How can I show a texture in a separate window in an XNA game?

Question

I'm playing around with random map generation and what I want to do is:

1. Input a command to generate a random map.
2. A texture will be created resembling the generation, each pixel resembling each tile.
3. A new window will pop-up, without removing the original one, that will contain the texture.

I know how to do this except for the last part. Would someone please tell me how to create a new window and draw a texture to this window?

Answer 1

Unfortunately there isn't anything in the XNA framework which could help you, but there are two other solutions:

• Embed the XNA game in a Windows Form application
• Add a reference to System.Windows.Forms to the project

The second solution is simpler because you can use it in this way:

System.Windows.Forms.Form form = new System.Windows.Forms.Form();
form.Show();

Then if you want to show the texture in the new form you should create a bitmap, and you can do it in this way (you have to add a reference to System.Drawing and System.IO):

System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
Texture2D texture = Content.Load<Texture2D>( "Images\\test" ); //example
texture.SaveAsJpeg( ms, texture.Width, texture.Height );
System.Drawing.Bitmap bmp = new System.Drawing.Bitmap( ms );

The complete code could be:

protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime){
    //...

    ShowForm(CreateBitmap(texture));
    base.Update(gameTime);
}

private Bitmap CreateBitmap(Texture2D texture){
    System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
    texture.SaveAsJpeg( ms, texture.Width, texture.Height );
    return new System.Drawing.Bitmap( ms );
}

private void ShowForm(Bitmap bmp){
    System.Windows.Forms.Form form = new System.Windows.Forms.Form();
    form.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(100, 100); //example
    form.Text = "Texture2D";
    form.BackgroundImage = bmp; //Set the texture as background 
    form.ClientSize = bmp.Size;
    form.Show();
}