Graphics and Multimedia API Reference

DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI)

DXGI provides the core infrastructure for graphics hardware integration and management on Windows.

• Overview
• Adapters and Outputs
• Swap Chains
• Core DXGI Objects

Key Features: Hardware enumeration, display management, swap chain creation for presenting rendered frames.

IDXGIFactory, IDXGIAdapter, IDXGISwapChain

Direct3D 11

Direct3D 11 is a powerful graphics API for rendering 2D and 3D graphics in real-time.

• Overview
• Device and Context
• Resources (Buffers, Textures)
• Shaders
• Rendering Pipeline

Key Features: Programmable shaders, improved performance, tessellation support, compute shaders.

// Example: Creating a Direct3D 11 Device
HRESULT hr = D3D11CreateDevice(
    NULL,                     // Default adapter
    D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE, // Hardware driver
    NULL,                     // No software rasterizer
    0,                        // Device flags
    featureLevels,            // Feature levels
    numFeatureLevels,         // Number of feature levels
    D3D11_SDK_VERSION,        // SDK version
    &pDevice,                 // Output device
    &featureLevel,            // Output feature level
    &pImmediateContext        // Output immediate context
);
                

Direct2D

Direct2D provides hardware-accelerated 2D graphics rendering with high performance and fidelity.

• Overview
• Device and Context
• Drawing Primitives
• Text Rendering
• Image Manipulation

Key Features: Vector graphics, text, bitmaps, gradients, anti-aliasing.

Media Foundation

Media Foundation is the successor to DirectShow and provides a comprehensive framework for multimedia playback and processing.

• Overview
• Media Sources (Files, Streams)
• Media Sinks (Playback, Recording)
• Media Transforms (Decoders, Encoders, Effects)
• Media Pipeline (Topology)

Key Features: Hardware acceleration, support for modern media formats, extensible architecture.

IMFSourceReader, IMFSinkWriter, IMFTransform

Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI)

WASAPI provides low-latency, high-fidelity audio streaming for professional audio applications.

• Overview
• Audio Clients
• Audio Devices
• Audio Streams

Key Features: Exclusive mode, event-driven audio processing, detailed control over audio streams.

Legacy APIs (DirectShow, GDI)

Information on older graphics and multimedia APIs that may still be relevant or are part of historical context.

• DirectShow
• Graphics Device Interface (GDI)