Silverlight 3.0 - can't upgrade Runtime without DevTools?

Silverlight 3.0 has been RTW (Released To Web), so I rushed straight to Silverlight.net to install it. Because I'm a Silverlight developer, I already have Silverlight 2.0 and the Silverlight 2.0 Tools for Visual Studio installed (of course).

Silverlight.net immediately notices I'm "out of date" and suggests I install the latest version.


After the quick 4Mb download, the installation seems to be going well...


...until... oops, I can't upgrade the Runtime in browser if the Visual Studio developer tools are out-of-date (ie. for 2.0)??


I'll just click 'more information' to read more - oh wait, 404


At the moment it seems like you'll have to install the full Silverlight 3.0 Developer Tools just to view Silverlight 3.0 content (if you were previously developing for Silverlight 2.0).

Only problem is, Silverlight 3 Release Notes says

Silverlight 2 projects cannot be created with the Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008. To create Silveright 2 projects, uninstall the Silverlight 3 runtime and the Silverlight 3 Tools from Add or Remove Programs and re-install the Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008.

I'm not sure I want to force all my users to upgrade to Silverlight 3.0 right now - I don't wany my website to be the one that forces a 4Mb download until I really need it (ie. I start using 3.0 features). So... to keep developing on 2.0 (for now), I can't even view Silverlight 3.0 content?

Please - tell me I'm wrong and that I've missed something?

UPDATE: Thankfully, in a VirtualPC set aside for SL3.0, the tools happily uninstalled previous versions and enabled me to open, recompile and deploy my 3.0 beta stuff...

Here are some beta samples updated for RTW

• Maps That Bend Upwards


• PlaneProjection with DeepZoom tiles


• Bing Maps Control with PlaneProjection


• OutOfBrowser DeepZoom Tile Viewer - breaking change: remove the Deployment.ApplicationIdentity element from AppManifest.xml and use the right-click+Properties to setup Out-of-Browser (creates a new OutOfBrowserSettings.xml file you)

Silverlight "Maps That Bend Upwards"

I was inspired today by HERE & THERE's horizonless projection of Manhattan (via The Map Room: Maps that Bend Upwards).

Using Silverlight 3.0 beta and it's new PlaneProjection feature, I have hooked up three Silverlight Map Controls with different values for RotationX, GlobalOffsetY (vertical displacement) and GlobalOffsetZ (in/out of the page) to create a very crude 'interactive' version of their horizonless-map.

If you have Silverlight 3.0 beta installed, you can try out the Silverlight Virtual Earth Maps That Bend Upwards OR if you don't have the beta installed, you can watch a screencast.


[try it] [watch it]

I've noticed a little bit of weird behaviour on loading (sometimes the 'initial' map of New York doesn't load completely sync'd in all three panels), but after that it seems to work OK - it's just for fun after all.

Silverlight 3.0 PlaneProjection (with DeepZoom)

I previously built a rather gratuitous PlaneProjection demo flipping around a Silverlight Map Control. A slightly more useful (or at least interesting) use of Silverlight 3.0 PlaneProjection is this Deep Zoom 'tile pyramid visualizer'...


[fullsize image] [try it out]

Rather than just play around with the RotationX and RotationY properties,

• GlobalOffsetZ is used to 'push back' the larger images to sit 'behind' the smaller, foremost image
• CenterOfRotation is set to GlobalOffsetZ * -1 so that all the images rotate around the same point
• RotationY is then used to rotate them all together

Here are some diagrams to explain what that all means:

Firstly, each 'layer' in a Deep Zoom image is double the the size of the previous one (height/width) so when they three layers are rendered on top of each other, you can clearly see the size differences:


However when we apply the PlaneProjection to move the larger images along the Z axis (ie. in/out of the page) we can create the effect that all three images are the 'same size'.

Altering the PlaneProjection attributes listed about let's us zoom and rotate the pyramid to get a totally useless but kinda cool looking view of a Deep Zoom tile pyramid...

UPDATE: For those without Silverlight 3.0 installed, I've recorded (my first!) screencast demo (sorry it's in Flash - something to figure out another time...)

Silverlight VirtualEarth Map Control - in "3D"

Further to my previous post on the Silverlight VirtualEarth Map Control - here it is in Silverlight 3.0 WARNING: will prompt to install Silverlight 3.0 - which is in BETA - do so at your own risk!


The animation and map styles (road|arial) work as you'd expect, but somehow it looks a lot cooler with this little bit of code added :-)

<Canvas.Projection>
<PlaneProjection RotationX="-60" />
</Canvas.Projection>

BTW, it seems to me like addition of 3D Projection (rather than a complete 3D environment, ala Kit3D and WPF) is the minimum they needed to add to get Photosynth working "natively" in Silverlight (instead of the current Silverlight-Photosynth beta which does use Kit3D)? ... hmmm ...