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What is silverlight and what are its benefits
Silverlight is a new platform developed by Microsoft. Its defining feature is the use of XAML and its various visual technologies, including Sketches, Brushes, and Expression Design. This allows it to provide stunning visuals with text-based content in a browser or interactive applications that respond to mouse or touch input. It is also the first cross-platform, next-generation browser application framework, with support for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. However, if you’re thinking of using this for game development, Microsoft does not have a game development platform ready yet. This guide will cover the concepts of Silverlight and what it has to offer for developers focusing on games.
Silverlight is a set of technologies that work together to make 3D rendering, animation and interactivity easy and seamless. If you are trying to create a game or application using graphics, animations, graphics or other interactive elements – Silverlight is all you need. The reason why is because the visual technologies it provides make all the components of your game or application look beautiful and responsive on any platform regardless of what type of device that runs it.
Silverlight is not meant to replace Flash. The fact is, Silverlight was developed as an alternative to it. However, Silverlight has its own purpose which is to make the creation of rich media applications easier and more accessible to the general public. It does this by providing game developers with a set of tools that are easy to use and very accessible for anyone who wants to create games using their mouse or touch-based devices.
There are many features of Silverlight that make it an indispensable tool for game developers. This includes, but is not limited to the following:
– The ability to quickly inherit and blend text, images, graphics and animations into one application.
How to get started with silverlight development
The product development process is as follows: 1. Get the Silverlight product and install it. This can be done by downloading the installer from msdn.com or you may get a CD from Microsoft. If you use the download installer, you’ll need to have Internet Explorer installed on your system with support for .NET Framework. 2. Run through the installation wizard and follow the prompts provided to import Visual Studio projects into Silverlight and create new projects in Visual Studio (or whatever IDE you use). You may also do this using the Silverlight Web Site Project template in Visual Studio 2008. 3. Run the project and review your application in a browser that supports Silverlight, such as Internet Explorer 6 or 7. 4. After you have successfully deployed your application to a browser, you can then add a debugger to your project and start writing code.
Silverlight runs in a browser that supports it, such as Internet Explorer. You can run Silverlight Web Site Project templates in Visual Studio 2008. There are many free and paid templates available on the Internet you can use to build Silverlight applications. You may also use either Visual Studio or Expression Blend to create Silverlight applications. Finally, you can use any other of the many available tools available to build Silverlight applications.
Here are some of the things you need to do:
Silverlight applications and how to create them
A Silverlight application will typically consist of a primary XAML file and a set of supporting files for that file. An example might be an application with a main page and its code-behind, plus some supporting classes and resource files. This is similar to how the Visual Studio solution might work with a set of class libraries and a main project. To run a Silverlight application, you must have a web server running. For a quick example, see the Silverlight tutorial available at http://silverlight.codeplex.com .
If you compile a Silverlight application on the client side, running it is as simple as double-clicking on it or opening it from the desktop. However, to run an application that has been compiled on the server side, for example, using Visual Studio and IIS Express, you must first deploy and configure the required web server software and components.
To deploy a Silverlight application, you must also have at least one ClientTargetingMime.xml file installed on the server. This file is a plain text file that contains an XML document that describes how the HTML/ASPX files will be converted by the Silverlight plug-in into Silverlight applications. A ClientTargetingMime.xml file is created by using the Silverlight MIME Type Editor tool, available from http://www.silverlight.net . For example:
Using silverlight with other technologies, such as html5 and css3
If you want to use Silverlight with HTML5 and CSS3, you can do so. Simply upload a Silverlight application to your website, add an HTML page that loads the Silverlight controls and registers them with the browser, and then write your HTML5 and CSS3 code. You can also use JavaScript to customize the Silverlight controls, as well as to respond to mouse and touch events.
Given that, the first question that often comes up is “how do I create a link to my Silverlight application?”
For those using C#, VB.NET or XAML, it’s easy: inside your HTML page’s
Any browser that supports HTML5 and CSS3 can then download and run the Silverlight application. (In fact, this is called “installing” the XAP file. The XAP file can actually be downloaded by a browser with no Silverlight support, but it won’t run.)
