Where to start working with 3D on .NET

Question

So I'm looking for a some API or .NET Engine to Develop animations and hard 3D applications using models from Blender or 3DMax...

I really confused where can I get my start with 3D Programming. Have no experience of 3D programming yet.

I think I need some good 3D engine and some docs there but maybe I wrong.

Answer 1

Just to make it clear, you probably won't start with Microsoft. DirectX Managed is unsupported. XNA is blocked at DirectX 9 (because of the Xbox).

You will need to download the SlimDX framework and its samples and start from there if you wish to make use of DX 10 or 11.

http://slimdx.org/

Unfortunately there is little information and the samples don't help much. But the concept is the same as programming DirectX10 or 11 code just in C# flavour. So you may start with msdn:

DX9: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219839(v=vs.85).aspx

DX10: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb205147(v=vs.85).aspx

DX 11: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff476147(v=vs.85).aspx

Answer 2

You probably want to take a look at XNA. While it is a game development framework, it helps significantly with the loading and rendering of 3D models etc. It can also be integrated into a standard WinForms application.