![]() |
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
| Welcome to Windows Vista Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find solutions with any problems, errors or issues you are experiencing with Windows Vista. The Vista forum also covers news and updates and has an extensive Windows Vista tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks. |
| | |||||||
| | Vista - What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? |
| |
| 03-22-2006 | #1 |
| | What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? I'm confused here a bit. At the 2003 PDC it was all pretty clear. But now that WPF is going to be made available on XP and is not even installed by default on Vista CTP, what is it in Vista that is driving Aero Glass? Isn't (wasn't) that part of Avalon/WPF? Can anybody explain what pieces are native to Vista and what's part of WPF? -- Keith |
| My System Specs |
| 03-22-2006 | #2 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? Keith Hill wrote: > I'm confused here a bit. At the 2003 PDC it was all pretty clear. > But now that WPF is going to be made available on XP and is not even > installed by default on Vista CTP, what is it in Vista that is driving > Aero Glass? Isn't (wasn't) that part of Avalon/WPF? Can anybody > explain what pieces are native to Vista and what's part of WPF? There is an abstraction layer that sits between the managed APIs and the core OS/DirectX called PresentationCore.dll. This is a Win32 DLL and it's APIs are not documented, nor are they intended to be used by third parties. However, the desktop window manager[1] uses this very same DLL to provide all of the features of the Aero UX like the animated windows, the transparency, the drop shadows and the fancy Windows Flip3D. HTH, Drew [1] http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter...05/544314.aspx ___________________________________ Drew Marsh Chief Software Architect Mimeo.com, Inc. - http://www.mimeo.com Microsoft C# / WPF MVP Weblog - http://blog.hackedbrain.com/ |
| My System Specs |
| 03-22-2006 | #3 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? You mean milcore.dll, not PresentationCore.dll. PC.dll is part of the managed API and talks to milcore.dll like the window manager does. Jordan > Keith Hill wrote: > >> I'm confused here a bit. At the 2003 PDC it was all pretty clear. >> But now that WPF is going to be made available on XP and is not even >> installed by default on Vista CTP, what is it in Vista that is driving >> Aero Glass? Isn't (wasn't) that part of Avalon/WPF? Can anybody >> explain what pieces are native to Vista and what's part of WPF? > > There is an abstraction layer that sits between the managed APIs and the > core OS/DirectX called PresentationCore.dll. This is a Win32 DLL and it's > APIs are not documented, nor are they intended to be used by third > parties. However, the desktop window manager[1] uses this very same DLL to > provide all of the features of the Aero UX like the animated windows, the > transparency, the drop shadows and the fancy Windows Flip3D. > > HTH, > Drew > > [1] http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter...05/544314.aspx > > ___________________________________ > Drew Marsh > Chief Software Architect > Mimeo.com, Inc. - http://www.mimeo.com > Microsoft C# / WPF MVP > Weblog - http://blog.hackedbrain.com/ > > |
| My System Specs |
| 03-22-2006 | #4 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? "Drew Marsh" <drub0y@hotmail.no.spamming.com> wrote in message news:f01844f1edc718c81b5da7968e08@msnews.microsoft.com... > Jordan Parker wrote: > >> You mean milcore.dll, not PresentationCore.dll. PC.dll is part of the >> managed API and talks to milcore.dll like the window manager does. > > Duh, yes... sorry. Thank you for the correction. > So many pieces to the puzzle hard to keep them all straight sometimes. ![]() Tell me about it. :-) Thanks that did help. -- Keith |
| My System Specs |
| 03-22-2006 | #5 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? Keith- MilCore.dll is part of the Windows Vista Feb CTP. It is an unmanaged dll. It is our low level rendering code that uses Direct3D to get substantially advanced rendering capabilities. The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) writes to MilCore.dll to render the desktop. See Greg Schecter's blog post about DWM: http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter...05/544314.aspx (and the follow up posts as well) In Windows Vista Feb CTP, WinFX is not installed by default. When you do install it, the primary assemblies for basic WPF applications are: PresentationFramework.dll - FrameworkElementControls, Shapes, Panels, Application, etc... PresentationCore.dll - UIElement (which provide LIFE - Layout, Input, Focus, Eventing), Media primitives (Brushes, Drawings, etc...) WindowsBase.dll - DependencyObject As Jordan wrote earlier, PresentationCore.dll is the managed dll that communicates with milcore.dll By the time Windows Vista ships, WinFX will be installed by default. So all of WPF is available to developers targetting Windows Vista. Thx, Rob Relyea WPF, PM http://longhornblogs.com/rrelyea "Keith Hill [MVP]" <r_keith_hill@no.spam.thank.u.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:eVuxDsYTGHA.5108@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl... > "Drew Marsh" <drub0y@hotmail.no.spamming.com> wrote in message > news:f01844f1edc718c81b5da7968e08@msnews.microsoft.com... >> Jordan Parker wrote: >> >>> You mean milcore.dll, not PresentationCore.dll. PC.dll is part of the >>> managed API and talks to milcore.dll like the window manager does. >> >> Duh, yes... sorry. Thank you for the correction. >> So many pieces to the puzzle hard to keep them all straight sometimes. ![]() > > Tell me about it. :-) Thanks that did help. > > -- > Keith > |
| My System Specs |
| 03-24-2006 | #6 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? "Rob Relyea [MSFT]" <Rob.Relyea@microsoft.nospam.com> wrote in message news:OMdo$qbTGHA.3192@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl... > Keith- > > MilCore.dll is part of the Windows Vista Feb CTP. It is an unmanaged dll. > It is our low level rendering code that uses Direct3D to get substantially > advanced rendering capabilities. > The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) writes to MilCore.dll to render the > desktop. > See Greg Schecter's blog post about DWM: > http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter...05/544314.aspx (and > the follow up posts as well) > So what is WPF using underneath on XP?? Is it milcore.dll? Or does it thunk to GDI/GDI+? -- Keith |
| My System Specs |
| 03-24-2006 | #7 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? No usage of GDI/GDI+ anywhere. We use milcore (and Direct3D underneath, if we are hardware accelerating). -Pablo "Keith Hill [MVP]" <r_keith_hill@no.spam.thank.u.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:eDNNn6uTGHA.224@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl... > "Rob Relyea [MSFT]" <Rob.Relyea@microsoft.nospam.com> wrote in message > news:OMdo$qbTGHA.3192@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl... >> Keith- >> >> MilCore.dll is part of the Windows Vista Feb CTP. It is an unmanaged >> dll. >> It is our low level rendering code that uses Direct3D to get >> substantially advanced rendering capabilities. >> The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) writes to MilCore.dll to render the >> desktop. >> See Greg Schecter's blog post about DWM: >> http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter...05/544314.aspx (and >> the follow up posts as well) >> > > So what is WPF using underneath on XP?? Is it milcore.dll? Or does it > thunk to GDI/GDI+? > > -- > Keith > |
| My System Specs |
| 03-24-2006 | #8 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? "Pablo Fernicola [MS]" <pablo@fernicola.org> wrote in message news:O3iobrvTGHA.2444@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl... > No usage of GDI/GDI+ anywhere. We use milcore (and Direct3D underneath, OK. So WPF will install milcore.dll on non-VISTA systems as well as Direct3D (if it isn't alread installed), right? > if we are hardware accelerating). And if the system has a generic motherboard video controller (like a lot of business PCs) that doesn't support hardware acceleration? I seem to recall mention of software emulation in this case? Thanks a bunch for helping out here. I'm working on an internal brown bag and wanted to get this all straight in my head before I tried to explain it. :-) -- Keith |
| My System Specs |
| 03-24-2006 | #9 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? If milcore.dll uses DirectX why it's so slow even on fast machines? The FPS are very very slow. I've been using Expression Interactive Designer and it's very slow when dealing with draging stuff around. It looks like if was been rendered using GDI. The windows used by milcore.dll renders using DirectDraw? Using OpenGL/Direct3d isn't a better option? TIA! -- Guilhere Magalhães - .NET CF MVP www.guilherme.co.uk "Keith Hill [MVP]" <r_keith_hill@no.spam.thank.u.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:%23mBJJj2TGHA.1708@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl... > "Pablo Fernicola [MS]" <pablo@fernicola.org> wrote in message > news:O3iobrvTGHA.2444@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl... >> No usage of GDI/GDI+ anywhere. We use milcore (and Direct3D underneath, > > OK. So WPF will install milcore.dll on non-VISTA systems as well as > Direct3D (if it isn't alread installed), right? > >> if we are hardware accelerating). > > And if the system has a generic motherboard video controller (like a lot > of business PCs) that doesn't support hardware acceleration? I seem to > recall mention of software emulation in this case? > > Thanks a bunch for helping out here. I'm working on an internal brown bag > and wanted to get this all straight in my head before I tried to explain > it. :-) > > -- > Keith > |
| My System Specs |
| 03-24-2006 | #10 |
| | Re: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? Guilherme Magalhaes wrote: > If milcore.dll uses DirectX why it's so slow even on fast machines? > > The FPS are very very slow. I've been using Expression Interactive > Designer and it's very slow when dealing with draging stuff around. It > looks like if was been rendered using GDI. > > The windows used by milcore.dll renders using DirectDraw? Using > OpenGL/Direct3d isn't a better option? Put a break point anywhere in your WPF application and when you hit it, type the following in the VS2005 immediate window: RenderCapability.Tier What value do you get back? Cheers, Drew |
| My System Specs |
![]() |
| Thread Tools | |
| |
| Similar Threads for: What's Part of WPF is Native to Vista? | ||||
| Thread | Forum | |||
| Vista Native Game Problem | Gaming | |||
| Vista Will Not Permanently Keep Native Resolution | Vista performance & maintenance | |||
| Sites for Vista native themes | Vista General | |||
| Vista native resolution | Vista hardware & devices | |||
| Vista and Native Mode... | Vista installation & setup | |||