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Sunday, September 27, 2009 8:53 PM

Installing VE3D without the setup package

In some scenarios it may be desirable to install the VE3D engine without visiting the www.bing.com/maps site, and/or to avoid the individual downloads that the setup package performs (eg offline or enterprise installations). The main installation msi
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Thursday, September 24, 2009 7:54 PM

Hosting VE3D in native code

Sorry for the glut of posts this week. I hadn't been able to write much, but there were still interesting topics and questions coming up and I'm trying to address that backlog now. So, without further ado: It is possible to host VE3D in a variety of contexts,
Posted by NikolaiF | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 9:03 PM

GraphicsProxy RenderState

I've gotten a few questions lately about how to do some alpha effects using models, specifically MeshGraphicsObject. After you create the GraphicsObject, it has a RenderState object available on it. The fields on this object will be familiar to those
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Sunday, September 20, 2009 10:42 PM

X File bulk display

I was asked the other day about how to load multiple x file -based models into VE3D without having to place each one manually. I've written up a sample here . The idea is more or less a fusion of the existing ActorDataSource and XFile samples, using the
Posted by NikolaiF | 0 Comments
Friday, August 07, 2009 6:54 PM

Constraining camera movement

Just got a good question: what if I want to prevent the camera from moving outside certain bounds, for example to restrict altitude? Technically it may be best to implement your own CameraController, so that you can make sure the restrictions are done
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Sunday, July 26, 2009 7:06 PM

Actor data source questions

I just fielded a few good questions via email about actor data sources, and thought it would make a good post. Actor data sources are a way of getting little bits of your code (actors) into the world, handing spatial indexing and cache management for
Posted by NikolaiF | 0 Comments
Sunday, June 14, 2009 7:07 PM

Bing Maps 3D

As you may be aware, the website changed names to Bing Maps: http://www.bing.com/maps/ . The 3D view on the site is now called "Bing Maps 3D". As a developer it doesn't change much for you, and in terms of the engine/SDK it's still valid to refer to it
Posted by NikolaiF | 0 Comments
Tuesday, June 09, 2009 11:07 PM

Data Format update and reminder

You may recall that I posted about a data format change for the new version. The final switch-over is going to happen July 9th. If you are still using an old version, models will stop displaying. So upgrade now, the new version is better anyway. For those
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009 6:21 PM

WMS Data

I was having a discussion with Kurt Guenther from Infusion yesterday on the topic of WMS servers and VE3D. There is a large amount of very interesting spatial data out there served by Web Map Services , or WMS servers. VE3D is able to process this data
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009 6:06 PM

Modifying cache location

My, it has been a long time since I posted. I promise I will try to be better. Recently I was asked if it is possible to change the location of the cache file. It is, with certain minor restrictions. You can change the location by adding this to user.config:
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Sunday, April 19, 2009 9:25 PM

Manual Rendering

Folks have really reacted to my mention of manual rendering, so I've made a sample for it. Good thing, too, because to be frank there are a few warts. On the upside, however, it is possible to work around all of them and the code required is not too scary.
Posted by NikolaiF | 2 Comments
Sunday, April 19, 2009 6:11 PM

Anisotropic Filtering

Anisotropic has been a bit of a frustration for us because while it is very easy to do (it's really just a flag to DirectX), the compatibility issue I mentioned before made it a pain to actually get it in to the control. It's a shame we couldn't turn
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Thursday, April 09, 2009 11:46 PM

New Version Released!

Our new version has gone live. Head on over to maps.live.com and click "3D" to upgrade. This release is billed primarily as a perf and bug release because it doesn't add a lot of new features at the end-user level (though I think you will be pleased with
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Monday, April 06, 2009 6:17 PM

Data Format Revision

As part of our version update, we are also updating the file format of our 3D buildings. The upside is that the new data format is significantly smaller, for faster download. The downside is that old versions of the code cannot understand the new data.
Posted by NikolaiF | 2 Comments
Sunday, April 05, 2009 10:21 PM

Logging

At times it can be useful to know when and if errors are occurring in VE3D. When instructed, VE3D produces a log file that can be helpful for diagnosis. This requires editing the user.config file and adding an entry: <setting name="Logging" serializeAs="String">
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