Question

I am reletively new to c++ programming can anyone please tell me how does Direct-X SDK is helpful and how does it works and how can we use it in game programming.I Downloaded it and I found lots of header files and documentation also tells something about game programming.

Answer 1

DirectX is a library (a large collection of classes, really) that allows you to “talk” to the video adapter, sound card, keyboard, mouse, joystick, etc. It allows you to do it much more efficiently then other “standard” Windows functions. This is important because games need all the performance gain you can get – and DirectX has plenty to offer in this regard. Especially when it comes to graphics programming, because it has functions that enable you to use the 3D acceleration features of your graphics card. Windows doesn’t have such functions by default.

The DirectX SDK contains:

• Documentation for all the features of DirectX;
• Tutorials in the C++ language to get you started if you don’t know anything;
• Sample applications;
• The necessary .h and .lib files to add DirectX support to your program;
• The debug version of DirectX (I think, I’m not so sure about this one)
• The DirectX redist that you can include with your own programs.

If you’re not up to speed with C++ then starting with DirectX development will be quite difficult, as either of these things has a pretty big learning curve.

Btw – you did download the latest version from Microsoft webpage, not a 5 years old copy from some web guy, right?