DirectX: A Brief Overview
Transcript of DirectX: A Brief Overview
DirectX:A Brief Overview
Daniel D’Agostino
Example: Far Cry 2
Example: Crysis
Example: Assassin’s Creed
What is DirectX?
Direct3D and D3DX DirectInput and XInput Direct2D DirectSetup XACT, XAudio2,
X3DAudio, XAPO, XAPOFX
Deprecated APIs– DirectSound– DirectPlay– DirectMusic– DirectShow– DirectDraw
What can be done with DirectX?
Games Simulation software Terrain editors Media players … and so on
Why DirectX?
Direct3D: performance– Win32 GDI is slow– Rendering requirements– Abusing the Windows message loop
DirectInput– Background application input retrieval– Support for any device, as well as force feedback– Action mapping
Direct3D
Object Space World Space View Space Screen Space
World Matrix View Matrix Projection Matrix
DirectX Alternatives: OpenGL
OpenGL– Graphics only– Platform-independent– C-based– Not as popular as
Direct3D
Direct3D– Part of DirectX– Microsoft only– COM (C++) –based– More popular in game
industry
DirectX Alternatives: XNA
DirectX– Professionals– Low-level– C++ or managed .NET
language
XNA– Hobbyists, students– High-level– C# - slower
Summary
DirectX is a set of low-level APIs for high-performance multimedia
Mostly used in game development Needed mainly for performance reasons Direct3D allows manipulation of 3D geometry Comparable to OpenGL and XNA
Resources
Toymaker by Keith Ditchburn – game industry veteran and lecturer on games programming at Teesside University
– http://www.toymaker.info/ DirectX Developer Center
– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/default.aspx DirectX SDK Documentation:
– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa139818.aspx
Questions
Ask away… …or contact me at your leisure using:
dandago at gmail dot com