DirectX API Reference: Introduction

Welcome to the official API reference for DirectX. DirectX is a collection of APIs for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms.

This reference provides comprehensive documentation for the various components of DirectX, enabling developers to harness the full power of graphics, audio, and input hardware.

What is DirectX?

DirectX is a set of low-level APIs that provide direct access to graphics and audio hardware, bypassing intermediate layers of the operating system. This allows for significantly higher performance in multimedia applications, particularly games.

Key components of DirectX include:

Direct3D: The core graphics API for rendering 2D and 3D graphics.
Direct2D: A hardware-accelerated, two-dimensional vector graphics API.
DirectWrite: A text rendering API that provides high-quality font and text layout services.
DirectSound: An API for hardware-accelerated sound playback and mixing.
DirectInput: An API for handling input from devices like keyboards, mice, and gamepads.
DirectPlay: (Legacy) An API for network gaming.
DirectShow: (Legacy) A multimedia streaming application programming interface.

Getting Started

To begin developing with DirectX, you'll need to set up your development environment. This typically involves installing the Windows SDK and a compatible C++ compiler (like Visual Studio). Understanding fundamental graphics concepts, such as the graphics pipeline, shaders, and vertex/pixel formats, is also crucial.

Core Concepts

Familiarize yourself with the foundational concepts that underpin DirectX development:

Device and Device Context: The primary interfaces for interacting with the graphics hardware.
Resource Management: Creating and managing buffers, textures, and other data structures on the GPU.
Shaders: Small programs that run on the GPU to perform tasks like transforming vertices and determining pixel colors.
Input Layout: Defining how vertex data is structured and fed to the GPU.

Example: Creating a Direct3D Device

The following snippet illustrates the basic steps to create a Direct3D 11 device:


HRESULT hr = D3D11CreateDevice(
    nullptr,                          // Default adapter
    D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE,         // Use hardware driver
    nullptr,                          // No software rasterizer module
    D3D11_CREATE_DEVICE_DEBUG,        // Debugging flags
    nullptr,                          // Feature level array (use default)
    ARRAYSIZE(featureLevels),         // Number of feature levels
    D3D11_SDK_VERSION,                // SDK version
    &pDevice,                         // Direct3D device
    &featureLevel,                    // Actual feature level created
    &pContext                         // Direct3D device context
);

if (FAILED(hr)) {
    // Handle error
}

API Categories

Explore the different categories of DirectX APIs to find the specific documentation you need:

API Component	Description	Primary Use Case
Direct3D 12	Low-level, high-performance graphics API.	Modern 3D rendering, AAA games.
Direct3D 11	Higher-level graphics API with robust features.	Wide range of 3D applications.
Direct2D	2D vector graphics and text rendering.	UI elements, drawing applications.
DirectWrite	High-quality text layout and rendering.	Displaying text in applications.
DirectSound	Audio playback and effects.	Game audio, multimedia applications.
DirectInput	Game controller and input device handling.	Game input management.

DirectX Documentation