Creating a semi-transparent blurred background WPF

Question

Hi guys,

I have a border, i want the background of this border to be partially transparent (opacity 0.8) but i do not want the image behind it to be well defined. The effect i am after is similar to the Windows Vista window border effect, where you can see that something is behind it but you cant tell what it is.

A few clarifications:
I am working on Windows XP, so i cant use Vista Glass
I need this solution to be portable across any windows platform

Any help would be appreciated :)

Answer 1

This is the best I could find on the net:

http://blogs.msdn.com/unnir/archive/2006/03/01/541154.aspx

Considering the above is by a Microsoft guy, you'd be hard pressed to find a better way to do it.

It does a simple transparency on the window, so not quite like Aero glass. Aero effect is hardware accelerated and most certainly uses Direct3D in some way.

This SO answer talks about it in some detail:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/484130/is-it-possible-to-achieve-the-aero-glass-look-on-xp/484274#484274

Answer 2

In Silverlight there is a Blur effect (http://www.silverlightshow.net/tips/Using-Blur-and-DropShadow-effects-in-Silverlight-3.aspx) should also be available for WPF (http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid8_gci1377157,00.html) you can apply to controls. Maybe combining this with opacity would help you achive the desired goal?

Answer 3

What about this http://blog.wpfwonderland.com/2010/03/23/use-the-wpf-blur-effect-to-focus-attention/#comments? A simple way to bkur the background.