DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by rakee

What's new in WPF 3.5 SP1: Splash Screen to improve perceived startup

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:16:12 GMT

Summary: To improve the perception of a more responsive startup experience many WPF applications added a Splash Screen to their startup. The Splash Screen, which does not use WPF code, shows as soon as possible and is displayed until the application main window is rendered. Up until 3.5 Sp1 we pointed developers to sample code available on this blog. In the .Net 3.5 SP1 release we added basic Splash Screen support and new APIs and we recommend that you take advantage of it. (See download locations below) We are distributing the Splash Screen Visual Studio 2008 Sp1 Item Template on WPF Futures sites on www.codeplex.com/wpf.

XNA, Meet WPF

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:31:02 GMT

The new D3DImage in WPF opens up worlds for WPF. Direct3D content rendered with WPF...it doesn't get any better! The downside is it seems (correct me if I'm wrong) that Microsoft was only targeting unmanaged Direct3D. Yes there is Managed DirectX, but it seems as if MDX is no longer being maintained and it's not so obvious how to get a D3D surface pointer from the API. It really seems MDX has been left in the dust in favor for XNA, which is a very intuitive D3D wrapper. XNA further exacerbates the issue with XNA and WPF.

Photshop style layer blending in WPF

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:31:04 GMT

Pixelshader code for Photshop style layer blending in WPF.

New WPF D3DImage Used for Seamless DirectShow Interop

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:48:45 GMT

The D3DImage used in WPF to provide support for pretty much all DirectShow scenarios. So things like DVD playback and webcams are now possible.

ShaderPad - WPF ShaderEffects Workbench

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:01:02 GMT

ShaderPad is a application like XamlPad / LinqPad , it is meant to server as WPF ShaderEffects Workbench. The ShaderEffect is a PixelShader based Effect that an be applied to any UIElement in WPF. This feature is available only in .NET 3.5 SP1 . Download it from codeplex

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:16:07 GMT

It's finally here! I haven't seen an official announcement yet, but I did a search for "Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1" on Microsoft's Download Center and found the following downloads added today: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (exe) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fbee1648-7106-44a7-9649-6d9f6d58056e&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (iso) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=27673c47-b3b5-4c67-bd99-84e525b5ce61&DisplayLang=en

Namescopes in WPF

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:31:24 GMT

This articles explains how Namescopes work and tips and tricks you can do with them....

Wave Reflection Effect

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:01:05 GMT

Reflection effect using Pixel Shader in WPF 3.5 Sp1

Random Bits: Getting the Required FPS in Silverlight

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:29:55 GMT

Gameloops and FPS for Silverlight Applications / Games