Tips for creating massive amounts of shapes
I am often asked how to reduce the creation time for a massive number of shapes.
Try a few things:
1) Use XamlReader.Load when you can (with the mini-language), which allows you to use the native parser and not managed code to create new shapes
2) Use the mini-language for Paths or lines (whether using Xamlreader or C#) – both Silverlight and WPF optimize the mini-language internally, in different ways. When the mini-language is used, Silverlight does not create managed object for each PathFigure, Point etc– which saves creation time and space:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc189041(VS.95).aspx
3) Switch to Bitmaps if appropriate.
4) Prototype! Prototype! Prototype! Don't write everything and realize that SL can't generate 100,000 managed objects every 10msec. =)
Generally, for drawing massive number of shapes, you want to reduce the amount of time spent in managed creation time.
-Seema
