How do I get the underlying Window in MonoGame?

Question

I'm converting Gleed2D from XNA to MonoGame.

Gleed2D is a Windows Form application that instantiates an XnaGame. The window created by the Game is then hidden and the DeviceWindowHandle is set to that of a Canvas on the main form.

I know that's a bit of a mouthful; the code speaks for itself: here it is in full.
The relevant bits are in the constructor:

            _drawSurface = mainForm.GetHandleToCanvas();
            _graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager( this )
            {
                PreferredBackBufferWidth = 800,
                PreferredBackBufferHeight = 600
            } ;

        _graphics.PreparingDeviceSettings += graphics_PreparingDeviceSettings;

        _winform = (Form)Form.FromHandle(Window.Handle);

        _winform.VisibleChanged += game1VisibleChanged;
        _winform.Size = new Size(10, 10);

        Mouse.WindowHandle = _drawSurface;

        Size pictureBoxSize = _mainForm.CanvasSize ;

        ResizeBackBuffer( pictureBoxSize.Width, pictureBoxSize.Height ) ;

                    ... some other stuff....


    void graphics_PreparingDeviceSettings(object sender, PreparingDeviceSettingsEventArgs e)
    {
        e.GraphicsDeviceInformation.PresentationParameters.DeviceWindowHandle = _drawSurface;
    }

My question is: In XNA, the Window.Handle can be cast to a Form. In MonoGame, it's implemented as an OpenTK.GameWindow. How can I get to the actual window so that I can hide and/or resize it?. An alternative question would be: How can I create a MonoGame Game and tell it the render surface is that of another control?

Answer 1

The GameWindow of OpenTK goes quite a long way, before a native Window is created. On this page you can see the native implementation: https://github.com/mono/opentk/blob/master/Source/OpenTK/Platform/Windows/WinGLNative.cs

My Solution would be to hack in the source code of OpenTK or ask in the OpenTK-Forums.

Answer 2

Not sure if this helps but in the MonoGame game constructor it initializes the GraphicsDeviceManager to a variable called _graphics. Which this object you can get the current GraphicsDevice Manager which has a method called SetRenderTarget and SetRenderTargets. YOu can also get the Handle to the game windows, by this.Window.Handle where "this" is the current game object. Also there is a Present method in the Graphics device that you can pass the source and destination Rectangle as well as any Windows Handle. Good Luck.