How to draw a drop-shadow on a transparent rectangle?

Question

When I add a dropshadow bitmap effect to a rectangle, the dropshadow takes into account the transparency of the rectangle (makes sense). Is there a way to render a dropshado

Answer 1

I'd love to see better solution, but here is what I usually do (beware: creepy code ahead).

Wrap rectangle to three-four rectangles, and play with stroke color, making it darker and darker as it goes to original rectangle. Here is the code:

This gives you:

alt text http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7664/shadowo.jpg

Another approach would be with borders - it's better because you don't have to specify dimensions, when you put them inside Grid.

And the best approach (never seen implemented though): custom pixel shader, which makes what you want.