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June 6, 2008
PC

Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 and Deep Zoom Composer Update

As announced earlier this week during the Tech•Ed 2008 Keynote – Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 has been released. Tech•Ed 2008 for Developers is taking place in Orlando this week with Tech•Ed 2008 for IT Professionals starting next week. Check out the Virtual Press Room for Tech•Ed 2008 for the latest announcements.

On top of today’s Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 release comes two new releases also worth taking note of: Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP and an updated build of Deep Zoom Composer for Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 support.

Because of updates made in Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2, I needed to install the updated build of Deep Zoom Composer and re-publish my Space Needle Deep Zoom Collection to take full advantage of today’s Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 release.

Download: Deep Zoom Composer June 2008 Release (Version 0.9.0.3)

Download: Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP

With the new build of Deep Zoom Composer – I was able to choose between JPEG and PNG for the format of my photos within my Deep Zoom Collection. In my updated Space Needle Deep Zoom Collection I went with PNG. However, when you choose JPEG you can set the quality of the JPEG images which is really nice. Another new feature in the new Deep Zoom Composer is the ability to tag images within your Deep Zoom Collection. Apparently there is a way to add sorting by tags for Deep Zoom Collections but this process is fairly code-intensive and I’m not really sure just how to do that – yet.

Deep Zoom Collection*: Top of Space Needle in Seattle, WA (UPDATED)

* Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 is required to view Deep Zoom Collections. If you don’t have Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 installed, it will ask you to install it to view the Deep Zoom Collection.

Using the Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP release I was able to change some of the formatting of my Deep Zoom Collection such as changing the background and the size of the actual Deep Zoom area. Expression Blend 2.5 can open Deep Zoom Projects created by Deem Zoom Composer – allowing for more advanced control over the project.

I plan to have my second Deep Zoom Collection published shortly – and to be quite a bit bigger than my Space Needle Doom Zoom Collection.

Have you created a Doom Zoom Collection? Leave a comment with a link to your Deep Zoom Collection!

Not Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 related – but still Silverlight related – check out the trailer to the upcoming new X-Files move X-Files: I Want to Believe in Silverlight! Thanks Barack for the heads up.