Hello i know how to create a window using directx, but how do i display stuff on that window instead of having a totally white and blank window
Your post is missing a few key details:
What version of DirectX?
Are you using classic Win32 development or UWP?
What language? C++? C#?
If you are new to DirectX, then you should start with DirectX 11. For Win32 classic application development in C++ you can the official Microsoft Docs tutorial mentioned in the comments above. For UWP, see this page instead.
See also this blog post and Microsoft Docs.
You may also want to take a look at the DirectX Tool Kit and these VS templates.
If you are looking to render 'presentation-style' graphics rather than 3D, then you may want to take a look at Direct2D.
I'm new to Xamarin development and feel a little bit strange about how to design the UI interface in Xamarin.Forms (portable/shared).
If I just design the Xamarin Android or the Xamarin iOS, I can get the GUI with drag and drop to finish my UI (like in Windows Forms application) and the code for the UI is automatically generated. But in Xamarin.Forms, this one is not supported (we must use code or xaml). I understand that if we use Xamarin.Forms, the same code apply for both Android or iOS.
However it's a long approach to create the UI. Is it possible in Xamarin to create the UI in Xamarin Android / iOS project and then only do the functionality code in Xamarin.Forms (portable or shared)?
I know this is a common question but it can help many new developers either to choose using Xamarin or not...
There is the Xamarin.Forms XAML Preview for when you are coding in XAML:
But in the end, yes, you are coding events, and data converters, etc... and even with tools like the Interface Builder for iOS, you still have to do all the coding to tie the UI together.
On a personal note: Almost ALL the groups that I have worked with do not use the GUI design tools for any apps that are larger then a screen or two. On iOS we avoid .xib & .storyboard like they are the cause of the black plague.
I understood perfectly your situation. A good start is a Xamarin book that you can download for free for this page https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/xamarin-forms/creating-mobile-apps-xamarin-forms/
If you have been developed with WPF, in Xamarin you have the same concept. A good start is trying example in working apps to understand the structure and the app lifecycle. You can find a collection of examples and code at this link. You can create a form or with XAML or in the code. There are two ways. I advice you to start with XAML and C#.
I advice you to use Portable project and in this way you can share that not just across Xamarin project but with other kind of projects (such as a ASP.NET project).
You can think design Xamarin Forms UI like design Website.
Design website
You knowledge HTML
You need web browser to review
Design Xamarin Forms.
You knowledge XAML
You need Xamarin Previewer to review (Gorilla player, xamarin live player, LiveXaml)
Xamarin.Forms is great, for better understanding of XAML I encourage you to take the time and watch this video (https://evolve.xamarin.com/session/56e201d2bad314273ca4d813) where Charles Petzold goes into detail of how XAML works.
Before Xamarin Studio o Visual Studio had a XAML previewer for Xamarin.Forms I used GorillaPlayer (http://gorillaplayer.com/) is free and works well.
Also take a look in the Xamarin University and Examples.
James Montemagno is a name you must research when talking about Xamarin, he did some really cool and helpfull Xamarin Nuget Packages.
Hope I had pointed you in the right direction.
I understand that you are new to Xamarin.Forms. What I did when I was new to the framework was following a few courses on https://www.xamarin.com/university it is free for 30 days if I'm right (that must be enough to understand the basics). About the previewers I don't have good expierence with them. They are often slow or not working. For me it was often faster to just debug on the phone. Hopefully this will help you a bit.
Even if a nice designor was available, I would still argue that coding by hand is much more efficient : no bad code generated (exemple with constraint : no padding /margin set at the wrong place. No hardcoded size when it's not required etc).
You will have a better understanding and the learning curve is fast.
Back in the days, I started XAML with Silverlight with the amazing Microsoft UI designor : Blend. After few months, I ended up with an architecture that broke the designor (because of dependencies injected in constructor or because the designor struggled to discover controls in external assemblies). It was really painful and I lost a lot of productivity. Few months later, I was fluent with XAML and was even more productive than with a designor.
Nowadays, Visual Studio is snippet friendly for XAML control. I've created a few of them (like a grid with several column row auto, a snippet to generate the ContentPage.Resource with a style, etc).
It's a pain that is worth it.
Moreover you will learn a lot a things and will be more confident in your skills.
Give it a try for few months : you won't regret it !
Last but not least, as other suggest, when building a big app, even in iOS, most developpers I know don't use designor but code everything by hand because of snippet, helpers, extension methods etc.
I am writing a game using xna for wp7 for the first time and finding difficult to implement main menu and managing game state. please provide any tutorials/links.
I searched on SO, found below link but the this link is broken.
http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/game_state_management
Try the Nokia developer site:
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Windows_Phone/Code_examples/
They have some good examples on XNA.
Do you know that you can mix XNA and Silverlight? i.e. Menus can be in Silverlight while your actual game screens can use XNA.
I'm trying to integrate the "inneractive SDK" in an XNA game for WP7.
It should be simple:
InneractiveAd.DisplayAd("MY_APP_ID", InneractiveAd.IaAdType.IaAdType_Banner, ??? , 120);
but i don't know what to put in the "rootGrid" field of type: System.Windows.Control.Grid
someone can help me?
System.Windows.Control.Grid is a Silverlight control, and the ad service you are trying to use is meant for Silverlight Windows Phone apps, not XNA. You can either
Create a Silverlight/XNA project, move your current XNA game into a frame of that project, and place the Ad in another frame; or
Use a more universal Ad control such as this one.
My name is Nirit and I'm a support manager at inneractive.
Our WP7 SDK currently supports Silverlight, the XNA version is not ready yet, but it's indeed on our roadmap.
On Mango, XNA can be combined with Silverlight so in this case, you can use our SDK.
For further information regarding combining XNA and Silverlight projects please check out this link.
In case Silverlight is not an option for you, please try our Server API (M2M protocol).
Our Server API can be found here.
If you have any further questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact me via the "Contact Support" link on your Dashboard.
I recall reading about an application or library that allows to add some functionality to Cocoa apps.
I found it when searching for an application for using mouse gestures in Finder and applications other than browsers, but I didn't pay too much attention to it because I didn't know Objective-C or Cocoa at the time.
Do you have any idea of which one could it be?
Perhaps you're thinking of SIMBL?