Chris Cavanagh, physics modeler extraordinaire, has created a Silverlight based physics modeler. This is a fun sample to play with but I noticed in his blog post that he's using the HtmlTimer. This class is a wrapper on the javascript setInterval method and as such has a relatively low priority for calling back to the user. This is why the class is marked obsolete. The best way to build a high priority timer in the Silverlight v1.1 alpha is to use a XAML animation and hook it’s completed event. The Lumines video player I wrote uses this. I’ve let Chris know about this trick and hopefully he’ll incorporate this. I have a feeling this is the cause of the stuttering he’s seeing. In v1.1 we will be adding a proper timer class to replace the HtmlTimer.
Click the image below to run the sample. More info and a promise of source code can be found in Chris’ blog post.
