Creating a DirectX 3D boxed view (VB.NET 2005)

24 Feb 2006 9:03 PM

Rotzooi

Hi,

I've a database that continuously filled with 3D coordinates. I want to
display these points in a DirectX 3D object on a form. Lets says the matrix
is with coordinates within 0,0,0 and 40000,40000,40000. The mouse should be
used to rotate the entire view (360 degrees on the horizontal axis) viewed
from an angle from above (birdview). View will be only in Windowed mode, not
full screen.

Using Direct3D from VB.NET 2005 is very poorly documented. The 2003 (.NET
1.1 Framework) commands are somewhat incompatible and generate many errors
from the samples I found.

Anyone know a good resource or sample site? Or perhaps a complete
class/control to establish this?

Jeroen

25 Feb 2006 12:31 AM

tommaso.gastaldi

Hi Rotzooi,

I had your same problem because I needed to create 3D graphics for my
reporting application.

Here is an example with a transparent Torus (top right) I have done and
exported on a web page with my app:
http://cam70.sta.uniroma1.it/TechnicalPreview/test/TestTransparency.htm

what I have done after some research is to opt anyway to use GDI+.
Clearly none expect the performance to be those of DirectX. However I
must say that for what I needed (it's not a 3d game!) they are
acceptable. Even with a Shoemake's Arcball controller attacched the
animation is not bad. Most importantly, integrating it with the
application has been very easy and the whole solution is highly
maintenable. If you do not need extraordinary, speed take into
consideration this possibility, which I found quite convenient.

If you like to know more, I can provide you with a link to download the
app and make experiments to see if the GDI+ performance are acceptable
within your context.

[I also hope that Microsoft will soon hardware accelerate it :-)]

Regards,

tommaso