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Pixel Shaders are one of the more powerful graphic tools available for XAML programmers.
I first encountered them in the Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5 SP1 release
and was completely smitten. It didn’t take long to learn that I could create custom
shaders, commonly called Effects in WPF, and add them to my projects. Excited by the
prospect, I started my research and soon learned that shaders are written in a language
called High Level Shader Language (HLSL). I like programming challenges and learning
new technologies, so I set off to learn more about custom shaders. I downloaded the
DirectX SDK, opened the documentation, and started digging through the pages.
It was at this point that I ran into the wall of uncertainty.
Shader development is very different from working in XAML element trees, and bears
little resemblance to traditional .NET programming. The overall mindset is different:
the language looks similar to C but uses a quaint semantic syntax and the documentation
is sparse and confusing. I found myself writing shader code and hesitantly testing
the output, never quite sure what would show up onscreen.
I learned later that I’m not alone in feeling unsure when writing HLSL algorithms. I
talked to countless Silverlight developers who echoed my feelings of doubt when faced
with the prospect of writing custom shaders. I was reassured to learn, while attending
a daylong game workshop, that many game development shops have dedicated shader
developers who specialize in mastering this arcane craft. The reason is clear: it takes a
different mindset to understand shaders and some developers are better suited to the
skills needed to write successful effects.
As a result, I started designing tools and tutorials to simplify the shader learning process
for XAML developers. I didn’t know it at the time, but that road was to lead me to
O’Reilly and the writing of this book.
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Sensors Applications, Volume 2Taken as a whole, this series covers all major fields of application for commercial sensors, as well as their manufacturing techniques and major types. As such the series does not treat bulk sensors, but rather places strong emphasis on microsensors, microsystems and integrated electronic sensor packages. Each of the individual volumes is tailored... | | Use ClickOnce to Deploy Windows ApplicationsClickOnce, a new technology in Visual Studio 2005, lets you quickly and easily deploy your Windows apps via web servers, file servers, or even CDs. But while ClickOnce delivers web-style deployment of your application, that's only part of the story. Once you've installed an application using ClickOnce, it can automatically check for new updates to... | | |
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