3D View Controls for WPF

Posted By: Adam Kinney | Sep 26th @ 9:54 PM

3D functionality is becoming a more popular component in UI technologies and has been greatly improved in WPF 3.5 SP1. Upon hearing this some people (Niners even) are known to question "what is it good for?" My first answer is that the British Turning Pages application just wouldn't be the same without 3D.

Marc Laroche stopped by to talk about another use of 3D in one of Xceed's new controls 3D Views for WPF. Watching Marc move the camera to adjust the display of the data (around 5:25) can give you an idea of where 3D can really be useful. Simply adjusting the position of the camera offers a new perspective rendered dynamically. There is no need to pre-render all of the desired views.

This is great stuff but it feels like just the beginning. The more accessible we can make 3D, the more we can become creative and effective with it.

Tags: 3D, Marc Laroche, WPF

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TommyCarlier
Trust me, I'm from the Internets

I'm a fan of Xceed products, although I don't use the WPF controls. I just like the architectural design of their components and the extensibility. At work, we use the Xceed Grid for .NET (WinForms), the compression library, the ZIP-library and the FTP-library. I was able to customize the Xceed Grid so much you probably can't even recognize it's an Xceed Grid anymore. Great work.

PS: I loved this video too.

FireGarden
The Business of Software

Very nice looking scroll view. Unfortunately the demo was a little lacking in that it was showcasing features like 'auto column stretch'.

Odi
Leading WPF Datagrid

In reply to TommyCarlier

#Sep 28th @ 1:54 AM

Thanks for the video, Adam!

Anyone that wants to try this WPF control can run it directly in the browser (IE, FF) using the no-install XBAP demo, here:

http://xceed.com/Grid_WPF_Demo.html

spivonious

It's neat to see what you can do with WPF, but this video really feels like an ad for Xceed.

AdamKinney
Agent of Change

In reply to spivonious

#Sep 29th @ 7:50 AM

My goal is definitely to show the cool things that people are building with WPF and sometimes that includes those who are selling the work they've done. I don't want it to be like a commercial though, so any suggestions you have are welcome. Understanding though, that in any video I want to give credit to those who have done the work and thank them for their time by linking to their site.

vesuvius
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.

In reply to spivonious

#Sep 29th @ 7:50 AM

Most videos are an advert for something, and why not showcase something like this grid? Microsoft have a belated DataGridView for WPF in development now but you can tacitly assume that it will never compare with this one, just like the Silverlight grid has already lost out to the free Devexpress one.

With prior WPF technologies, Microsoft always had some base controls, that were either augmented or redeveloped by companies like Xceed. Indeed their own winforms grid pales in insignificance to the Xceed one which Microsoft themselves use in their products (even today).

This is a market leading component and deserves the credit it gets. These guys were squeezing performance out of the grid before .NET 3.5 SP1 and the grid was already fast then.

In general (except for Windows and Office) Microsoft are very slow to release any eye candy and if you are a WPF developer today you need the Xceeds and Lawson Smart Client folk to lead the direction inspiration wise.

Thanks for the vid and the xeptional grid!

spivonious

In reply to AdamKinney

#Sep 29th @ 9:10 AM

I guess it's more that I expect C9 to give news and features on what MS is doing and what is already there in the .NET Framework.

Carry on! Smiley

AdamKinney
Agent of Change

In reply to spivonious

#Sep 29th @ 10:36 AM

Ok, well consider this show new and different then Smiley

The next episode I'm hoping to release today is covering something very cool from Microsoft and it includes the source code.

styl0r

The British Library have updated their website, making the WPF version of Turning the Pages much easier to find. You might want to update your link(s) to:

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/virtualbooks/