Weathr, a 3D Weather App now on CodePlex

January 2nd, 2014

Welcome to 2014. May all your C++ code run perfectly!

Thomas Petchel wanted really to explore the intersection among C++, DirectX, and XAML in the context of a Windows Store app. The result? Weathr, a 3D weather app for windows 8.1.

It is a smooth, responsive app that shows weather information for different locations. To run it, you need Windows 8.1, Visual Studio 2013 (grab Visual Studio Express 2013), a Bing Maps API key (grab a trial key) and a World Weather Online API Key (grab a trial key). Open Visual Studio and add your keys to ServiceKeys.h and you are good to go.

The app includes full source code and technical documentation. It demonstrates several things including:

Using the C++ REST SDK to connect to the weather and Bing Maps services.

to connect to the weather and Bing Maps services. Throttling HTTP requests to limit the number of requests made per second.

Using app bars to browse the 5 day forecast and perform interesting commands.

Using GestureRecognizer to read input events for manipulating the globe.

to read input events for manipulating the globe. Using Semantic Zoom to enable fast navigation.

Check it out!