Digital media: Using WPF to add video to controls and three-dimensional surfaces

This article discusses:

Windows Presentation Foundation Digital Media Basics

Using MediaElement and MediaPlayer

Video embedded in a WPF control

Map the video to a three-dimensional surface

This article uses the following techniques:

. NET Framework 3.0

When Windows presentation Foundation (WPF) began to sweep the entire Adobe Flash community, I initially expressed skepticism. Microsoft has introduced a competitive technology that has led many Flash developers, myself included, to lash out at the company in support of our beloved platform. Then I received an email saying that Microsoft had sent a technical propagandist to the Frog design studio in San Francisco to demonstrate Windows®presentation Foundation, which I thought would be an excellent opportunity to show everyone why Flash is more than a chip in every way.

During the demonstration of Karsten Januszewski, he showed us the famous North Face Demo (channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=116327), which features a high quality Windows Media®video (WMV) clips are mapped to a curved three-dimensional grid object in a three-dimensional rotating scene. The demo was produced jointly by Fluid (another interactive studio in San Francisco) and a team of Microsoft Windows presentation Foundation. The facts that had happened in front of me drove away my prejudices. This form of presentation is hard to use or simply cannot be accomplished with Flash or any other relevant platform.

Shortly after the demo, I dropped my preconceptions and downloaded the Microsoft®.net Framework 3.0 runtime, which started my career as a Windows presentation Foundation Interactive Designer. Since then, the controversy over Flash and Windows presentation Foundation is almost gone, because there are not many areas where the two technologies really compete. This controversy is likely to be the focus of discussion at a time when Microsoft's latest solution for delivering cross-platform Web pages, including graphics, video, animations, and audio, is being released. This upcoming release, code-named "Wpf/e", allows you to obtain a preview of this version from the "wpf/e" Developer Center, Msdn2.microsoft.com/bb187358.aspx.

The ability to map video to three-dimensional surfaces is indeed enough to attract the attention of interactive designers. But when it comes to integrating audio and video into Windows presentation Foundation, we can do much more than that, which is just fur. This article will help you familiarize yourself with the latest developments in Windows presentation Foundation Media integration and provide the knowledge you need to add media files and optional images of interest to your application.