DirectX Fundamentals
DirectX is a collection of APIs for multimedia programming, developed by Microsoft. It provides a set of functions for rendering 2D and 3D graphics, playing audio, and video.
Key Concepts
Here are some of the core concepts of DirectX:
- Graphics Pipelines: DirectX utilizes rendering pipelines to transform geometric data into pixel data, which is then displayed on the screen.
- Direct3D: The primary API for 3D graphics rendering.
- DirectInput: Provides access to input devices such as keyboards, mice, and gamepads.
- DirectDraw: An older API for 2D graphics rendering.
- Shaders: Small programs that run on the GPU to determine how vertices and pixels are rendered.
Rendering Stages
The rendering pipeline is divided into stages, each responsible for a specific task. Understanding these stages is critical to optimizing your DirectX applications.
- Vertex Stage: This stage transforms vertex data from object space to screen space.
- Primitive Stage: This stage draws primitives (e.g., triangles) based on the transformed vertex data.
- Pixel Stage: This stage performs pixel shading and lighting calculations.