WPF3D Team Blog

As we mentioned earlier in this blog post , the default BitmapScalingMode has changed from Fant to Linear. If you compile your app for 4.0 and notice scaled bitmaps looking worse, this is why. If you want the old look, set the mode back to Fant. Fant...

Last beta I mentioned we were saving the best for Beta 2 so thank you for waiting :) New Features The PixelShader class now accepts Pixel Shader 3.0 shaders when your hardware supports them. Important : There is no software rendering for PS 3.0. For example...

We use the standard fixed-function Blinn-Phong model . You can read up on all of the equations here at MSDN. If you have a Tier 2 card, we actually do our lighting in a vertex shader. If you don’t have a Tier 2 card, we do the lighting on the CPU. Why...

.NET 4.0 Beta 1 was released a few weeks ago and there’s a lot to it that you can read about elsewhere so I thought I would just stick to what’s changed for WPF graphics. These are the biggest things of note: RenderOptions.ClearTypeHint : If WPF renders...

I hinted at this a long time ago and then forgot to follow up, whoops! As the old post says, DiffuseMaterial writes to the depth buffer. This means if you draw one diffuse model and then draw another diffuse model behind it, the card knows not to draw...

In 3.5 SP1 it was really easy to leak memory when doing software 3D rendering involving a VisualBrush or DrawingBrush. We got this complaint many times online and in person. Unfortunately, there is no work around. It’s described in “Issue 2” from this...

How to do 3D hit testing has come up a bit recently in the forums but essentially it isn’t any different than 2D hit testing which is described on MSDN here . You can either start with a 2D point on the Viewport3D or a 3D point on a Visual3D. Starting...

Many haven’t realized this, but we added the ability to transform between 2D and 3D Visuals back in 3.5. This is handy if you need to draw 2D content around your 3D object or if you want to know the 2D position of a 3D point without doing a hit test....

If the WPF render thread is doing software rendering, D3DImage will not show up. I don't think we specifically called this out in the documentation so it can come as a surprise when you first encounter it. Off the top of my head, here are times when the...

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we've been pretty busy. On what, you may ask? Our PM, David Teitlebaum, just did a video on Channel 9 showing off the new features. He starts by covering interactive 2D on 3D and improved layered window support, both...

Robert Hogue has updated the Python script with a bunch of new features. See this forum post for the instructions, tutorials, and demos! -- Jordan

Yesterday, .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 went live on MSDN. You can see what's new in both here and download them here . Since this is a graphics blog, here are the graphics-specific changes of note in 3.5: New Graphics Features UIElement3D...

Augmented Reality is the process of taking real world data, typically video, and enhancing it with computer graphics. Casey used WPF3D along with an AR toolkit and DirectShow to get some great results. Check out the sweet video ! -- Jordan P.S....

In July I promised to track down the Blender exporter that was lost during the GotDotNet phase out. The last version of the export script is now hosted on CodePlex ( here ). I am embarrassed that it has taken me this long to do this, and even more so...

Charles Petzold has posted his WPF3D library on the web. It includes sphere, cube, cylinder, torus, line, and teapot mesh generation. Buying his book 3D Programming for Windows grants you royalty-free use of the library so be sure to check it out!...

Charles Petzold has been experimenting with cel shading on his blog at the request of Chris Cavanagh (whom has updated his 3D physics XBAP btw). Though we do use shaders internally, WPF3D's API is fixed function so you have to dig out the ol' fixed function...

Subclassing from UIElement3D to create your own elements that respond to input, focus and eventing is simple to do in 3.5. In this example we'll create a Sphere class which derives from UIElement3D and will show off some new features in the process. ...

With the release of WPF 3.5 beta 2 (download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D2F74873-C796-4E60-91C8-F0EF809B09EE&displaylang=en ), we’ve added some exciting new features to WPF 3D. At a very high level these can be...

The WPF Feature Montage has been updated to include a custom transition control that contains four 3D transitions: page turn, curtain pull, explosion, and door open. The full source is included in the zip. -- Jordan P.S. For those of you who saw...

It sounds like the Shaxam folks are improving their Lightwave to XAML exporter. Richard Godfrey has two fantastic examples up on his blog . Chris Cavanagh has created a little 3D physics XBAP demo and he has also posted the source . Japan's famous...

WPF Architect Greg Schecter has written a few really cool 3D transitions for 2D elements. We've gotten questions about transitions on the forums before and his explanation and source code should help you implement similar effects yourself. The demo...

We gave a lecture on 3D yesterday at a "WPF Bootcamp" event and I've attached the slides. Here's the outline: Intro to WPF3D with a simple example Interactive 2D on 3D Performance tips (based on this paper ) -- Jordan

What Material you choose will impact your GeometryModel3D in three ways: Lighting model Depth write Blend with the back buffer The first one is straightforward since it's right in the name of the Material plus it's documented. The last...

In the Channel9 video showing the 2D on 3D feature found in the 3DTools Codeplex project, we demoed a photo browsing application that made use of 2D on 3D and that talked to Flickr for images. I'm happy to announce that the source code for this application...

We just released the 1.01 version of the 3DTools for the Windows Presentation Foundation. This update fixes a few small bugs found in the 1.0 release. You can get the new version from here: http://www.codeplex.com/3DTools/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx...