Intro
Windows 8.1 (BETA) Introduction
The core of the BA3 Altus Mapping Engine for Windows 8.1 (BETA) is the same high-performance native technology that we have delivered on iOS, OSX, and Android. It is built from the same code-base as these other platforms and is binary compatible with terrain, raster, vector, and marker maps produced by METool. Altus for Windows 8.1 is provided as a XAML control with a set of functions similar to our iOS and Android releases.
BETA Notes
Windows 8.1 x86 Store Apps only: Presently, Altus is targeted at Windows 8.1 x86 Store (Metro) applications. If you desire to use Altus for a Windows 8 Store application, a different architecture, or a traditional Windows Desktop application, please let us know. We are happy to work with enterprise customers on porting the engine to desired platforms and we will prioritize the work on a case-by-case basis.
Partial API: In its beta form, this managed Altus API for .NET is not fully fleshed out. Some functions that are present on iOS and Android will be provided in a future release. These will mostly be concerned with more advanced features like low-level camera tracking and resource management. If you are a developer using our iOS or Android releases and desire a certain API on Windows 8, let us know and we’ll prioritize it accordingly.
WARP fallback: If not run on a D3D10 or higher graphics device, Altus will fallback to using the WARP software rasterizer. The Windows Store conformance test application will attempt to run your application using a faux-D3D 9.1 device. During that test, Altus will be rendering using WARP and should pass the conformance test.
High-DPI support: In the current release, render targets are scaled according to the logical size of the XAML SwapChainPanel-derived control, not to the physical pixel dimensions of the control. This means that on high-dpi monitors, Altus will actually render at a lower resolution than expected in some cases. This is a known issue, but one we have consciously shipped with in order to get the beta into customer hands in Q1.
Pre-Requisites
- Windows 8.1 (32 or 64-bit)
- Visual Studio 2013 (Express, Professional, Premium, or Ultimate)
Microsoft provides Visual Studio 2013 90-day trial versions here: http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs and Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows here: http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs#d-express-windows-8
You can learn more about the Altus Mapping Engine classes used in this tutorial in the Documentation. If you have any questions about the Altus Mapping Engine, any feature requests or suggestions for improving the Altus Mapping Engine, please send them to [email protected].