Private Sub Form_Paint()
blt 'Blt when windows tells your window to refresh itself
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Click()
EndIt 'End the program when the user clicks anywhere on 'the screen. Remember this.
End Sub

Dim binit As Boolean 'Used by the program to see if everythings been 'started.

Dim DirectX As New DirectX7 'Master Object, Everything is created from this.
Dim ddraw As DirectDraw7 'The DirectDraw Object, this is created from the DirectX 'Object
Dim MainSurf As DirectDrawSurface7 'The Surface that will hold our picture.

Dim Primary As DirectDrawSurface7
Dim Backbuffer As DirectDrawSurface7 'These are explained in the Theory section.
Dim ddsd1 As DDSURFACEDESC2 'Describes the Primary Surface
Dim ddsd2 As DDSURFACEDESC2 'Describes our picture
Dim ddsd4 As DDSURFACEDESC2 'holds screen information 'Descriptions: These are needed before you can create a surface. They 'describe it's initial Height, Width and other information. ddsd stands for 'Direct Draw Surface Description

Dim brunning As Boolean 'Check if the program is still running
Dim CurModeActiveStatus As Boolean 'Used to check if users computer 'supports the requested display mode
Dim bRestore As Boolean 'An error handling flag

sub Init()
˙˙˙ On Local Error GoTo errOut˙˙˙˙˙ 'If there is an error, it closes the 'program

˙˙˙ Set ddraw = directx.DirectDrawCreate("") 'This is extremely important. 'Nothing can be done before you have created the DDraw object.
˙˙˙ Me.Show

˙˙˙ 'indicate that we dont need to change display depth
˙˙˙ Call ddraw.SetCooperativeLevel(Me.hWnd, DDSCL_FULLSCREEN Or DDSCL_ALLOWMODEX Or DDSCL_EXCLUSIVE)˙ 'THIS IS PART OF THE ABOVE LINE. WHEN PASTING IT, MAKE SURE ITS ALL ON 'THE SAME LINE
'***SEE NOTE(1) BELOW
˙˙˙ Call ddraw.SetDisplayMode(640, 480, 16, 0, DDSDM_DEFAULT)
'***SEE NOTE(2) BELOW

˙˙˙ 'get the screen surface and create a back buffer too
˙˙˙ ddsd1.lFlags = DDSD_CAPS Or DDSD_BACKBUFFERCOUNT
˙˙˙ ddsd1.ddsCaps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE Or DDSCAPS_FLIP Or DDSCAPS_COMPLEX
˙˙˙ ddsd1.lBackBufferCount = 1
˙˙˙˙ 'ddsd1: the description for the primary buffer. It also defines that there will be 1 back buffer.
˙˙˙ Set primary = ddraw.CreateSurface(ddsd1)
˙˙˙˙ 'Creates the primary surface from the information in ddsd1
˙˙˙ Dim caps As DDSCAPS2
˙˙˙ caps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_BACKBUFFER˙˙˙˙ 'Defines it as a backbuffer
˙˙˙ Set backbuffer = primary.GetAttachedSurface(caps)˙˙˙ 'Get the primary surface to create a backbuffer from the caps 'description
˙˙˙ backbuffer.GetSurfaceDesc ddsd4
˙˙˙ 'Makes ddsd4 hold all the information on the current settings: ie height & width
˙˙˙ 'Create DrawableSurface class form backbuffer

˙˙˙ backbuffer.SetFontTransparency True˙˙˙ 'Makes any writting that appear transparent, otherwise you get a black outline to 'all the text.
˙˙˙ backbuffer.SetForeColor vbGreen˙˙˙˙ 'This makes the text green, it also makes the line/circle/box methods green. It can be 'changed at any point, and can be set by the vb****** colours, or RGB(0-255,0-255,0-255) method if you need a˙ more 'precise method.

˙˙˙ ' init the surfaces This is the sub that you made earlier, which contains nothing at the moment.
˙˙˙ InitSurfaces
˙˙˙˙ 'This sets some flags that are used else-where in the program.
˙˙˙ binit = True
˙˙˙ brunning = True
˙˙˙ 'This is the error handler, if theres an error it will end everything.
˙errOut:
˙˙˙ EndIt˙ 'Another sub that you made earlier
End Sub

function ExModeActive() as Boolean
˙˙˙ Dim TestCoopRes As Long 'holds the return value of the test.

˙˙˙ TestCoopRes = ddraw.TestCooperativeLevel 'Tells DDraw to do the test

˙˙˙ If (TestCoopRes = DD_OK) Then
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ ExModeActive = True 'everything is fine
˙˙˙ Else
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ ExModeActive = False 'this computer doesn't support this mode
˙˙˙ End If
End Function

sub InitSurfaces()
˙˙˙ Dim FileX as string 'Used to hold the bitmaps file name.
˙˙˙ Set Mainsurf = Nothing˙ 'Clears the surface, as an error handler (later on) the program sometimes needs to re-init the 'surfaces, if it does this it needs a nice clean surface to start from.

˙˙˙ 'load the bitmap into a surface - a picture called demo.bmp located in the same folder as your project.
˙˙˙ ddsd2.lFlags = DDSD_CAPS Or DDSD_HEIGHT Or DDSD_WIDTH
˙˙˙ ddsd2.ddsCaps.lCaps = DDSCAPS_OFFSCREENPLAIN
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 'The above two lines should be kept the same for any surface. As DirectX is designed for C++ VB doesn't 'support many of the low level calls which are started with these lines. 99% of the time this set up will suit your project
˙˙˙ ddsd2.lWidth = ddsd4.lWidth 'Make the surface the same size as the screen
˙˙˙ ddsd2.lHeight = ddsd4.lHeight˙
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 'The height & width can be specified in pixels, and can be bigger than the screen. The bitmap will be 'stretched/squashed to fit these settings. NOTE: a big surface will require lots of memory, which means low performance and 'potential crashes on low-spec machines
˙˙˙ FileX = app.path & "\demo.bmp"˙ 'If you saved your file under a different name, change this line accordingly
˙˙˙ Set Mainsurf = ddraw.CreateSurfaceFromFile(fileX, ddsd2)˙ 'Create a new surface from the specified file, based on 'ddsd2's description
End Sub

Sub BLT()
˙ On Local Error GoTo errOut˙˙ 'You must have an error handler
˙˙˙ If binit = False Then Exit Sub˙ 'Simple: dont do anything unless DDraw has been initialized
˙˙˙ Dim ddrval As Long˙ 'DirectDraw returns a number when it blt's. This is just to hold that number

˙˙˙ Dim rMain As RECT
˙˙˙ '~~~~~RECTS~~~~~
˙˙˙ 'A rect is used to define an area. it has 4 properties: top,bottom,left,right. They specify the top-left corner and the 'bottom-right corner. The values are then used when blting to work out which part of a surface you want to copy. if you want 'a square 100x100 out of the top corner of a surface you would right it as so:
'rect.top=0
'rect.left=0
'rect.right=100
'rect.bottom=100
˙˙ ' this will keep us from trying to blt in case we lose the surfaces (alt-tab)
˙˙˙ bRestore = False
˙˙˙ Do Until ExModeActive 'short way of saying "do until it returns true"
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ DoEvents 'Lets windows do other things
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ bRestore = True
˙˙˙ Loop

˙˙˙ ' if we lost and got back the surfaces, then restore them
˙˙˙ DoEvents 'Lets windows do it's things
˙˙˙ If bRestore Then
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ bRestore = False
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ ddraw.RestoreAllSurfaces
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ InitSurfaces ' must init the surfaces again if they we're lost. When this happens the first line of initsurfaces is important
˙˙˙ End If

˙˙˙ 'get the area of the bitmap we want to blt (in this case all of it)
˙˙˙ rMain.Bottom = ddsd2.lHeight
˙˙˙ rMain.Right = ddsd2.lWidth

˙˙˙ 'blt to the backbuffer from our˙ surface to
˙˙˙ 'the screen surface such that our bitmap
˙˙˙ 'appears over the window
˙˙˙ ddrval = backbuffer.BltFast(0, 0, Mainsurf, rMain, DDBLTFAST_WAIT)˙ 'This paints the area described by rMain of 'MainSurf onto the backbuffer at X=0 Y=0.

˙˙˙ 'flip the back buffer to the screen
˙˙˙ primary.Flip Nothing, DDFLIP_WAIT˙˙˙ 'This is where it actually appears to the user

errOut:˙ 'In this case the error handler doesn't close the program, it just skips redrawing the screen.
End Sub

'˙˙˙ InitSurfaces
'˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ >>>These lines should be before it, but dont change them. Copy the black text only.˙
'˙˙˙ binit = True
'˙˙˙ brunning = True
˙˙˙ Do While brunning
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ blt
˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ DoEvents
˙˙˙ Loop

Sub EndIt()
˙˙˙ Call ddraw.RestoreDisplayMode 'sets the screen resolution back to what it was before the program was started.
˙˙˙ Call ddraw.SetCooperativeLevel(Me.hWnd, DDSCL_NORMAL) 'tells DirectX that the application is no longer 'EXCLUSIVE. If we were to just drop the program it would crash, as DirectX will still be expecting an exclusive application 'to be running
˙˙˙ End 'end the program
End Sub