[...]... Jones’s Beginning DirectX 10 Game Programming book In this book, we teach you the basics of getting started with game graphics using the latest iteration of Direct3D: Direct3D 11 The goal of this book is to teach you the various aspects of DirectX 11 The target audience for this text is beginning/ intermediate C++ programmers with little to no experience with DirectX Although past DirectX or OpenGL... compatibility with DirectX 11 first, and then for DirectX 10.1 and 10.0 if support for 11 isn’t there Even if the application does choose DirectX 10.1 or 10.0, the same API calls apply, and as long as we are using Shader Model 4.0 and features not required by DirectX 11, the application will work just fine on that hardware If you do not have DirectX 11. 0 hardware it’s OK, since DirectX 10.0 hardware... for Game Definition File Editor: Tool Tutorial.” Down-Level Hardware DirectX 11 supports a concept known as down-level hardware When DirectX 10 and Windows Vista were released, they were built for a new driver model and hardware Although DirectX 11 is its own version, it has the ability to target the 21 22 Chapter 1 n The What, Why, and How of DirectX Figure 1.6 The Game Definition File Editor DirectX. .. different sets of PC hardware Since DirectX s release, the number of games running under Windows has increased dramatically This is still true almost 15 years later In this chapter: n Understanding what DirectX is n Why DirectX is useful n How data flows through the Direct3D 11 pipeline n What’s new for Direct3D 11 What Is DirectX? DirectX, Microsoft’s collection of application programming interfaces (APIs),... The What, Why, and How of DirectX only made possible through inefficient and often poor-quality tricks and approximations Of course what is considered an easy effect to one person depends on his experience level The leap from DirectX 9 to DirectX 10 was a huge one DirectX 10 went through two iterations as the market’s acceptance caught up DirectX 11 versus DirectX 10 Direct3D 11 builds upon Direct3D... Vista or a Windows 7 PC Game Definition File Editor The Game Definition File Editor is used to create localized game definition files for Windows Vista and Windows 7 The information for a game definition file is displayed on the Games Explorer, which was discussed during the section titled DirectX Tools Figure 1.5 The Cross-Platform Audio Creation tool “The Components of DirectX 11. ” A screenshot of the... alone; sites like UltimateGameProgramming.com, GameDev.net, and Microsoft’s MSDN are great places to find help Like many things in life, the best way to learn is to do it again and again until you’ve mastered the craft Chapter Questions Answers to all chapter review questions can be found in Appendix A on this book’s companion website (www.ultimategameprogramming.com/BeginningDirectX11/) or at www.courseptr.com/downloads... original name for the first version of DirectX? A XNA B Games SDK C Direct3D D Windows Foundations SDK 2 Which is not a feature of DirectX 11? A Fixed-function rendering pipeline B Multithreaded GPU C Offers HDR texture compression D None of the above 3 Which version of DirectX does the Xbox 360 use? A A modified version of DirectX 10 B A modified version of DirectX 11 23 ... What, Why, and How of DirectX Figure 1.1 An example of the Games Explorer in Windows 7 Obsolete DirectX Components The following components are either deprecated or removed from the DirectX SDK: DirectDraw Once used for 2D rendering, today we can use either Direct2D or Direct3D for 2D graphics DirectDraw was merged with Direct3D into what was called DirectX Graphics in DirectX 8 How DirectX Is Put Together... release of Direct3D 11 Direct3D 11 is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7, along with DirectX 10-class hardware Certain features of DirectX 11, such as tessellation and Shader Model 5.0, require DirectX 11- class hardware But most of the API can be used with DirectX 10-class hardware Stages of Direct3D 11 Direct3D is more than just an API; it’s a tool for transforming geometric shapes and images . field of video game development. Allen’ s past works include two editions of Ultimate Game Programming with DirectX, Ultimate 3D Game Engine Design and Architecture, Game Graphics Programming, andData. level. The leap from DirectX 9 to DirectX 10 was a huge one. DirectX 10 went through two iterations as the mark et’s acceptance caught up. DirectX 11 versus DirectX 10 Direct3D 11 builds upon Direct3D. . . 2 DirectX 11 versus DirectX 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 DirectX 11 versus OpenGL 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Why Is DirectX