How to create high-dpi console applications on macOS with C# (if it is possible at all)?

Question

I have a simple c# console application that builds a fractal. I use Visual Studio Community on macOS. I create a bitmap of a certain size (wxh). For every pixel a color is assigned with .SetPixel , based on the calculated mandelbrotnumber.

class Form1 : Form
{
  //..
  public Form1()
  {
    //..
    AutoScaleMode = AutoScaleMode.Dpi;
  }
  //..
  private void DrawMandelbrot(object o, PaintEventArgs ea)
  {
    Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(w, h);
    mandelb = CreateMandelbrot(bm);
    ea.Graphics.DrawImage(mandelb, xMandelb, yMandelb, w, h);
  }
}

This works fine, except I have a high dpi retina screen and the bitmaps look very pixelated.

I tried things like:

        Graphics graphics = this.CreateGraphics();
        dpiX = graphics.DpiX;

to get a dpi, but this just gives me 96, which is the resolution of the Form , not of the screen.

I tried bm.SetResolution(144.0F, 144.0F); directly after creating the bitmap, with no succes.

I tried more complex approaches like found here but that just crashes the program. Probably (?) because I'm on macos, all solutions that are promoted that suggest loading .dll's like [DllImport("user32.dll")] dont work : System.DllNotFoundException: user32.dll .

I tried adding this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(200F, 200F); to the method that initializes the Form .

Even switching to WPF seems to be problematic, if it's even possible at all on macOS. Wondering if it is even possible at all using C#?

I don't need the whole program to render for the retina dpi, but creating a bitmap pixel by pixel probably needs another approach to get high resolution images? It would be acceptable to simply make the bitmap smaller, but at a higher resolution. Of course the nicest solution would be to create the complete Form application with a few line of code on a high dpi-resolution, based on the available dpi of the screen, without rewriting the whole application as

The .NET documentation is really useless, so I hope someone here has a solution.

PS: instead of just downvoting my post, i'd rather hear what the critique on my post is. Is it a duplicate? I'm glad to hear where I can find the answer, have been searching for hours. You need more code? Happy to provide...

Answer 1

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac Support for macOS/OS X Development

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac enables you to build console applications and Cocoa (desktop) applications for macOS. visualstudio.com

That is, NO .NET Winforms and WPF.

You could start here: macOS development with Visual Studio for Mac.

(Hint: It's Xamarin.Mac guides)