Silverlight 5 Beta
Silverlight 5 Beta availability just announced by ScottGu!
To try the beta follow this link and download the tools. Optionally download Blend 4 for Silverlight 5 preview from this location.
Note: to install Silverlight 5 Beta you need to updated your Visual Studio 2010 with SP1.
The major improvements in Silverlight 5 are:
- Hardware Decode and presentation of H.264 encoded videos
- Improves performance for lower-power devices to render high-definition video using GPU support
- (Long awaited) TrickPlay - allows video to be played at different speeds and supports fast-forward and rewind
- Note: the audio pitch does not changed in this version
- Multicolumn text and linked text container
- enables text to flow around other elements
- Text characters tracking and leading
- Controls precisely how far apart each character is for full creative control
- Debugging XAML databinding (!!!)
- Allows breakpoints to be set on a binding expression and see the values at runtime
- Implicit DataTemplates
- Allows templates to be created across an application to support a particular type by default
- Databinding support for RelativeSource and ancestor search (much like in WPF)
- Binding in style setters
- Enables the databinding to be used within styles to reference other properties
- Markup extensions
- Allow code to be run at XAML parse time for both properties and event handlers
- Note: Unlike WPF, Silverlight supports only named parameters in custom markup extensions
- 3D API
- GPU accelerated
- Immediate mode graphics, pretty similar to XNA
- Full keyboard support in full screen scenarios
- Multiple child windows support
- In elevated out-of-browser mode only
Stay tuned for more info!
Alex