Search Results

Search found 5654 results on 227 pages for '3d rendering'.

Page 77/227 | < Previous Page | 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84  | Next Page >

  • How to rotate FBX files in 90 degree while running on a path in iTween in unity 3d

    - by Jack Dsilva
    I am doing one racing game,in which I used iTween path systems to smooth camera turning in turns,iTween path systems works fine(special thanks to Bob Berkebile) Here first I used one cube to follow path and it works fine in turning But my problem is instead of using cube I used FBX(character) to follow path here when turn comes character will not move This is my problem Image: I want this type: How to Slove this problem?

    Read the article

  • Why does my 3D model not translate the way I expect? [closed]

    - by ChocoMan
    In my first image, my model displays correctly: But when I move the model's position along the Z-axis (forward) I get this, yet the Y-axis doesnt change. An if I keep going, the model disappears into the ground: Any suggestions as to how I can get the model to translate properly visually? Here is how Im calling the model and the terrain in draw(): cameraPosition = new Vector3(camX, camY, camZ); // Copy any parent transforms. Matrix[] transforms = new Matrix[mShockwave.Bones.Count]; mShockwave.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(transforms); Matrix[] ttransforms = new Matrix[terrain.Bones.Count]; terrain.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(ttransforms); // Draw the model. A model can have multiple meshes, so loop. foreach (ModelMesh mesh in mShockwave.Meshes) { // This is where the mesh orientation is set, as well // as our camera and projection. foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); effect.PreferPerPixelLighting = true; effect.World = transforms[mesh.ParentBone.Index] * Matrix.CreateRotationY(modelRotation) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(modelPosition); // Looking at the model (picture shouldnt change other than rotation) effect.View = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, modelPosition, Vector3.Up); effect.Projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView( MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), aspectRatio, 1.0f, 10000.0f); effect.TextureEnabled = true; } // Draw the mesh, using the effects set above. prepare3d(); mesh.Draw(); } //Terrain test foreach (ModelMesh meshT in terrain.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in meshT.Effects) { effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); effect.PreferPerPixelLighting = true; effect.World = ttransforms[meshT.ParentBone.Index] * Matrix.CreateRotationY(0) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(terrainPosition); // Looking at the model (picture shouldnt change other than rotation) effect.View = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, terrainPosition, Vector3.Up); effect.Projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView( MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), aspectRatio, 1.0f, 10000.0f); effect.TextureEnabled = true; } // Draw the mesh, using the effects set above. prepare3d(); meshT.Draw(); DrawText(); } base.Draw(gameTime); } I'm suspecting that there may be something wrong with how I'm handling my camera. The model rotates fine on its Y-axis.

    Read the article

  • How do I make this rendering thread run together with the main one?

    - by funk
    I'm developing an Android game and need to show an animation of an exploding bomb. It's a spritesheet with 1 row and 13 different images. Each image should be displayed in sequence, 200 ms apart. There is one Thread running for the entire game: package com.android.testgame; import android.graphics.Canvas; public class GameLoopThread extends Thread { static final long FPS = 10; // 10 Frames per Second private final GameView view; private boolean running = false; public GameLoopThread(GameView view) { this.view = view; } public void setRunning(boolean run) { running = run; } @Override public void run() { long ticksPS = 1000 / FPS; long startTime; long sleepTime; while (running) { Canvas c = null; startTime = System.currentTimeMillis(); try { c = view.getHolder().lockCanvas(); synchronized (view.getHolder()) { view.onDraw(c); } } finally { if (c != null) { view.getHolder().unlockCanvasAndPost(c); } } sleepTime = ticksPS - (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime); try { if (sleepTime > 0) { sleep(sleepTime); } else { sleep(10); } } catch (Exception e) {} } } } As far as I know I would have to create a second Thread for the bomb. package com.android.testgame; import android.graphics.Bitmap; import android.graphics.Canvas; import android.graphics.Rect; public class Bomb { private final Bitmap bmp; private final int width; private final int height; private int currentFrame = 0; private static final int BMPROWS = 1; private static final int BMPCOLUMNS = 13; private int x = 0; private int y = 0; public Bomb(GameView gameView, Bitmap bmp) { this.width = bmp.getWidth() / BMPCOLUMNS; this.height = bmp.getHeight() / BMPROWS; this.bmp = bmp; x = 250; y = 250; } private void update() { currentFrame++; new BombThread().start(); } public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) { update(); int srcX = currentFrame * width; int srcY = height; Rect src = new Rect(srcX, srcY, srcX + width, srcY + height); Rect dst = new Rect(x, y, x + width, y + height); canvas.drawBitmap(bmp, src, dst, null); } class BombThread extends Thread { @Override public void run() { try { sleep(200); } catch(InterruptedException e){ } } } } The Threads would then have to run simultaneously. How do I do this?

    Read the article

  • Does the latest version of Ubuntu (12.04) support Unity 3D?

    - by Douglas Combs
    I just installed the latest version of Ubuntu (12.04) 64bit. I am using a Radeon HD 7750 vid card. I think I have the Catalyst driver installed correctly. But when I go to system and look at the details, it shows that my graphics is VESA:01. Does this mean I it, I didn't correctly install my driver? System Specs: MB: ASUS P7P55-M CPU: Intel i5 Quad Core MEM: 4GB DD3 VC: HIS Radeon HD 7750 (1GB DDR5) Thanks for help.

    Read the article

  • What is the practical use of IBOs / degenerate vertex in OpenGL?

    - by 0xFAIL
    Vertices in 3D models CAN get cut in the process of optimizing 3D geometry, (degenerate vertices) by 3D graphics software (Blender, ...) when exporting because they aren't needed when reusing a vertex for multiple triangles. (In the current case 3D data is exported from Blender as .ply and read by a simple application that displays the 3D model) Every vertex has a few attributes like position, color, normal, tangent,... But the data for each vertex that is cut through the vertex sharing is lost and is missing in the vertex shader. Modern shader techniques like Bump or Normal mapping require normals/tangents per vertex which are also cut. To use complex shader techniques IBOs must not be used? Or is there a way to use IBOs and retain the data per vertex that was origionally lost?

    Read the article

  • How to emulate Mode 13h in a modern 3D renderer?

    - by David Gouveia
    I was indulging in nostalgia and remembered the first game I created, which used Mode 13h. This mode was really simple to work with, since it was essentially just an array of bytes with an element for each pixel on the screen (using an indexed color scheme). So I thought it might be fun to create something nowadays under these restrictions, but on modern hardware. The API could be as simple as: public class Mode13h { public byte[] VideoMemory = new byte[320 * 200]; public Color[] Palette = new Color[256]; } Now I'm wondering what would be the best way to get this data on the screen, using something like XNA / DirectX / OpenGL. The only solution I could think of was to create a texture with the same size as the VideoMemory array, write the contents of VideoMemory to it every frame, then render that texture in a full screen quad with the correct aspect ratio and using point texture filtering for that retro look. Is there a better way?

    Read the article

  • How do I show a minimap in a 3D world?

    - by Bubblewrap
    Got a really typical use-case here. I have large map made up of hexagons and at any given time only a small section of the map is visible. To provide an overview of the complete map, I want to show a small 2D representation of the map in a corner of the screen. What is the recommended approach for this in libgdx? Keep in mind the minimap must be updated when the currently visible section changes and when the map is updated. I've found SpriteBatch(info here), but the warning label on it made me think twice: A SpriteBatch is a pretty heavy object so you should only ever have one in your program. I'm not sure I'm supposed to use the one SpriteBatch that I can have on the minimap, and I'm also not sure how to interpret "heavy" in this context. Another thing to possibly keep in mind is that the minimap will probably be part of a larger UI, is there any way to integrate these two?

    Read the article

  • What technologies and tools would I need to create an advanced 3D game on Unreal Engine 3?

    - by BleakCabalist
    This is a purely hypothetical question. Let's say I already have the UE3 license and would like to create an advanced single-player FPS. What other tools/technologies would I need? For example for audio, animations, modeling and so on. I mean all of them. I've been looking for some time now and can't find any source, which would say what's needed from beggining to the end of game development cycle.

    Read the article

  • How could I implement 3D player collision with rotation in LWJGL?

    - by Tinfoilboy
    I have a problem with my current collision implementation. Currently for player collision, I just use an AABB where I check if another AABB is in the way of the player, as shown in this code. (The code below is a sample of checking for collisions in the Z axis) for (int z = (int) (this.position.getZ()); z > this.position.getZ() - moveSpeed - boundingBoxDepth; z--) { // The maximum Z you can get. int maxZ = (int) (this.position.getZ() - moveSpeed - boundingBoxDepth) + 1; AxisAlignedBoundingBox aabb = WarmupWeekend.getInstance().currentLevel.getAxisAlignedBoundingBoxAt(new Vector3f(this.position.getX(), this.position.getY(), z)); AxisAlignedBoundingBox potentialCameraBB = new AxisAlignedBoundingBox(this, "collider", new Vector3f(this.position.getX(), this.position.getY(), z), boundingBoxWidth, boundingBoxHeight, boundingBoxDepth); if (aabb != null) { if (potentialCameraBB.colliding(aabb) && aabb.COLLIDER_TYPE.equalsIgnoreCase("collider")) { break; } else if (!potentialCameraBB.colliding(aabb) && z == maxZ) { if (this.grounded) { playFootstep(); } this.position.z -= moveSpeed; break; } } else if (z == maxZ) { if (this.grounded) { playFootstep(); } this.position.z -= moveSpeed; break; } } Now, when I tried to implement rotation to this method, everything broke. I'm wondering how I could implement rotation to this block (and as all other checks in each axis are the same) and others. Thanks in advance.

    Read the article

  • How can I simulate a rigid body bounced from a wall in 3D world?

    - by HyperGroups
    How can I simulate a rigid sword bounced from a wall and hit the ground (like in physical world)? I want to use this for a simple animation. I can detect the figure and the size of the sword (maybe needed in doing bounce). Rotation can be controlled by quaternions/matrix/euler angles. It should turn the head and do rotations and fly to the ground. How can I simulate this physical process? Maybe what I need is an equation and some parameters? I need these data, and would combine them into my movie file, I use Mathematica to do the thing that generate the movie file(If I have the data, I can also export it into a 3DSMax script for example).

    Read the article

  • Texture not rendering in correct order in xna 4?

    - by user1090751
    I am making a simple board game. In the game there is a fixed background called myTexture and others are textureGoat and textureTiger whicha are to be placed on top of the background(myTexture). But i am having problem that fourth and fifth component is not displaying however, the sixth component( i.e. myTexture) is appearing. Here is my code, please look at it protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Green); // TODO: Add your drawing code here spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, BlendState.AlphaBlend); //placing tiger spriteBatch.Draw(textureTiger, new Rectangle(22, 25, 50, 50), Color.White);//first component spriteBatch.Draw(textureTiger, new Rectangle(22, 407, 50, 50), Color.White);//second component spriteBatch.Draw(textureTiger, new Rectangle(422, 25, 50, 50), Color.White);//third component spriteBatch.Draw(textureTiger, new Rectangle(422, 407, 50, 50), Color.White);//fourth component //placing goat spriteBatch.Draw(textureGoat, new Rectangle(125, 110, 50, 50), Color.White);//fifth component //placing background spriteBatch.Draw(myTexture, new Rectangle(0, 0, 500, 500), Color.White);//sixth component spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); }

    Read the article

  • How can I support scrolling when using batched rendering for my tiles?

    - by dardanel
    I have tiled map 100*75 and tiles are 32*32 pixel.I want to use batching for performance .I don't figure it out , because of my game needs scrolling and every frame i draw 22*16 tiles (my screen is 20*16 tile) .I thought that batching tiles for every frame .Is it good or any suggestion? edit :to more clarify I want to use occlusion culling and batching at the same time.I thought that drawing only visible areas and batching them together .But there is a something i couldn't figure out .When scrolling screen with translate matrix , if one row become invisible , I bind new row and batch them again.Every batched objects needs to buffer again.So I batch tiles and buffer to VBO every time when one row become invisible .I don't know these way is efficient or not .This is my question .And i am open to any suggestions.

    Read the article

  • Blender 2.69 disponible en téléchargement, découvrez les nouvelles fonctionnalités du logiciel de modélisation 3D libre et open source

    Blender 2.69 disponible en téléchargement La version 2.69 de l'outil de modélisation libre et open source est maintenant disponible en téléchargement. Voici un descriptif (non exhaustif) des changements apportés par cette nouvelle version :Modélisation nouvel outil de remplissage de surface non plane ; nouveaux outils de bisection et de division de mesh ; amélioration de l'outil d'édition de courbes ; nouvel option de sélection où la sélection utilise le curseur comme centre ; fusion de mesh améliorée...

    Read the article

  • Do unused vertices in a 3D object affect performance?

    - by Gajet
    For my game I need to generate a mesh dynamically. Now I'm wondering does it have a noticeable affect in FPS if I allocate more vertices than what I'm actually using or not? and does it matter if I'm using DirectX or OpenGL? Edit Final output will be a w*h cell grid, but for technical issues it's much easier for me to allocate (w+1)*(h+1) vertices. Sure I'll only use w*h vertices in indexing, and I know there is some memory wasting there, but I want to know if it also affect FPS or not? (Note that mesh is only generated once in each time you play the game)

    Read the article

  • tips, guidelines, points to remember for rendering professional code?

    - by ronnieaka
    I'm talking about giving clients professional looking code. The whole nine yards, everything you hardcore professional highly experienced programmers here probably do when coding freelance or for the company you work in. I'm fresh out of college and I'm going into freelance. I just want to be sure that my first few projects leave a good after-taste of professionalism imprinted on the clients' minds. When I Googled what i'm asking here, I was given pages that showed various websites and tools that let you make flashy websites and templates etc. The $N package and such stuff. I can't recall the word experts use for it. Standard, framework [i know that's not it]. English isn't my first language so I'm sorry I don't really don't know the exact phrase for it. That abstract way of writing code so that you don't come across as a sloppy programmer. That above mentioned way for programming websites and desktop software [in python/C/C++/Java]. EDIT: i can work on the accruing vast knowledge and know-how and logic building etc. what i'm asking for is the programming standard/guidelines you guys follow so that the client on seeing code feels that its a professional solution. Like comment blocks, a particular indentation style something like that. Is there any book on it or specific list of points for enterprise type coding by them? Especially here as in my case, for building websites [php for now..], and desktop software [c/c++/java/python]

    Read the article

  • does unused vertices in a 3D object affect performance?

    - by Gajet
    For my game I need to generate a mesh dynamically. now I'm wondering does it have a noticeable affect in fps if I allocate more vertices than what I'm actually using or not? and does it matter if I'm using DirectX or OpenGL? edit final output will be a w*h cell grid, but for technical issues it's much more easier for me to allocate (w+1)*(h+1) vertices. sure I'll only use w*h vertices in indexing, and I know there is some memory wasting there, but I want to know if it also affect fps or not? (note that mesh is only generated once in each time you play the game)

    Read the article

  • Which graphics library should I be using?

    - by DaveDev
    I have been developing and maintaining a WPF application, for which I've recently been tasked with adding a 3D representation of some of the data. I'm new to graphics programming in every kind of way so I'm curious whether I should stick with 3D graphics capabilities built into WPF or should I investigate other solutions, like OpenTK or SharpGL My objective is to represent the data so that it will eventually appear similar to: with nodes connected by lines. I need to rotate the image around each axis and each node will be a 3D model of the device it represents. So far, I've been able to experiment with the tutorial outlined here: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) 3D Tutorial and it was helpful as an introduction. But I can see that there are other ways to implement 3D graphics solutions and I wonder if they are more suitable for my needs, or should I stick with the in-built WPF solution? What are the pros and cons of each?

    Read the article

  • Existent js libs for tileset / map loading and rendering?

    - by ylluminate
    I'm building an rts style overhead tileset game with JavaScript (particularly using Ember.js framework as a base). The map is so large that I'd very much like to be able to load and render the board and layered items in a Google Maps'esque. I'm curious as to whether there are existing libs that would be helpful and already well thought out in these regards vs trying to reinvent the wheel. Are there any such libraries or code examples that would be useful in this area of board / map management?

    Read the article

  • Looking for C# framework for plotting scientific data: 2d/3d ...

    - by Ivan
    I need to visualize some scientific calculations. I generally prefer reusing code if there is already a good available instead of inventing wheels each time, that's why I am asking. I need a C# code to draw charts (just outputting a bitmap is ok) of 2d (y=f(x)) and 3d (z=f(x,y)) digital data sets (where any axis can be float, int or datetime), sometimes combined. If I go here and click 3D in the navigation bar on the left, there I can see what I need. But the cheapest version costs $759 there, looks scary for a hobby project of an east-european student :-(

    Read the article

  • Looking for framework for plotting scientific data: 2d/3d ...

    - by Ivan
    I need to visualize some scientific calculations. I generally prefer reusing code if there is already a good available instead of inventing wheels each time, that's why I am asking. I need a C# code to draw charts (just outputting a bitmap is ok) of 2d (y=f(x)) and 3d (z=f(x,y)) digital data sets (where any axis can be float, int or datetime), sometimes combined. If I go here and click 3D in the navigation bar on the left, there I can see what I need. But the cheapest version costs $759 there, looks scary for a hobby project of an east-european student :-(

    Read the article

  • How do I get a JComponent to resize after calling `setVisible(true)`?

    - by iWerner
    Our application displays a 2D view of our data (mainly maps) and then allows the user to change to a 3D view. The 2D and 3D views are generated by custom C++ code that is SWIG'ed into our Swing GUI and wrapped within a JComponent. These JComponents are then displayed within another parent JComponent. Our problem is that when we change from the 2D to the 3D view and then back to the 2D view, when we resize the window the 2D view does not get resized. The resize events don't get sent to the 2D view. Our application runs under Linux (Fedora 11). We're running Java version 1.6.0_12. Here is some sample code in which I've replaced the 2D view and 3D view with two 2 JButtons, that produces the same behaviour. Once you go to 3D and then back to 2D, resizing the window does not cause the 2D view to be resized. /* TestFrame.java * Compile with: $ javac TestFrame.java * Run with: $ java TestFrame */ import java.awt.BorderLayout; import java.awt.Container; import java.awt.event.ComponentEvent; import java.awt.event.ComponentListener; import javax.swing.JButton; public class TestFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame { private boolean mode2D = true; private JButton view2D = null; private JButton view3D = null; private Container parent = null; public TestFrame() { initComponents(); containerPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout()); view2D = new JButton("2D View"); view2D.addComponentListener(new MyListener("2D VIEW")); containerPanel.add(view2D); } private void changerButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) { if (parent == null) { parent = view2D.getParent(); } if (mode2D) { System.out.println("Going from 2D to 3D"); view2D.setVisible(false); if (view3D != null) { view3D.setVisible(true); } else { view3D = new JButton("3D View"); view3D.addComponentListener(new MyListener("3D VIEW")); parent.add(view3D); } ((JButton) evt.getSource()).setText("Change to 2D"); mode2D = false; } else { System.out.println("Going from 3D to 2D"); view3D.setVisible(false); view2D.setVisible(true); ((JButton) evt.getSource()).setText("Change to 3D"); mode2D = true; } } public static void main(String args[]) { java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { new TestFrame().setVisible(true); } }); } private javax.swing.JPanel containerPanel; private javax.swing.JButton changerButton; private class MyListener implements ComponentListener { private String name; public MyListener(String name) { this.name = name; } @Override public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent event) { System.out.println("@@@ [" + name + "] component Hidden"); } @Override public void componentResized(ComponentEvent event) { System.out.println("@@@ [" + name + "] component Resized"); } @Override public void componentShown(ComponentEvent event) { System.out.println("@@@ [" + name + "] component Shown"); } @Override public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent event) { System.out.println("@@@ [" + name + "] component Moved"); } }; @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") private void initComponents() { containerPanel = new javax.swing.JPanel(); changerButton = new javax.swing.JButton(); setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); containerPanel.setBorder(new javax.swing.border.MatteBorder(null)); javax.swing.GroupLayout containerPanelLayout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(containerPanel); containerPanel.setLayout(containerPanelLayout); containerPanelLayout.setHorizontalGroup( containerPanelLayout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 374, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); containerPanelLayout.setVerticalGroup( containerPanelLayout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGap(0, 239, Short.MAX_VALUE) ); changerButton.setText("Change to 3D"); changerButton.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) { changerButtonActionPerformed(evt); } }); javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane()); getContentPane().setLayout(layout); layout.setHorizontalGroup( layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup() .addContainerGap() .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addComponent(containerPanel, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE) .addComponent(changerButton)) .addContainerGap()) ); layout.setVerticalGroup( layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup() .addContainerGap() .addComponent(containerPanel, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE) .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED) .addComponent(changerButton) .addContainerGap()) ); pack(); } } (My apologies for the Netbeans generated GUI code) I should mention that when we call parent.remove(view2D) and parent.add(view3D) to change the views the X Windows ID of our 3D view changes and we're unable to get our 3D view back. Therefore parent.remove(view2D) and parent.add(view3D) is not really a solution and we have to call setVisible(false) and setVisible(true) on the JComponents that contain our 2D and 3D views in order to hide and show them. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

    Read the article

  • Can I use Blender to create 3D wall image viewer application under Linux?

    - by sgon00
    Hi, Is that possible to use Blender to create Cooliris-like 3D wall image viewer application under Linux? I don't see many people use Blender (BGE) to create desktop application, so I am wondering if this is possible. People normally use Blender for modeling/movie and game engine. I can not find a good way to create 3D application in Linux so far. I was thinking about pyQT+opengl. But I feel that is hard to do. No robust and easy-to-use qt+opengl toolkit available from my research. I know a little bit of Blender, that's why I am asking if Blender is an alternative solution. (python is preferred) The image viewer doesn't have to be windowed. It can be full screen, like a game?. I would like to add many cool effects into this application. Hopefully cooler than Cooliris which is written in flash. Thanks a lot.

    Read the article

  • What is the preferred method of device-specific rendering in .net websites?

    - by alimac83
    I'm working on a website using webforms (although I'd be keen to hear how this works with MVC) and I'm trying to figure out the best approach for rendering content for mobile devices. Usually when I'm working on sites that have to be viewed on mobile devices, I use media queries to style the content differently. The problem is that in my current scenario I'm trying to display different content altogether, rather than just changing the layout of existing content. What's the preferred approach for this? I've had a look at 'device specific rendering' on msdn (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hkx121s4.aspx) although I'm not sure if this is a good approach? What are the pros/cons/alternatives? Thank you EDIT: I've found this but it's for use with mvc4, not webforms. EDIT #2: I think I've found what I'm after here but is this a good approach?

    Read the article

  • Make your CHM Help Files show HTML5 and CSS3 content

    - by Rick Strahl
    The HTML Help 1.0 specification aka CHM files, is pretty old. In fact, it's practically ancient as it was introduced in 1997 when Internet Explorer 4 was introduced. Html Help 1.0 is basically a completely HTML based Help system that uses a Help Viewer that internally uses Internet Explorer to render the HTML Help content. Because of its use of the Internet Explorer shell for rendering there were many security issues in the past, which resulted in locking down of the Web Browser control in Windows and also the Help Engine which caused some unfortunate side effects. Even so, CHM continues to be a popular help format because it is very easy to produce content for it, using plain HTML and because it works with many Windows application platforms out of the box. While there have been various attempts to replace CHM help files CHM files still seem to be a popular choice for many applications to display their help systems. The biggest alternative these days is no system based help at all, but links to online documentation. For Windows apps though it's still very common to see CHM help files and there are still a ton of CHM help out there and lots of tools (including our own West Wind Html Help Builder) that produce output for CHM files as well as Web output. Image is Everything and you ain't got it! One problem with the CHM engine is that it's stuck with an ancient Internet Explorer version for rendering. For example if you have help content that uses HTML5 or CSS3 content you might have an HTML Help topic like the following shown here in a full Web Browser instance of Internet Explorer: The page clearly uses some CSS3 features like rounded corners and box shadows that are rendered using plain CSS 3 features. Note that I used Internet Explorer on purpose here to demonstrate that IE9 on Windows 7 can properly render this content using some of the new features of CSS, but the same is true for all other recent versions of the major browsers (FireFox 3.1+, Safari 4.5+, WebKit 9+ etc.). Unfortunately if you take this nice and simple CSS3 content and run it through the HTML Help compiler to produce a CHM file the resulting output on the same machine looks a bit less flashy: All the CSS3 styling is gone and although the page display and functionality still works, but all the extra styling features are gone. This even though I am running this on a Windows 7 machine that has IE9 that should be able to render these CSS features. Bummer. Web Browser Control - perpetually stuck in IE 7 Mode The problem is the Web Browser/Shell Components in Windows. This component is and has been part of Windows for as long as Internet Explorer has been around, but the Web Browser control hasn't kept up with the latest versions of IE. In a nutshell the control is stuck in IE7 rendering mode for engine compatibility reasons by default. However, there is at least one way to fix this explicitly using Registry keys on a per application basis. The key point from that blog article is that you can override the IE rendering engine for a particular executable by setting one (or more) registry flags that tell the Windows Shell which version of the Internet Explorer rendering engine to load. An application that wishes to use a more recent version of Internet Explorer can then register itself during installation for the specific IE version desired and from then on the application will use that version of the Web Browser component. If the application is older than the specified version it falls back to the default version (IE 7 rendering). Forcing CHM files to display with IE9 (or later) Rendering Knowing that we can force the IE usage for a given process it's also possible to affect the CHM rendering by setting same keys on the executable that's hosting the CHM file. What that executable file is depends on the type of application as there are a number of ways that can launch the help engine. hh.exeThe standalone Windows CHM Help Viewer that launches when you launch a CHM from Windows Explorer. You can manually add hh.exe to the registry keys. YourApplication.exeIf you're using .NET or any tool that internally uses the hhControl ActiveX control to launch help content your application is your host. You should add your application's exe to the registry during application startup. foxhhelp9.exeIf you're building a FoxPro application that uses the built-in help features, foxhhelp9.exe is used to actually host the help controls. Make sure to add this executable to the registry. What to set You can configure the Internet Explorer version used for an application in the registry by specifying the executable file name and a value that specifies the IE version desired. There are two different sets of keys for 32 bit and 64 bit applications. 32 bit only or 64 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION Value Key: hh.exe 32 bit on 64 bit machine: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION Value Key: hh.exe Note that it's best to always set both values ideally when you install your application so it works regardless of which platform you run on. The value specified is a DWORD value and the interesting values are decimal 9000 for IE9 rendering mode depending on !DOCTYPE settings or 9999 for IE 9 standards mode always. You can use the same logic for 8000 and 8888 for IE8 and the final value of 7000 for IE7 (one has to wonder what they're going todo for version 10 to perpetuate that pattern). I think 9000 is the value you'd most likely want to use. 9000 means that IE9 will be used for rendering but unless the right doctypes are used (XHTML and HTML5 specifically) IE will still fall back into quirks mode as needed. This should allow existing pages to continue to use the fallback engine while new pages that have the proper HTML doctype set can take advantage of the newest features. Here's an example of how I set the registry keys in my Tarma Installmate registry configuration: Note that I set all three values both under the Software and Wow6432Node keys so that this works regardless of where these EXEs are launched from. Even though all apps are 32 bit apps, the 64 bit (the default one shown selected) key is often used. So, now once I've set the registry key for hh.exe I can now launch my CHM help file from Explorer and see the following CSS3 IE9 rendered display: Summary It sucks that we have to go through all these hoops to get what should be natural behavior for an application to support the latest features available on a system. But it shouldn't be a surprise - the Windows Help team (if there even is such a thing) has not been known for forward looking technologies. It's a pretty big hassle that we have to resort to setting registry keys in order to get the Web Browser control and the internal CHM engine to render itself properly but at least it's possible to make it work after all. Using this technique it's possible to ship an application with a help file and allow your CHM help to display with richer CSS markup and correct rendering using the stricter and more consistent XHTML or HTML5 doctypes. If you provide both Web help and in-application help (and why not if you're building from a single source) you now can side step the issue of your customers asking: Why does my help file look so much shittier than the online help… No more!© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in HTML5  Help  Html Help Builder  Internet Explorer  Windows   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84  | Next Page >