Where Is DrawingBrush In Windows Metro for XAML - wpf

Im writing a Windows Metro XAML based app in C#, and I want to draw grid lines with a brush on my custom grid control.
In WPF I would create a DrawingBrush to do the job, but there seems to be no equivalent in Metro ???
Does anyone know if this feature exists under another name, or that you achieve the same result differently ?
As an additional note, I do not want to draw lines etc directly on my grid (adding lines to my panel's children collection), It really needs to be done via the background property - i.e a brush.
Thanks

WinRT-XAML stack is closer to Silverlight - also in its limited graphics features when compared with Silverlight. The only TileBrush for WinRT apps is the ImageBrush, so you would need to save your drawing as an image first. You can't do that with the XAML stack either though - because there is no drawing class and WriteableBitmap has no Render() method. On the other hand - you can access DirectX for any more advanced features and combine some DirectX code with your XAML.

Related

WPF WindowsFormsHost creates fuzzy text

I am hosting a winforms DataGridView inside a WindowsFormsHost on a WPF Window. Functionality is fine, but the text in the grid cells looks a little more fuzzy. Normally WinForms text has very little antialiasing.
How can I get the DataGridView text to look as it normally would on a Windows Form, or at least be sharper? I have tried playing with the TextOptions.TextFormattingModeand SnapsToDevicePixelssettings of the WindowsFormsHost, but don't see any difference.
As an example of what I mean here are two screenshots:
Datagridview inside a WPF WindowsFormsHost:
DataGridView in Windows Forms:
The appearance of hosted WinForms/Win32 content should not be affected by WPF. There is an "airspace" limitation that dictates that a single window pixel can only be owned by a single graphics API, and it can only be drawn by that API. Hence, WinForms content is drawn by WinForms/GDI+, even when hosted by WPF. This explains why hosted content will be drawn on top of any WPF content in the same window, even if the WPF content is positioned in front of it.
Changing WPF rendering properties like TextFormattingMode cannot affect the appearance of interop content. You should be looking at the layout/rendering properties of the hosted WinForms content.
Update
Presumably the fuzzy effect is do to WPF defaulting to grayscale AA for the DataGridView. In the Paint and/or CellPainting events of the DataGridView, setting the graphics text hint to cleartype:
e.Graphics.TextRenderingHint = Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.ClearTypeGridFit
eliminated most of the fuzziness.

Image Control disapear after it's dragged in Design

I'm a WPF newbie and, unlike WinForms, I have a hard time to setup things in the design window.
My first obstacle is the Image control. After I drag it in the Design window it disappears and there's no way for me to edit its properties (like with the button control for example). The only way to make changes is via the XAML code which isn't very visual and intuitive.
Is there a way to keep editing the Image control in design mode? (example, move it around, select it to view its property panel, etc.)
All you should need to do is give the image control a fixed height and width and it should stay in the designer.
The best thing about the XAML is which separated from code for better re usability like asp.net. It's best you to learn different layouts such as grid, wrappanel, stackpanel etc. Then, you will feel the power of xaml. Else, you can choose the XAML building tools.
Link to refer

Is there a way to make a winforms usercontrol in a WindowsFormsHost larger?

I have a few usercontrols from an old Windows CE project that I'd like to have in a WPF window, so I've copied the code/design over to the WPF project and dropped the usercontrol into a WindowFormsHost object. It appears to work fine, but the control looks rather small and I'd like to make it bigger. I tried a viewbox but this doesn't actually make it larger (which I kind of expected since it's based around the vector based WPF system). Does anyone know if any way to make a Winforms usercontrol larger in this setting?
Unless the Winforms control(s) use docking or anchoring so they resize with the container there is no easy way to do this.
Perhaps you could change the code of the Winforms controls so they do dock and/or anchor. But even when you do this, fonts will not size along.

Controls to use for Video Stream?

I currently have LibVLC setup with a C# project and it uses a Panel to output the video stream. As WPF is better suited for some GUI options I want to implement, I have now switched my project over to it. However, I noticed that WPF Controls don't have handles like C# controls do.
I have found these...
http://wpfmediakit.codeplex.com/
http://videorendererelement.codeplex.com
However I am new to WPF and have no idea how to actually integrate them. What would be the best approach to output the video streams from LibVlC in WPF?
I managed to resolve this by using a WindowsFormsHost control and just use a Panel as I was doing previously in my Win Forms application. Still seems that using something else native to WPF would be preferable, but for now this is working fine.
I'm afraid that's not possible...
Since WPF controls are not Win32 controls behind the scenes (the MS specific HWND or the more general HANDLE), like most WinForms controls are, providing a HANDLE to libvlc for rendering is not possible or not easy.
See here
All WPF elements on the screen are ultimately backed by a HWND. When you create a WPF Window, WPF creates a top-level HWND, and uses an HwndSource to put the Window and its WPF content inside the HWND. The rest of your WPF content in the application shares that singular HWND. An exception is menus, combo box drop downs, and other pop-ups. These elements create their own top-level window, which is why a WPF menu can potentially go past the edge of the window HWND that contains it.
You could try to use a Window and attempt to get its Handle like this:
IntPtr windowHandle = new WindowInteropHelper(windowInstance).Handle
Then pass this handle to libvlc. Remember to obtain this handle no sooner than inside the Loaded event of the window, see here
But this will limit you to using a top level Window control, which doesn't seem to be what you want.

How can I style the border and title bar of a window in WPF? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to create custom window chrome in wpf?
(5 answers)
Closed 6 months ago.
We are developing a WPF application which uses Telerik's suite of controls and everything works and looks fine. Unfortunately, we recently needed to replace the base class of all our dialogs, changing RadWindow by the standard WPF window (reason is irrelevant to this discussion). In doing so, we ended up having an application which still looked pretty on all developer's computers (Windows 7 with Aero enabled) but was ugly when used in our client's environment (Terminal Services under Windows Server 2008 R2).
Telerik's RadWindow is a standard user control that mimicks a dialog's behaviour so styling it was not an issue. With WPF's Window though, I have a hard time changing its "border". What I mean by "border" here is both the title bar with the icon and the 3 standard buttons (Minimize, Maximize/Restore, Close) and the resize grip around the window.
How can I change the looks of these items:
Title bar color
3 standard buttons
Window's real border color
With round corners if possible.
Those are "non-client" areas and are controlled by Windows. Here is the MSDN docs on the subject (the pertinent info is at the top).
Basically, you set your Window's WindowStyle="None", then build your own window interface. (similar question on SO)
You need to set
WindowStyle="None", AllowsTransparency="True" and optionally ResizeMode="NoResize"
and then set the Style property of the window to your custom window style, where you design the appearance of the window (title bar, buttons, border) to anything you want and display the window contents in a ContentPresenter.
This seems to be a good article on how you can achieve this, but there are many other articles on the internet.
I found a more straight forward solution from #DK comment in this question, the solution is written by Alex and described here with source,
To make customized window:
download the sample project here
edit the generic.xaml file to customize the layout.
enjoy :).
Such statements as “you can't because only Windows can control the non-client area” are not quite true — Windows lets you specify the dimensions of the non–client area.
The downside is this is only possible by calling Windows' kernel methods, and since you're in .NET, which is not native code, you'll need P/Invoke. (Remember, the whole of the Windows Form UI and console application I/O methods are offered as wrappers that make system calls under the hood.) Hence, as documented in MSDN, it is completely possible to use P/Invoke to access those methods that are needed to set up the non–client area.
Update: Simpler than ever!
As of .NET 4.5, you can just use the WindowChrome class to adjust the non-client area. Get started here and here, a guide to changing the window border dimensions. By setting it to 0, you'll be able to implement your custom window border in place of the system's one.
I suggest you to start from an existing solution and customize it to fit your needs, that's better than starting from scratch!
I was looking for the same thing and I fall on this open source solution, I hope it will help.

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