Is there a built in Playing Card library in .Net?

Question

Is there some built in Card graphics library built into .Net/Windows?
Is there any way to utilize the card graphics used by the various card games that come with Windows? They look really nice and it would be cool if there was some built in functionality for this.

Answer 1

I don't think there is anything built in to the framework. :) But, I did find some stuff that might help you over at Codeplex.

Answer 2

I once took the old cards dll file from Microsoft Solitaire and tried getting it to work in .Net. It is possible, but really not worth the hassle. I'm not sure if I'm talking about this one. I don't think I am. I recall ending up with a .rc or .res file at one point and putting far too much time figuring out how to get it working in C#. It was not fun.

There is more than one version of the card dlls depending on OS and whatnot. It's much simpler to just find a free card graphics library and use that.

Answer 3

I believe there is a Visual Studio template project that meets your needs. There certainly was a couple of years ago, but I don't know if it is still maintained.

Answer 4

Actually there is, sort of. It's not builtin, but it is a free download from Microsoft. There are a pair of .Net project templates, one for C# and one for VB. Both include a set of card face and card back images. The C# one is here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/aa336742.aspx

And the VB one is here:

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/a4747c87-2ad2-4004-99bb-2a2f5f043edd

(note: editied to fix C# link --RBarryYoung, May 31, 2009 3pm)