Can such 3D be done in Silverlight?

[Moni]

Hi there,

I was part of a team which delivered this site:
http://www.library.usma.edu/flash/index.html

Click on the building.
To rotate - click the 180 arrow at the bottom
Move or click with the mouse over the floors or the list on the site.

Have you seen an example anywhere indicating that this 3D effect can also be achieved with Silverlight?
Because of its tight integration with other MS products - Curious to see if this can be done outside Flash.
Many thanks.

[Michael Salzlechner]

i dont see why you shouldnt be able to do this. There really isnt anything 3D about it. It is all what i would call fake 3D in 2D. A simple example would be the mirosoft zune 3D sample that shows a properly spinning 3D zune with custom engaravings attached and such

Michael Salzlechner
StarZen Technologies

[Moni]

Hallo Michael.

Many thanks for responding.
Thanks to your suggestion I managed to find this link:
http://www.markdawson.org/kit3d/
I also found this link re converting Flash to Silverlight - putting it here for whatever it is worth.
http://www.wpfdev.com/2009/12/21/converting-flash-to-silverlight-with-silverx/

That is enough for me to start (I am familiar with DirectX).

Hm ... You know how it is when you start in a new space - sometimes just a keyword or two could help a lot.
Based on the example I posted in the original question one can come up with some basic concepts.
- making an object recognize a click or recognize that it was highlighted.
- moving an object or a composition of objects.

Therefore - if you come up with some key words of methods which I can take and research further to help me start - this would be very helpful.Here I do not mean really much more than just basic pointers.
As basic as this - For example if I had to give such pointers to somebody wanting to learn Microsoft-based game programming I would say "Check out: DirectX, XNA, Vertex Buffers, Meshes, BoundingBox (for collision detection), RenderState.AlphaBlendEnable.

If you have already an example of a page where somebody is showing an "exploding" model based on Silverlight (or WPF) - that would be very confidence building.

Again - only if you can do this off the top of the head - don't spend too much time on this.

Many thanks Michael!

[Michael Salzlechner]

i may be completely off here but i think you are trying to overcomplicate this

dont think of it as 3D think of it as 2D with alpha transparency

when i played with the site you linked to i didnt see anything that would require real 3D. a number of images that 'look' 3D and are overlayed on top of each other. definitions for clickable areas and some animations.

Mike

[Moni]

Thanks Michael - this helps.

If you know of a link to a tutorial discussing this topic - or if you just mention the names of functions used to recognize the clicks - that would be great.

Even without this - you saved me lots of time - Really appriciate it.
Thanks man!

[Michael Salzlechner]

look at image maps / hotspots

here is an example i came across

http://silverlight.net/community/samples/silverlight-samples/silverlight-creating-image-map-with-hotspots-34229/

This should help get you started

Mike

[Moni]

Michael - You 'da best!
Thanks - all I needed.