DirectX: A Brief Overview

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DirectXA Brief Overview

• Daniel DAgostino

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Example Far Cry 2
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Example Crysis
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Example Assassins Creed
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What is DirectX?

• Direct3D and D3DX
• DirectInput and XInput
• Direct2D
• DirectSetup
• XACT, XAudio2, X3DAudio, XAPO, XAPOFX

• Deprecated APIs
• DirectSound
• DirectPlay
• DirectMusic
• DirectShow
• DirectDraw

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What can be done with DirectX?

• Games
• Simulation software
• Terrain editors
• Media players
• and so on

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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

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Direct3D
World Matrix
View Matrix
Projection Matrix
Object Space
World Space
View Space
Screen Space
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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

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DirectX Alternatives XNA

• DirectX
• Professionals
• Low-level
• C or managed .NET language

• XNA
• Hobbyists, students
• High-level
• C - slower

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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

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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.as
  px
• DirectX SDK Documentation
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa139818.a
  spx

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Questions

• Ask away
• or contact me at your leisure using dandago at
  gmail dot com