What do I need in order to display 3D content on my page?

You need to put SilverMotion component on your XAML page and set a .3DS file, exported directly from a 3D modelling environment (Blender, 3DS Max, Maya, MilkShape and etc.) into it. That's it. The scene will be rendered and ready to be interacted with.

How are resources loaded into the SilverMotion web environment?

Resources are fully automatically loaded when a scene is imported. That means you only have to indicate the name of the scene (for example "Resources/MyScene.3ds" or "http://mysite.com/my_scene.3ds") and all models, materials, textures, lights and cameras will be automatically imported and set inside of the SilverMotion component, and immediately displayed on the screen.

Do users need any additional plugins in order to view SilverMotion content?

No. The only thing necessary to view SilverMotion content from anywhere is Microsoft Silverlight. No additional plugins of any kind, no flash and no java required.

Does the rendering appearance, quality or functionality depend on the user's GPU hardware?

No. SilverMotion renders entirely in software and does not rely on any third-party engineering solutions.

Does SilverMotion take advantage of Multi-core CPUs?

Yes, it does.

What framerate can SilverMotion achieve?

As with all 3D rendering engines, this is highly dependable on the rendering resolution, scene geometry complexity, shading and lighting AND, of course, on the CPU speed and the number of cores. See the Demo page.

Do I need to be aware of any shading language in order to customly use SilverMotion's shaders?

No. Shading in SilverMotion is facilitated by its innovative and extremely easy to use shading system called StackShading. In order to create a shader, be it vertex or pixel shader, you only need to call a single method with two simple parameters. Then you can choose to elaborate the shader by calling this same method again with some other set of parameters to add more shading functionality.
For example, with a single call you can make a BumpMapping pixel-shading. With a second call you can add TextureMapping. With a third you can add, for example reflections and so on.

Does SilverMotion support dynamic lighting?

Yes. What's more, SilverMotion facilitates scene lighting with its Unified Dynamic Lighting system, which provides unlimited dynamic lights count and unifies vertex and pixel lighting. In other words, you don't have to worry for vertex lighting and pixel lighting separately, because in SilverMotion they are the very same thing and are computed in real time.

How many dynamic lights can I have simultaneously in SilverMotion?

As much as you want. SilverMotions's Unified Dynamic Lighting system provides unlimited number of simultaneously active dynamic lights in the scene.

How about cameras?

Cameras in SilverMotion are fully functional entities. A camera can be placed anywhere in the scene and can be pointed at any location. It has freely adjustable screen aspect ratio, Field Of View and Lens focal distance and can be choosen to project with perspective or orhographically. Of course, all these parameters are adjustable in real time. Also, you can have as much cameras in the scene as you want and switch between them.

Do textures require to be order of 2 sized, as they do in most 3D engines?

No. SilverMotion supports textures of any size.

Dоеs SilverМotion support alpha channel in textures?

Yes, however it must be used in a corresponding shader that utilizes that alpha and more precisely, a shader with sitable color operation sequence.

Does SilverMotion support realtime texture filtering?

Yes. By default SilverMotion does bilinear texture filtering but the type of filtering can be switched any time.

Does SilverMotion support keyframe animation?

Yes, it does.

Does SilverMotion support smooth groups?

Yes, it does.

How can I order a 3d model?

3D Modelling is a service we provide especially for SilverMotion clients. If you are such client, you can order it in the 3D Modelling service page. There are suggested some possible ways for specifying the model(s) you want to be created for you.

Can a scene be manually modified during runtime?

Yes, the whole scene can be modified at runtime by code and additional entities can also be created.