WARP is a software DirectX 11 implementation for Vista and 7
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg615082.aspx
WPF also supports XP and targets a lower DX version so its software renderer is different.
I’m wondering if anyone can think of a way to get WPF running under WARP for kicks.
In this case WPF would think it’s hardware accelerated but WARP is implementing the DX calls.
WARP allows people to use DirectX technologies (such as Direct2D) without caring if the hardware is not there (like in an RDP session). This is great for business applications that want to take advantage of HW but don’t want to code separate rendering logic for the SW case.
There’s also chance WARP is faster than WPFs internal renderer in some cases.
No, there is not an extensibility point for this. Also, WPF already knows to switch to SW rendering when necessary.