Vista - 3D, Canvas, and Databinding

I'm looking to replicate something I once did in Flash, but I'm not sure what
is the best approach.
Essentialy, I have a collection of objects that with x,y,z coordinates.
(Let's it's a collection of Planet classes and I'm modelling the solar
system.) I want to display theses object in 3D. However, I don't care to
represent the objects themselves as meshes. In other world, the "planets"
don't need to be "spheres", I just want their relative positions.
Additionally, I want to provide the user with a slider for rotating the solar
system around an axis (the Sun).
I would like to use databinding, but it is not a requirement. The number of
"planets" in solar system is dynamic (the results of a database query).
I thought that using the builtin 3D might be overkill (and I didn't think
that I could bind data.) I have toyed with a Canvas and "transforming" the
position of using pseudo 3D (2.5D, the way it's typically done in Flash).
I have also looked at several online example of 3D in XAML, but most of them
seem "larger" than what I expect that I need. (I'm expecting it to take less
code in WinFX than it did in Flash).
Recommendations?

many thanks,
Christopher Bennage

If you don't want to make the planets into full blown meshes, you can use 3D
billboarding instead which will be easier than doing the pseudo-3D by hand.
A billboard is a textured plane that faces the camera.

For example, each planet is a separate GeometryModel3D with a
DiffuseMaterial with an ImageBrush of the planet's picture ("pluto.png" or
whatever). Every planet then uses the same MeshGeometry3D plane which is
made up of two triangles that face the camera. You can then use Transform3Ds
to position everything.

Animation and databinding does work on 3D content as well.

Jordan

"Christopher Bennage" <ChristopherBennage@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message newsD675C6B-5413-4C56-B4F4-F011D3C2EAC1@microsoft.com...
> I'm looking to replicate something I once did in Flash, but I'm not sure
> what
> is the best approach.
> Essentialy, I have a collection of objects that with x,y,z coordinates.
> (Let's it's a collection of Planet classes and I'm modelling the solar
> system.) I want to display theses object in 3D. However, I don't care to
> represent the objects themselves as meshes. In other world, the "planets"
> don't need to be "spheres", I just want their relative positions.
> Additionally, I want to provide the user with a slider for rotating the
> solar
> system around an axis (the Sun).
> I would like to use databinding, but it is not a requirement. The number
> of
> "planets" in solar system is dynamic (the results of a database query).
> I thought that using the builtin 3D might be overkill (and I didn't think
> that I could bind data.) I have toyed with a Canvas and "transforming"
> the
> position of using pseudo 3D (2.5D, the way it's typically done in Flash).
> I have also looked at several online example of 3D in XAML, but most of
> them
> seem "larger" than what I expect that I need. (I'm expecting it to take
> less
> code in WinFX than it did in Flash).
> Recommendations?
>
> many thanks,
> Christopher Bennage

Thanks Jordan. Can you point me toward any examples that use Databinding
with 3D content?
Hopefully soemthing along the lines of binding a List<Planet> to a
Viewport3D and ending up with a number of ModelVisual3D instances positioned
(or tranformed?) based upon the values in List<Planet>.
I have something like this working now, but I am not using databinding. I am
iterating through the list and adding the visuals manually and I'm storing
the association between the Planet instances and the visuals in a
Dictionary<>.

"Jordan Parker [MSFT]" wrote:

> If you don't want to make the planets into full blown meshes, you can use 3D
> billboarding instead which will be easier than doing the pseudo-3D by hand.
> A billboard is a textured plane that faces the camera.
>
> For example, each planet is a separate GeometryModel3D with a
> DiffuseMaterial with an ImageBrush of the planet's picture ("pluto.png" or
> whatever). Every planet then uses the same MeshGeometry3D plane which is
> made up of two triangles that face the camera. You can then use Transform3Ds
> to position everything.
>
> Animation and databinding does work on 3D content as well.
>
> Jordan
>
> "Christopher Bennage" <ChristopherBennage@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> in message newsD675C6B-5413-4C56-B4F4-F011D3C2EAC1@microsoft.com...
> > I'm looking to replicate something I once did in Flash, but I'm not sure
> > what
> > is the best approach.
> > Essentialy, I have a collection of objects that with x,y,z coordinates.
> > (Let's it's a collection of Planet classes and I'm modelling the solar
> > system.) I want to display theses object in 3D. However, I don't care to
> > represent the objects themselves as meshes. In other world, the "planets"
> > don't need to be "spheres", I just want their relative positions.
> > Additionally, I want to provide the user with a slider for rotating the
> > solar
> > system around an axis (the Sun).
> > I would like to use databinding, but it is not a requirement. The number
> > of
> > "planets" in solar system is dynamic (the results of a database query).
> > I thought that using the builtin 3D might be overkill (and I didn't think
> > that I could bind data.) I have toyed with a Canvas and "transforming"
> > the
> > position of using pseudo 3D (2.5D, the way it's typically done in Flash).
> > I have also looked at several online example of 3D in XAML, but most of
> > them
> > seem "larger" than what I expect that I need. (I'm expecting it to take
> > less
> > code in WinFX than it did in Flash).
> > Recommendations?
> >
> > many thanks,
> > Christopher Bennage
>
>
>

Jordan Parker [MSFT] wrote:
> If you don't want to make the planets into full blown meshes, you can use 3D
> billboarding instead which will be easier than doing the pseudo-3D by hand.
> A billboard is a textured plane that faces the camera.

Jordan, how would you do billboards in XAML? Would it be possible
to do that without code behind, e.g. using a nifty binding expression?

Florian

I don't have any offhand, but have you seen Daniel Lehenbauer's latest video
on WPF
3D(http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/epi...manifest.xml)?
He shows some databinding demos and you can get the source for them here:
http://viewport3d.com/Blog_Files/MSDN_TV_Source.htm

Jordan

"Christopher Bennage" <ChristopherBennage@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message news:02C312BC-7D02-4255-A3BF-5C29DA3AA1FA@microsoft.com...
> Thanks Jordan. Can you point me toward any examples that use Databinding
> with 3D content?
> Hopefully soemthing along the lines of binding a List<Planet> to a
> Viewport3D and ending up with a number of ModelVisual3D instances
> positioned
> (or tranformed?) based upon the values in List<Planet>.
> I have something like this working now, but I am not using databinding. I
> am
> iterating through the list and adding the visuals manually and I'm storing
> the association between the Planet instances and the visuals in a
> Dictionary<>.
>
> "Jordan Parker [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>> If you don't want to make the planets into full blown meshes, you can use
>> 3D
>> billboarding instead which will be easier than doing the pseudo-3D by
>> hand.
>> A billboard is a textured plane that faces the camera.
>>
>> For example, each planet is a separate GeometryModel3D with a
>> DiffuseMaterial with an ImageBrush of the planet's picture ("pluto.png"
>> or
>> whatever). Every planet then uses the same MeshGeometry3D plane which is
>> made up of two triangles that face the camera. You can then use
>> Transform3Ds
>> to position everything.
>>
>> Animation and databinding does work on 3D content as well.
>>
>> Jordan
>>
>> "Christopher Bennage" <ChristopherBennage@discussions.microsoft.com>
>> wrote
>> in message newsD675C6B-5413-4C56-B4F4-F011D3C2EAC1@microsoft.com...
>> > I'm looking to replicate something I once did in Flash, but I'm not
>> > sure
>> > what
>> > is the best approach.
>> > Essentialy, I have a collection of objects that with x,y,z coordinates.
>> > (Let's it's a collection of Planet classes and I'm modelling the solar
>> > system.) I want to display theses object in 3D. However, I don't care
>> > to
>> > represent the objects themselves as meshes. In other world, the
>> > "planets"
>> > don't need to be "spheres", I just want their relative positions.
>> > Additionally, I want to provide the user with a slider for rotating the
>> > solar
>> > system around an axis (the Sun).
>> > I would like to use databinding, but it is not a requirement. The
>> > number
>> > of
>> > "planets" in solar system is dynamic (the results of a database query).
>> > I thought that using the builtin 3D might be overkill (and I didn't
>> > think
>> > that I could bind data.) I have toyed with a Canvas and "transforming"
>> > the
>> > position of using pseudo 3D (2.5D, the way it's typically done in
>> > Flash).
>> > I have also looked at several online example of 3D in XAML, but most of
>> > them
>> > seem "larger" than what I expect that I need. (I'm expecting it to
>> > take
>> > less
>> > code in WinFX than it did in Flash).
>> > Recommendations?
>> >
>> > many thanks,
>> > Christopher Bennage
>>
>>
>>

I don't think so but I would love to be proved wrong on this. The few ways I
can think of trying all involve some math (i.e. decomposing LookDirection
into three rotations). Plus you'd have to account for any other
transformations between the billboard and the camera.

Jordan

"Florian Kruesch" <nospam@kruesch.de> wrote in message
news:Os2TXXkfGHA.2456@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Jordan Parker [MSFT] wrote:
>> If you don't want to make the planets into full blown meshes, you can use
>> 3D billboarding instead which will be easier than doing the pseudo-3D by
>> hand. A billboard is a textured plane that faces the camera.
>
> Jordan, how would you do billboards in XAML? Would it be possible
> to do that without code behind, e.g. using a nifty binding expression?
>
> Florian