Use DirectWrite from a C# XAML Metro-style app

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Could you provide some guidelines for how to use DirectWrite from a C# XAML-based Metro-style app. I want to create a XAML-based UI, but I also want to write custom text onto the screen effectively.

My guess is that I can create a WinRT component in C++ which access DirectWrite directly, and use that component from the C# project. Is that possible?

I tried to reference a Direct2D project from a C# XAML Metro application, but I couldn't even instantiate the class generated by the Direct2D template (it threw "A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007045A)" exception).

Then I tried to create a WinRT Component DLL project, and then copy paste the code files from the Direct2D project to that, but I wasn't able to get it compile.

Are there fundamental differences between the Direct2D and the WinRT Component DLL project types? Can I access the classes from C# created in the earlier? Can I use Direct2D from the latter?

UPDATE: I found a - somewhat disappointing - answer to a similar question (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-ZA/winappswithcsharp/thread/2d7ab4a7-9248-426e-8b4d-644b451bef7a), but that was before the Consumer Preview. I hope the situation has changed since then.

c#
c++
xaml
windows-runtime
directx
asked on Stack Overflow Mar 8, 2012 by Mark Vincze • edited Mar 24, 2015 by CCovey

2 Answers

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It's a very late answer, but... This DirectX C++/CX wrapper: http://directxwinrt.codeplex.com/ Expose quite a good chunk of D2D (but little of DWrite, ...)

answered on Stack Overflow Feb 17, 2013 by Lloyd Dupont
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Now I found a blog post which answers the part of my question whether this is possible: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/03/01/what-s-changed-since-build-part-1.aspx, so it is possible to mix XAML and DirectX since the Consumer Preview.

Here is a detailed guide how to do that: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/hh825871.aspx. I am going to update this answer if I find out what was wrong with my approach, and how should it properly be done.

answered on Stack Overflow Mar 9, 2012 by Mark Vincze

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