Double buffered ListBox

Question

I have a CheckedListBox (WinForms) control (which inherits from ListBox; googling shows that the problem is with ListBox) that is anchored to all four sides of its form. When t

Answer 1

This used to be handled by sending the WM_SETREDRAW message to the control.

const int WM_SETREDRAW = 0x0b;

Message m = Message.Create(yourlistbox.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, (IntPtr) 0, (IntPtr) 0);
yourform.DefWndProc(ref m);

// do your updating or whatever else causes the flicker

Message m = Message.Create(yourlistbox.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, (IntPtr) 1, (IntPtr) 0);
yourform.DefWndProc(ref m);

See also: WM_SETREDRAW reference at Microsoft Fixed Link

If anyone else has used windows messages under .NET, please update this posting as necessary.

Answer 2

I was having similar issues albeit with an owner drawn listbox. My solution was to use BufferedGraphics objects. Your mileage may vary with this solution if your list isn't owner drawn, but maybe it will give you some inspiration.

I found that TextRenderer had difficulties rendering to the correct location unless I suppled TextFormatFlags.PreserveGraphicsTranslateTransform. The alternative to this was to use P/Invoke to call BitBlt to directly copy pixels between the graphics contexts. I chose this as the lesser of two evils.

/// <summary>
/// This class is a double-buffered ListBox for owner drawing.
/// The double-buffering is accomplished by creating a custom,
/// off-screen buffer during painting.
/// </summary>
public sealed class DoubleBufferedListBox : ListBox
{
    #region Method Overrides
    /// <summary>
    /// Override OnTemplateListDrawItem to supply an off-screen buffer to event
    /// handlers.
    /// </summary>
    protected override void OnDrawItem(DrawItemEventArgs e)
    {
        BufferedGraphicsContext currentContext = BufferedGraphicsManager.Current;

        Rectangle newBounds = new Rectangle(0, 0, e.Bounds.Width, e.Bounds.Height);
        using (BufferedGraphics bufferedGraphics = currentContext.Allocate(e.Graphics, newBounds))
        {
            DrawItemEventArgs newArgs = new DrawItemEventArgs(
                bufferedGraphics.Graphics, e.Font, newBounds, e.Index, e.State, e.ForeColor, e.BackColor);

            // Supply the real OnTemplateListDrawItem with the off-screen graphics context
            base.OnDrawItem(newArgs);

            // Wrapper around BitBlt
            GDI.CopyGraphics(e.Graphics, e.Bounds, bufferedGraphics.Graphics, new Point(0, 0));
        }
    }
    #endregion
}

---

The GDI class (suggested by frenchtoast).

public static class GDI
{
    private const UInt32 SRCCOPY = 0x00CC0020;

    [DllImport("gdi32.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    private static extern bool BitBlt(IntPtr hdc, int nXDest, int nYDest, int nWidth, int nHeight, IntPtr hdcSrc, int nXSrc, int nYSrc, UInt32 dwRop);

    public static void CopyGraphics(Graphics g, Rectangle bounds, Graphics bufferedGraphics, Point p)
    {
        IntPtr hdc1 = g.GetHdc();
        IntPtr hdc2 = bufferedGraphics.GetHdc();

        BitBlt(hdc1, bounds.X, bounds.Y, 
            bounds.Width, bounds.Height, hdc2, p.X, p.Y, SRCCOPY);

        g.ReleaseHdc(hdc1);
        bufferedGraphics.ReleaseHdc(hdc2);
    }
}

Answer 3

You could check if switching to a ListView Control with checkboxes improves matters. It's not as easy to deal with (but hey, the WinForms ListBox isn't a stroke of genius either), I found that it's resize behavior with DoubleBuffered=true is bearable.

Alternatively, you could try to reduce flicker by overriding the parent forms background drawing - either providing a hollow brush, or overriding WM_ERASEBKND by doing nothing and returning TRUE. (that's ok if your control covers the entire client area of the parent form, otherwise you'd need a more complex background drawing method.

I've used this successfully in Win32 applications, but I don't know if the Forms control adds some of it's own magic that renders this nonfunctional.

Answer 4

Although not addressing the specific issue of flickering, a method that is frequently effective for this type of issue is to cache a minimal state of the ListBox items. Then determine whether you need to redraw the ListBox by performing some calculation on each item. Only update the ListBox if at least one item needs to be updated (and of course save this new state in the cache for the next cycle).