DirectX programming

[screaming]

Anybody out there with any DirectX programming experience willing to give me a hand getting started? I have a project ready to go, but I spent the better half of last weekend and (quite literally) the entire weekend trying to get my sprites, textured triangle lists, and text to display properly. I have a framework in place but it seems I'm still missing some vital information that's just not sinking in.

PM me, shoot me off an email, or IM me.

Thanks!

-Steve.

[screaming]

Why can't I send attachments through a PM?

[Howard_Casto]

I know directx very well, but you haven't really posted enough data for anyone to help you. 

What version of directx?  What coding language are you using to interface with it?  What video card are you using on your test rig (tremendously important if you are coding in dx8 or higher)?


I can help with small things, but in all honesty dx is a hard language to learn and doing just what you are doing (coding stuff for practice) is the best way to learn. 

[Minwah]

Try searching for some tutorials...I used a good one before, but I cannot find it now

[screaming]

Yeah I've been through about 3000 tutorials and I ended up with that screenshot above

Because I like to torture myself, I'm using DirectX9 with the beta version of MDX for .Net 2.0. The API is pretty close to what you'd get with C++ but OO. If I can wrap my head around this then I can be confident that I "understand 3D programming", so that's why I started with this setup.

Actually, I'm pretty close to understanding it.  I just need practice and to fill in a few small gaps (obviously).

That screenshot above is the result of a TransformTextured quad with the h/w set to the dimensions of the bitmap (the blue area with yellow rectangle is actually a bitmap).  For some reason it's coming out deformed and not to 1:1 scale.  Since it's already transformed, no view, projection, or world transformations are applying to it so I don't understand why it's not coming out with the proper dimensions

There are a couple other small things that i don't quite understand yet, but if I can at least get something workkable I think it will just fall in line.

-Steve.

[Minwah]

Graphically, I've only touched on DirectDraw (7 I think)...under VB6...

Typically I started a small game and never finished it.  I did get a bitmap for the background, and had an animated sprite (with transparencies) which you could move with the mouse.  Collision was next...I should really have another go at that.

[screaming]

You should

[Howard_Casto]

Dx9 isn't such a strange choice, but I would stick to a programming language that somebody has actually heard of. 

One of the problems with px9 that you have to keep in mind is that even now, most cards aren't fully dx9 complaint, meaning half of those nifty effects they've added won't render unless they are in software mode. 


I don't know dx9 mostly because I HATE anything .net and that's all it'll run on.  And I can't really help you with syntax because I've never heard of mdx. 

Sorry.

[screaming]

Meh.  MDX = Managed DirectX. "DirectX.NET" if you want to think about it that way.  Give me some D3D (not DD) code in C, C++, or VB and I'll translate it to C# (it's pretty easy, actually).

I have an image on disk that I want to load into a textured quad with the full height and width of the original image (so, basically, a skybar but using a TransformedTexure, because we care about the corners of the screen and the corners of the image matching up.

[Howard_Casto]

Well that's easy enough.

When you use the "loadtexturefromfileex" function, there is an option to send the image data back through a flag defined as a "d3dximage_info" variable type. This variable will give you the height and width, then you simply move your pre transformed poly's verticies based on those dimensions.  Pre-transformed verticies use standard pixel measurements, so its quite easy. 

[BASSOFeeSH]

I don't know dx9 mostly because I HATE anything .net and that's all it'll run on.

DirectX9 does NOT only run on .NET.  That would be performance suicide for Microsoft.

[Howard_Casto]

That's not all it'll run on, but that's all it'll run on easily.  (Open source languages aside as they are all crap and I don't use em.)

[nipsmg]

MDX (Managed DirectX) requires any CLR compliant language.  However, you can still program in directX 9 in unmanaged code using C++.

[rdagger]

I just finished a commercial MDX program.  Microsoft's documentation is pathetic and the books are weak too.  If you go the managed route check out The Z-Buffer.  It is a great source for info and tutorials.