WPF Version OSX Fast User Switching, perf tips?

Hi,

I have an application that has two main states. To switch between these
states I am goign to pulloff an effect very similiar to how OS X does fast
user switching. The current screen will be projected onto the front side of a
cube, and the next screen will be projected onto the left or right face of
the cube. Then the cube will be rotated so that the new state side becomes
the front side. Cool.

That is simple enough. The question is as follows: Should I always have the
application running as a side on a cube (visual brush as material) or should
I have the canvas be the application, and when its time to switch - hide the
canvas and show a viewport3D with the cube, do the animation, and then hide
the viewport3D and show the new state's canvas.

Would there be a perf. drawback to having the application always runnining
on the side of a cube in a viewport3D? Is there another method I am not
considering?

-Avery

Note that content in a VisualBrush (whether in 3d or not) is not
interactive, so I imagine that you will want to do the second option. There
can also be perf implications, but those are a little more dependent upon
your system, video memory usage, size of the texture, etc, though rendering
a tree directly should always be at least somewhat faster than doing so in a
VisualBrush.

-Adam Smith [MS]

"Avery Z" <AveryZ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1403CA67-05BB-4AA2-8980-BB2702348288@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have an application that has two main states. To switch between these
> states I am goign to pulloff an effect very similiar to how OS X does fast
> user switching. The current screen will be projected onto the front side
> of a
> cube, and the next screen will be projected onto the left or right face of
> the cube. Then the cube will be rotated so that the new state side becomes
> the front side. Cool.
>
> That is simple enough. The question is as follows: Should I always have
> the
> application running as a side on a cube (visual brush as material) or
> should
> I have the canvas be the application, and when its time to switch - hide
> the
> canvas and show a viewport3D with the cube, do the animation, and then
> hide
> the viewport3D and show the new state's canvas.
>
> Would there be a perf. drawback to having the application always runnining
> on the side of a cube in a viewport3D? Is there another method I am not
> considering?
>
> -Avery