digitalnetbizz's WebLog : WPF 3d

very good 3d read

digitalnetbizz — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:10:00 GMT

hah... supposed to be my last post but hey i have 1 more thing to post. This is a good book for 3d - plus it's very focus and not thick at all. Very well written.

I have to buy this full-price since I can't order book from the company anymore. Actually I ordered it from my admin 2 months ago and nothing came (テクスチャの位). Maybe they know I'm already leaving :-). That could save me $25 and now I'm $25 poorer.

More WPF 3D playing..

digitalnetbizz — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:44:00 GMT

The hardest thing about creating 3D is where to source my MeshGeometry3D data. That's the TriangleIndices, Normals and Positions. These numbers are enormous. Lucky thing there are tools (reading Tim's blog), I found ZAM 3D and other conversion utilities. This list is priceless. Other than this Mesh3D thingy, I found that 3D in XAML is very straight forward, just like normal 2D XAML.

Using the tool, I'm dragging in a Torus model and copy to XAML. Grab those Meshes and I play with brushes, textures, transforms, rotation, cameras etc.. and you got a nice looking 3D XAML :-) Finally, I got it to look like a rotating Jade ring.

The XAML is posted at Channel9 and it looks like:

WPF 3d going mainstream?

digitalnetbizz — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:58:00 GMT

I read Petzold's blog from time to time and I realized recently he has posted a lot of good 3d content.

http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/12/140114.html
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/12/160115.html
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/12/171020.html
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/12/220812.html
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2007/01/190146.html

and finally it's coming WPF 3d book by Petzold.
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/12/270206.html

5-6 years ago, there's a trend to have app written in irregular window, layered window, pixel opacity or different chrome. Then came a wave of products doing just that. I think what's coming next (in my own opinion) is the application have multiple layers and 1..n layer that display 3d visuals. For example, a TV app with tv controls in another layer in a Viewport3d floating in 3d or even animating a bit :-)

can't wait for his 3d book ...

source code for Avalon WINHEC NNTP reader ...

digitalnetbizz — Thu, 13 May 2004 18:40:00 GMT

This post is a follow up for http://blogs.msdn.com/digitalnetbizz/archive/2004/05/11/130291.aspx

Some details of this sample project, I create this project to test out some features of Avalon [WinHEC version]. It’s currently all C# and MSBUILD. I have touched a few areas but on all –

1. Grid and other layout.
2. Animation
3. UIContext and Worker Thread
4. Vector Graphics
5. Brushes/Colors
6. XAML Serialization
7. Some use of C# Generic
8. ImageEffects

Here’s what I plan to improve in the near future:

1. Using Data Binding + ItemsCollection
2. Convert into XAML and code behind. (This will be a good comparison since converting into XAML will reduce the number lines in code) with all the VisualTree styling thingy.
3. Replace my logo with a 3d cube with Avalon 3d.

To build this .csproj, just use MSBUILD and setup LAPI environment variable. I believe it's all in WinHEC version of Longhorn. To get a copy of the zipped source code, click here. I have upgraded my web account to get extra bandwidth + I remove images and use Vector graphics to replace my image files. So when you see error on the link, probably I have run out of bandwidth. I'll update this link to point to gotdotnet.com when my files are <processed> over there.

Visual Tree in Avalon Style...

digitalnetbizz — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 08:22:00 GMT

A control itself is just a behavior and separate from visual presentation. A control normally comes with a default visual style (normally styles from the current desktop theme) and it can be override by the user of the control. They can override with by specifying their own Visual Tree within the Style tag. This will only work for any type that derived from Control class. Some of the types are like Button, ListBox and ComboBox. If you try to set VisualTree in class that is not derived from Control, you will get an exception.

The XAML below is the skeleton to set VisualTree for a Button.

For more example of Visual Tree in XAML, please check out Nathan Dunlap’s blog at

http://www.longhornblogs.com/ndunlap/articles/2203.aspx

So why is this feature needed? It is needed because certain developer wants to have a distinct look on their control and cannot accomplish it simply by setting properties on existing control. Take button for example, it comes with default desktop theme and look a button (in WinForm). Well, you might want to reuse the code which handles the Click effect and event handling but you want to use it as an image button in your toolbar. One way to do it is to reset the visual tree for the button and contain an image into the button.

Another benefit of this feature is that you can develop a set of visual style template and design the capability in for the user of your software to switch themes. This is demo in the Login Screen demo in the PDC talk by Henry Hahn.

You can even specify of element tree within the control you are using. Take button as an example again. A Button consists of Shape, Panel and Text in its visual tree. (Please note: in different version of LongHorn build, the default button visual tree might not be the same). To know a control’s visual tree for sure, you can write the following code to scan a control’s visual tree:

private void getVisualTree(Media.Visual element, int level)

{

VisualCollection coll = ((IVisual)element).Children;

for (int i = 0; i < coll.Count; ++i)

{

System.Console.Write(level + ". " + coll[i].ToString());

this.getVisualTree(coll[i], ++level);

}

If can also set your visual tree programmatically, to do this you can do something like the following:

Style style = new Style(typeof(Button));

FrameworkElementFactory border = new

FrameworkElementFactory(typeof(Border));

border.SetValue(BackgroundProperty, Brushes.Red);

style.VisualTree = border;

The code above will override the Button’s default VisualTree with a Border with red background and no content.

If you want to use whatever property from the default, you can use Property Aliasing. This is needed most of the time. The syntax for this is as follow:

<DockPanel.Resources>

<Style.VisualTree>

<Rectangle Width="100%" Height="100%"

RadiusX="10" RadiusY="10" Fill="LightBlue"

Stroke="CadetBlue" StrokeThickness="2"/>

<Rectangle Width="50%" Height="50%"

RadiusX="10" RadiusY="10" Fill="Green"/>

<ContentPresenter ContentControl.Content="*Alias(Target=Content)"

Margin="15,13,15,15"/>

</Canvas>

</Style.VisualTree>

</Style>

</DockPanel.Resources>

</DockPanel>

In the sample above, we are aliasing the Content property from the default into the new ContentControl.Content property. You can override the property by hardcoding, using property aliasing or you can bind it to some data source.

Let’s get into the last example of using data binding into property within visual tree.

<DockPanel.Resources>

<!—XML Data Source -->

<XmlDataSource def:Name="BookData" XPath="/Books">

<Books xmlns="">

<Book ISBN="0-7356-0562-9" Stock="in">

<Title>XML in Action</Title>

<Summary>XML Web Technology</Summary>

<Foreground>Red</Foreground>

</Book>

<Book ISBN="0-7356-1370-2" Stock="in">

<Title>Programming Microsoft Windows With C#</Title>

<Summary>C# Programming Using the .NET Framework</Summary>

<Foreground>Blue</Foreground>

</Book>

</Books>

</XmlDataSource>

<Style.VisualTree>

<SimpleText.Text>

</SimpleText.Text>

</SimpleText>

</Style.VisualTree>

</Style>

</DockPanel.Resources>

<ListBox.Items>

<CollectionContainer.Collection>

</CollectionContainer.Collection>

</CollectionContainer>

</ListBox.Items>

</ListBox>

</DockPanel>

In the above sample, we load in an XML data source which contains data about books and load it into a listbox. In the following line we are setting the datasource to the XML data source defined above.

This data can be used within the Visual tree to set properties. In our case, we are using it to be the foreground color property and text content.

<SimpleText FontSize="Small"

Foreground="*Bind(Path=Foreground;BindType=OneWay)">

<SimpleText.Text>

</SimpleText.Text>

</SimpleText>

The capability to override VisualTree for a control gives us more possibilities in developing killer apps. One possibility is the ability to skin an application based on the user. Another advantage is that setting VisualTree is sufficient enough to use a control, no longer need to write a new one. A related Avalon feature is PropertyTrigger which is one of the VisualTriggers. PropertyTrigger lets you set a property based on a change trigger in a property of the same target control. For more information about Visual Trigger, check out http://longhorn.msdn.microsoft.com/lhsdk/ref/ns/msavalon.windows/c/style/p/visualtriggers.aspx. Combining VisualTree and VisualTriggers let you create even cooler/richer Avalon application. </>

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