New Direct2D wrapper for next version of .net?

In all the information leaked about Windows 8 and .net 4.5, is there any indication we have a new managed wrapper for Direct2D? It is fine to code directly to Direct2D currently, but it is difficult to create libraries that work with both 32 and 64 bit applications.

I believe that is all now part of what is being called DirectUI. For the sake of backwards compatibility, I'm sure you'll still be able to write against Direct2D directly, but moving forward we'll be encouraged to target DirectUI as the new unified API.

Can you point to any site or blog where a new immediate mode API is visible? Thanks!

@Frank Hileman: All that is available is rumor and speculation based on dissecting the leaked builds.

There are a number of links in this thread that point to what little is available. Microsoft has so far remained silent, allowing the blogsphere to whip itself into a frothing frenzy. Quite entertaining, actually.

@kettch: Thanks, but in the mydigitallife forum thread, I could not see any namespace that was definitely for immediate mode rendering. 

from what ive been able to gather, DirectUI is a high(er) level ui framework utilizing xaml but written in native code on top of direct2d

i havent heard of any new managed version of direct2d. However, it looks like interoping with the regular native direct2d will be alot easier via the windows runtime, possibly allowing us to write c# but compile it to native code. it also seems like you can target directUI from c# as well

no one really knows though.. build cant come soon enough

Direct2D apis just call Direct3D using textures on top of XYZ_RHW (post-translation) vertexes, so if you want a fast .NET way to do this your best bet is XNA - in particular the SpriteBatch class which draws 2D textures to the screen.

10 hours ago,Frank Hileman wrote

@kettch: Thanks, but in the mydigitallife forum thread, I could not see any namespace that was definitely for immediate mode rendering. 

Indeed, there isn't. The only graphics namespace that's available is Windows.Graphics.Imaging which is a simple wrapper for WIC. Well, there's Windows.UI.DirectUI.Shapes but I suppose you aren't looking for that.

11 minutes ago,evildictait​or wrote

Direct2D apis just call Direct3D using textures on top of XYZ_RHW (post-translation) vertexes, so if you want a fast .NET way to do this your best bet is XNA - in particular the SpriteBatch class which draws 2D textures to the screen.

Umm, there's way more than that going on inside 2D. If you're not familiar with the subject maybe you should not make baseless affirmations such as this one.

Since MS seems to be heading towards a merging of native and managed code with the Windows Runtime, I wouldn't doubt that a managed API for Direct2D will be in .NET 4.5 or Jupiter.

It's too bad that BUILD is so far off. At least all of the hubbub shows that the Windows dev community is alive and well.

8 hours ago,Dexter wrote

Umm, there's way more than that going on inside 2D. If you're not familiar with the subject maybe you should not make baseless affirmations such as this one.

I'm not sure what you're objecting to in my statement. It is a simple matter of fact that Direct2D calls the Direct3D APIs to trap to the dxapi.sys - Direct2D calls Direct3D to do it's rendering. That's how DirectX (and for that matter GDI) works.

That D2D calls D3D is obvious. What doesn't seem to be obvious is that before doing that, D2D must tesselate the geometry because D3D has no clue how to draw an ellipse for example.

And then you have stroke styles, gradient brushes, text rendering support. And geometry operations like combine and widen which don't have anything to do with calling D3D.

So yeah, I guess you could use XNA and its SpriteBatch because implementing all of the above is trivial and implementing your own SpriteBatch is not. Oh wait...

Thanks for the sarcasm. It really makes me want to try and help you again in future. I won't bother to remind you that you can already do text and ellipses and gradients and stroke styles and combine operations in XNA, because you're so amazingly smart that you clearly already know everything in the world, which is why you asked a question and then attacked me for trying to help.

8 minutes ago,evildictait​or wrote

Thanks for the sarcasm. It really makes me want to try and help you again in future. I won't bother to remind you that you can already do text and ellipses and gradients and stroke styles and combine operations in XNA, because you're so amazingly smart that you clearly already know everything in the world, which is why you asked a question and then attacked me for trying to help.

Well, feel free to bother to remind me all that... if you can also point to some documentation/samples to back it up.

@evildictaitor: Direct2D is the type of API I am looking for, not XNA. Thanks anyway.

There is a lot more to Direct2D than XNA or Direct3D, for 2d rendering.

Isn't there already a .net wrapper for Direct2D (not xna)?

EDIT: This one: http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack

@ZippyV: Yes, but it is not part of the framework, nor maintained well. Also, the 32/64 bit problem is not addressed (how to create a single library compiled to anycpu, that works for both).

@Frank Hileman:

while its not part of the framework, id take a look at http://slimdx.org/ its an open source managed wrapper around directx that is pretty well maintained. currently they support:

Math Library
Direct3D9
Direct3D9Ex
Direct3D10
Direct3D10.1
Direct3D11
D3DCompiler
Direct2D
DirectWrite
DirectInput
DirectSound
DXGI
DXGI 1.1
Windows Multimedia
Raw Input
X3DAudio
XAPO
XACT3
XAudio2
XInput

@aL_: Also there is SharpDX, which seems to be faster.

I was hoping for a lowest-overhead solution provided by Microsoft.