Introduction to Direct Draw (Tutorial)

Category:

Multimedia/Games

Type:

Snippets

Difficulty:

Beginning

Author: Jack Hoxley

Version Compatibility:

Instructions: Copy the declarations and code below and paste directly into your VB project.

Declarations:
' (None)

Code:

Note: To use Direct Draw or any other component of DirectX, get the library if you haven't already. You can <A HREF = 'http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=16819'>download it from Microsoft</a>. You should end up with a .Zip file on your hard disk. Use a program like winzip to extract the file. Place the file (dx7vb.dll) in your windows\system\ folder, normally C:\windows\system\dx7vb.dll, then add a reference to it in your VB project. 
Theory
It is important that you understand
the theory behind DirectDraw before attempting to make any
programs using it.

DirectDraw is the 2D component of directX, it is best used in
multimedia (where intense drawing is needed) applications or
platformer games. DirectDraw allows you to gain direct access to
the memory on the video card, where you can compose scenes and
frames, or store bitmaps. There are certain things that you
should know about before I launch into things: 
<div align="center"><center>

<table border="1" cellpadding="10" width="94%" bgcolor="#FFCCCC"
bordercolordark="#660033" bordercolorlight="#000066">
 <tr>
 <td>Term</td>
 <td>Meaning</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Buffer </td>
 <td>A buffer is
 used to store graphical information, ie: a bitmap. </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Primary
 Buffer </td>
 <td>Represents
 the screen. Anything that goes in here appears on the
 screen. </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Blitting </td>
 <td>Blitting is
 the process of copying from one surface to another,
 similiar to the bitblt API call. </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Display Mode
 </td>
 <td>The
 resolution that your program runs at. In fullscreen mode
 it represents the size of the screen. 640x480 is a
 display mode. </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Colour Depth
 </td>
 <td>This is the
 number of colours that are displayed on the screen. fewer
 colours will take less memory, and look a lot worse. 8bit=256
 colours 16bit=65536 colours 24bit=16million & 32bit=16.7million.
 This is set at the same time as the Display Mode. </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Frames Per
 Second (FPS) </td>
 <td>This is the
 number of times the screen is being updated every second.
 The human eye cannot see above 33FPS, for optimal quality
 try to keep close to or above this speed. </td>
 </tr>
</table>
</center></div>

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