MediaPortal Forum - View Single Post - MediaPortal II gets opensource xaml skinengine

frodo · 2007-12-30, 12:57

Some people wondered why we didnt use WPF for our skinengine.
WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) , is a new technology from Microsoft for creating really cool GUIs

Although WPF is a wonderfull piece of technology, it also has some major drawbacks. One of those drawbacks is that there is no way to integrate WPF with DirectX and/or DirectShow. Although WPF contains its own internal video player that player is so limited and unusable for an application like MediaPortal. Another drawbacks are the focus/input management and offcourse the fact that its closed source.

That said, WPF still rocks. Skinners get really nice features like vector graphics, linear/gradient/image brushes, panels, storyboards, triggers, animations etc etc etc

So I have started on a new mission:

For MP-II I'm creating my own opensource version of WPF

With our own opensource WPF skinengine we get all the nice stuff from WPF and since its opensource we can perfectly integrate with other technologies like DirectX and DirectShow

Creating an opensource version of WPF is not a light task, but in the last couple of weeks we already came a long way.

Here's a list of whats already done:

Layout engine

* StackPanel
* Canvas
* DockPanel

Animation engine

* Storyboard
* ColorAnimation & ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames
* DoubleAnimation & DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames
* PointAnimation & PointAnimationUsingKeyFrames
* Trigger
* EventTrigger

Brushes:

* LinearGradientBrush
* RadialGradientBrush
* ImageBrush
* VisualBrush

Visuals:

* Border
* Button
* UIElement
* FrameworkElement

General:

* XamlParser (We use MyXaml here, thx Marc!)
* Resources

For performance reasons we offload as much work as possible to the graphics card. For example the brushes (like the RadialGradientBrush) is fully rendered by the use of vertex/pixel shaders

We also try to make our version as compatible as possible with Microsoft WPF so that if you use Expression blend, or if you have exisiting xaml files they should be very easy to port to MP-II

Note: you can follow the development progress on MP-II (and the skinengine) on our project-management website for MP-II
URL : http://pms.team-mediaportal.com
Username : community
Password : public

Frodo

2007-12-30, 12:57	#1 (permalink)
frodo Portal Developer Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: The Netherlands Age: 36 Posts: 1,516 Thanks: 3 Thanked 119 Times in 44 Posts Country: My System	MediaPortal II gets opensource xaml skinengine Some people wondered why we didnt use WPF for our skinengine. WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) , is a new technology from Microsoft for creating really cool GUIs Although WPF is a wonderfull piece of technology, it also has some major drawbacks. One of those drawbacks is that there is no way to integrate WPF with DirectX and/or DirectShow. Although WPF contains its own internal video player that player is so limited and unusable for an application like MediaPortal. Another drawbacks are the focus/input management and offcourse the fact that its closed source. That said, WPF still rocks. Skinners get really nice features like vector graphics, linear/gradient/image brushes, panels, storyboards, triggers, animations etc etc etc So I have started on a new mission: For MP-II I'm creating my own opensource version of WPF With our own opensource WPF skinengine we get all the nice stuff from WPF and since its opensource we can perfectly integrate with other technologies like DirectX and DirectShow Creating an opensource version of WPF is not a light task, but in the last couple of weeks we already came a long way. Here's a list of whats already done: Layout engine * StackPanel * Canvas * DockPanel Animation engine * Storyboard * ColorAnimation & ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames * DoubleAnimation & DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames * PointAnimation & PointAnimationUsingKeyFrames * Trigger * EventTrigger Brushes: * LinearGradientBrush * RadialGradientBrush * ImageBrush * VisualBrush Visuals: * Border * Button * UIElement * FrameworkElement General: * XamlParser (We use MyXaml here, thx Marc!) * Resources For performance reasons we offload as much work as possible to the graphics card. For example the brushes (like the RadialGradientBrush) is fully rendered by the use of vertex/pixel shaders We also try to make our version as compatible as possible with Microsoft WPF so that if you use Expression blend, or if you have exisiting xaml files they should be very easy to port to MP-II Note: you can follow the development progress on MP-II (and the skinengine) on our project-management website for MP-II URL : http://pms.team-mediaportal.com Username : community Password : public Frodo Last edited by frodo; 2007-12-30 at 13:30.