Microsoft has released the complete version of Silverlight 5, the company's latest version of its rich Web application framework. This update was first revealed nearly one year ago at Microsoft's Firestarter developer event.
Microsoft pushed out the final release on Friday, just about four months after the first release candidate, and included with it the ninth version of the Silverlight Toolkit.
Like Google is doing with Native Client advancements in Chrome, Microsoft's latest release of the Silverlight Toolkit focuses on functionality that is especially relevant to games developers.
In this version, existing 3D assets in the .xnb format can be ported seamlessly from XNA Game Studio to Silverlight 5, there are new Visual Studio templates for 3D Applications, Libraries and Effects, and new tech samples for bloom, generated geometry, particles/smoke, skinning, and simple animation.
