SAMPLE: Writing a Direct3D Immediate Mode Application

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft DirectX 2 Software Development Kit (SDK), for Windows 95

SUMMARY

Direct3D is designed to enable interactive 3D graphics on Windows. It also provides access to 3D accelerator hardware in a device-independent manner. Direct3D's Immediate Mode is Microsoft's low-level 3D API and it is ideal for developers who need to port games and other high-performance 3D applications to Windows. Direct3D's Retained Mode is built on top of Immediate Mode.

The D3D.EXE code sample is a basic Direct3D Immediate Mode application that demonstrates the steps necessary to create and render 3D objects in Direct3D Immediate Mode. This sample renders to a full screen, 8 bits-per-pixel DirectDraw surface using double buffering. Direct3D renders to the back buffer and IDirectDrawSurface::Flip() is called to update the display.

Rendering is done by using execute buffers in Immediate Mode. Execute buffers are also used to set up different states for the renderer. The D3D.EXE sample demonstrates how to set up these execute buffers with vertex data and a list of opcodes so that when interpreted, they instruct the rendering engine to produce an image. For a detailed overview of Direct3D Immediate Mode, you should view the "Immediate-Mode Overview" section of the DirectX 2 SDK help file. To find this section, go to the "Contents" tab of the Help file viewer and double-click on "Direct3D." Then double- click on "Immediate-Mode Overview" to view a list of topics.

You can find D3D.EXE (size: 29093 bytes) 
                    , a self-extracting file, on these services:

      On the www.microsoft.com home page, click the Support icon
      Click Knowledge Base, and select the product
      Enter kbfile D3D.EXE (size: 29093 bytes) 
                          , and click GO!
      Open the article, and click the button to download the file

      ftp ftp.microsoft.com
      Change to the Softlib/Mslfiles folder
      Get D3D.EXE (size: 29093 bytes) 

      On the Edit menu, click Go To, and then click Other Location
      Type "mssupport" (without the quotation marks)
      Double-click the MS Software Library icon
      Find the appropriate product area
      Locate and download D3D.EXE

      On MSPN Desktop, double-click the Software Library icon
      Search for D3D.EXE
      Display results and download