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I’ve been working on a small little application, and I’ve been using DirectX/3D to draw textures to the screen (all 2-dimensional elements). The API, I find, is pretty easy to use and to incorporate using OOP principles, but I can’t help but feel that using DirectX on something this small is insanely over-kill.
I can’t seem to find consensus on a good alternative, though. Any suggestions?
EDIT: Native alpha-blending and PNG file support is necessary.
With much first-post love,
Jengerer
If you need alpha blending you have to use the graphics hardware; the only good way to do that is to use a 3D API similar to how you’re doing it now (DirectX or OpenGL). Any alternative (GDI/+ or say, DirectDraw) will not use the full graphics hardware for accelerating blending and will have to perform it on the CPU, greatly reducing performance.
As mentioned, Direct2D is an option also–it is functionally a layer on top of Direct3D that supports more 2D specific functionality as well as excellent text support.