Controlling caching of BitMapImage under WinRT

By default Bitmap Images are cached by WinRT with no intervention required by the developer.  Often times this is a good thing but there are some occasions where this is undesirable.  Although there doesn’t appear to be any obvious control in the API reference I have found that adding a dummy querystring to the BitMapImage source filename reference does the trick and also can offer precise control over the length of caching required (if any) .

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Walkthrough: using Windows 8 Custom Protocol Activation

Protocol activation, what is it? Well, when you run “http:{something}” you expect a browser to launch, right? When you type “mailto:{something}” you expect a mail client to launch, right? What if you could create “custom:{something}” that launched your app? That’s custom protocol activation!

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Creating your own file format to import .FBX, .OBJ and .X in your Windows 8 modern UI game (or 3D engine)

There is a lot of different file format when it comes to 3D objects. One of the most used is the FBX from Autodesk. This file format can be exported by all major DCC but the key point is that it can be complex for a game or 3D developer to open such file format.

I would like to propose here a solution that can allows you to easily offline files importation. The idea is to simulate a MSBuild execution to reuse the importation process of the XNA pipeline.

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The Windows Store App Lifecycle

Windows 8 is changing how and when applications run, and you’ll want to understand the nuances of the new application lifecycle so you can build apps that respond as they should at every point. Apps that conform to the Microsoft lifecycle management guidelines offer a better experience for the user, especially on small devices where memory and battery conservation are warranted.

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Using the MVVM Pattern in Windows 8

Any programmer with previous experience in any of the XAML-based frameworks has probably at least heard of the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern. Some have been using it extensively in all of their Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Silverlight or Windows Phone applications. Others have avoided it, either because they misunderstand what the pattern does, exactly, or because they don’t want to add what they see as a new level of complexity to their application.

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Asynchronous Programming with Async and Await (C# and Visual Basic)

You can avoid performance bottlenecks and enhance the overall responsiveness of your application by using asynchronous programming. However, traditional techniques for writing asynchronous applications can be complicated, making them difficult to write, debug, and maintain.

Visual Studio 2012 introduces a simplified approach, async programming, that leverages asynchronous support in the .NET Framework 4.5 and the Windows Runtime. The compiler does the difficult work that the developer used to do, and your application retains a logical structure that resembles synchronous code. As a result, you get all the advantages of asynchronous programming with a fraction of the effort.

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