How do I get an animated gif to work in WPF?

Question

What control type should I use - Image, MediaElement, etc.?

Answer 1

Previously, I faced a similar problem, I needed to play .gif file in your project. I had two choices:

• using PictureBox from WinForms

• using a third-party library, such as WPFAnimatedGif from codeplex.com.

Version with PictureBox did not work for me, and the project could not use external libraries for it. So I made it for myself through Bitmap with help ImageAnimator. Because, standard BitmapImage does not support playback of .gif files.

Full example:

XAML

Code behind

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    Bitmap _bitmap;
    BitmapSource _source;

    private BitmapSource GetSource()
    {
        if (_bitmap == null)
        {
            string path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

            // Check the path to the .gif file
            _bitmap = new Bitmap(path + @"\anim.gif");
        }

        IntPtr handle = IntPtr.Zero;
        handle = _bitmap.GetHbitmap();

        return Imaging.CreateBitmapSourceFromHBitmap(handle, IntPtr.Zero, Int32Rect.Empty, BitmapSizeOptions.FromEmptyOptions());
    }

    private void MainWindow_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        _source = GetSource();
        SampleImage.Source = _source;
        ImageAnimator.Animate(_bitmap, OnFrameChanged);
    }

    private void FrameUpdatedCallback()
    {
        ImageAnimator.UpdateFrames();

        if (_source != null)
        {
            _source.Freeze();
        }

        _source = GetSource();

        SampleImage.Source = _source;
        InvalidateVisual();
    }

    private void OnFrameChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(FrameUpdatedCallback));
    }
}

Bitmap does not support URI directive, so I load .gif file from the current directory.