Creating a Window via Plugin Problem

Hey,
I am trying to create a sort of plugin, which is showing some telemetry data on a extra monitor.
I thought it would be the best way to create a create a new window via the plugin, so it would be easy to update the stats.

I also can think of a solution in which i would have a seperate application and a plugin which send the data to this other application in some way.
So i am using the ExamplePlugin and buildiing ontop of it, just to test it out.
First step i created a class which is handling the creatin of of the window.
This is what it looks like:

Window.h

Code:

#ifndef _Window_h_
#define _Window_h_

#include <Windows.h>
#include <string>

class CWindow
{
private:

	WNDCLASSEX wndClass;
	std::string sWndClassName;
	HWND hwnd;
	HWND hwndlable;

	static LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);

public:
	CWindow();
	~CWindow();

	int Init(HINSTANCE hInstance, HWND hwndParent);

	//Get
	HWND GetHwnd();
	HWND GetHwndLable(){return hwndlable;};
};

#endif//_Window_h_

Window.cpp

Code:

#include "Window.h"

CWindow::CWindow()
{
	ZeroMemory(&wndClass, sizeof(wndClass));
	sWndClassName = "Darter";
	hwnd = 0;
	hwndlable = 0;
}

CWindow::~CWindow()
{

}

LRESULT CALLBACK CWindow::WndProc(HWND hwnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{	
	//Reads the class pointer, so i have access to the member vars
	CWindow* This = (CWindow*)GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_USERDATA); 

    switch (message)
    {    
	case WM_CREATE:
		This = (CWindow *) (((LPCREATESTRUCT) lParam)->lpCreateParams); 
		SetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_USERDATA, long(This));

		This->hwndlable = CreateWindow("static", "Nur ein kleiner test",
									WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP,
									5, 5, 250, 80,
									hwnd,
									NULL,
									(HINSTANCE) GetWindowLong (hwnd, GWL_HINSTANCE), NULL);


		break;
    //case WM_DESTROY:
        //PostQuitMessage(0);
      //  break;
    default:
        return DefWindowProc(hwnd, message, wParam, lParam);
        break;
    }
    return 0;
}

int CWindow::Init(HINSTANCE hInstance, HWND hwndParent)
{

	wndClass.cbSize			= sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
	wndClass.style			= CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
	wndClass.lpfnWndProc	= CWindow::WndProc;
	wndClass.cbClsExtra		= 0;
	wndClass.cbWndExtra		= 0;
	wndClass.hInstance		= hInstance;
	wndClass.hIcon			= LoadIcon(wndClass.hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_APPLICATION));
	wndClass.hCursor		= LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
	wndClass.hbrBackground	= (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW+1);
	wndClass.lpszMenuName	= NULL;
	wndClass.lpszClassName	= sWndClassName.c_str();
	wndClass.hIconSm		= LoadIcon(wndClass.hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_APPLICATION));

	if(!RegisterClassEx(&wndClass))
	{
		MessageBox(NULL, "Call to RegisterClassEx failed!", "Error", NULL);
		return 1;
	}
	
	//char className[256];
	//GetClassName(hwndParent, className, 256);

	//WNDCLASSEX wce;
	//GetClassInfoEx(GetModuleHandle(nullptr), className, &wce);


	hwnd = CreateWindow(wndClass.lpszClassName,
						"Test Fenster",
						WS_BORDER | WS_SYSMENU | WS_MINIMIZEBOX,
						CW_USEDEFAULT,
						CW_USEDEFAULT,
						300,
						150,
						hwndParent,
						NULL,
						wndClass.hInstance,
						this				//Nicht vergessen !!!
						);
		
	if(hwnd == 0)
	{
		return 1;
	}
		
	ShowWindow(hwnd, SW_SHOW);
	UpdateWindow(hwnd);

	return 0;
}

HWND CWindow::GetHwnd()
{
	return hwnd;
}

The Example.cpp ist just modified to create a instance of the class CWindow and call Init.

The creation of the window works just fine, but as soon as i click this new window it will stop responsing and killing rfactor2.
So i would just like to know whats happening there?
Is there a way to make this working or do i have to use a seperate application for displaying the data? If so i would love any recommendations how i get the data out of rfactor 2 to my seperate application?

greetings
Darter

 

Wouldn't clicking the other window take the focus off rF2, putting it into a sort of sleep mode where your plugin wouldn't be getting any updates? Just a guess

 

Yeah thats true.
So i have to display the stats in a seperate app i guess. Thats fine, but how would i get the data from rfactor2 into my application?
I think it would not be clever writing the data into a file and reading this file from my seperate application?
Writing the Data into a Database would be better?

 

As far as I know there are two ways how to get data from the internals plugin. You can either write the data to a text file and then have a separate app to load the text files into a database or otherwise you'll have an app which listens to a tcp connection from plugin where you write the streamed data to a database.

Writing data to a database directly from the plugin is not advisable. I have tried it and it slows down the rF2 game and consequently the FPS of the game goes very down or it might even crash it. I have tried this.

Currently, I am writing data to files and then load it to the database. It works without any problems.