.

Gary wrote:Rightclick desktop -> Screen Resolution

There is an "Orientation" dropbox.

I'm aware of that method but I was looking for something a little more robust than that.

You'll want to look at using a WPF form; WPF controls have a renderTransform property so they can be rotated, etc. Here's an example http://bursjootech.blogspot.com/2008/09 ... ur_21.html

Prey wrote:You'll want to look at using a WPF form; WPF controls have a renderTransform property so they can be rotated, etc. Here's an example http://bursjootech.blogspot.com/2008/09 ... ur_21.html

Don't need to since I setup the screen in portrait. But I will take a look non the less since I don't even really know what these WPF controls/applications are even though I see them all the time in the project creation wizard. The reason I don't want this screen to act as a third monitor is because I don't want windows opening applications on the screen and stuff like that. I really wanted it to act as some sort of proprietary display device. But that would not be easy at all especially trying to retain some sort of input functionality.

Last night I got the tv setup and started working on the application. I have a core widget library which all the widgets will extend, and the main application will load any widget modules inside the Widget folder. Right now the only widget I have is the twitter one. I need to change the twitter wrapper library I'm using because the current one doesn't have any documentation, is missing functions I need, and some functions don't seem to work correctly (they throw 401 or 403's). I haven't done any work on the canvas system yet, but I plan to support both portrait and landscape screens as well as multiple widgets on the screen at the same time. For testing purposes I add the twitter widget to the main canvas with it's Dock property set to Fill.

This is how far I got last night, not too shabby. Yes I am aware that none of the text/boxes are aligned properly in that image. Should have a fully function version some time tonight!

Cool Sort of jelly. You should frame it :p