faq

what is direct3d?

Direct3D is a subset of DirectX, Microsoft's proprietary (Windows only) API for creating multimedia and gaming applications. The entire DirectX suite allows a programmer to integrate many technologies and features into an application, including: 2D and 3D graphics, sound and music, user input from keyboard, mouse, and joysticks, and network communication for multiplayer games. Direct3D is the subset of DirectX that controls the drawing of 3D graphics.

This website only deals with programming Direct3D. If you're looking for information about DirectX, your best bet is to visit Microsoft's website, http://www.microsoft.com/directx.

why use direct3d?

For those of you have done graphics programming before, you are probably more than well aware of the difficulty involved in putting simple renderings on the screen. (If you think it's easy, you're either living in a fantasy land or you haven't read any of Jim Blinn's books). The overhead involved in developing a graphics pipeline is overwhelming for a single or small group of developers. For this reason, graphics programmers use "abstraction layers" to seperate themselves from the pain of converting what their program thinks should go on the screen to what actually goes out to the video card.

Direct3D is an abstraction layer. When you use Direct3D to draw your 3D graphics, you don't have to worry about what type of video card it's going to be drawn on, you don't have to worry about any limitations of the video card; Direct3D seperates you from the hardware. You're almost guaranteed that if you send your bits to the Direct3D driver on the system that they will be shown properly to the user.

is direct3d programming for me?

If you haven't done any graphics programming before, jumping straight into Direct3D programming might not be for you. In order to really understand (and appreciate) the power of Direct3D you must first have a thorough understanding of the C programming language, but you must also have a fundamental understanding of the mathematics behind computer graphics. A good place to start is Computer Graphics by Hearn and Baker.

how do i get started?

Read the tutorial! :-)