Q155002: Description of DirectX 2.0

Article: Q155002
Product(s): Microsoft Windows 95.x Retail Product
Version(s): WINDOWS:95
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): win95
Last Modified: 13-JUN-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows 95 
- Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release, version 2.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes DirectX 2.0, which is included with Windows 95 OEM
Service Release 2 (OSR2)

MORE INFORMATION
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DirectX was developed to provide Windows-based programs with high- performance,
real-time access to available hardware on current computer systems. DirectX
provides a consistent interface between hardware manufacturers and the program
developer.

One of the primary reasons for creating DirectX was to promote games development
on the Windows platform. The majority of games developed for the personal
computer today are MS-DOS-based. However, when developing MS- DOS-based games,
developers must conform to a number of hardware implementations for a variety of
cards, which complicates installation. In addition, development of MS-DOS-based
games can be much more complex on a personal computer than on a console system,
due to the generalized processor, greater RAM size, and persistent storage of
the personal computer.

A high-performance Windows-based game will:

- Be installed easily.

- Take advantage of hardware accelerator cards designed specifically for
  improving performance.

- Take advantage of Windows hardware and software standards such as Plug and
  Play.

- Take advantage of the communications services built into Windows.

The following features of DirectX 2.0 combine to achieve these goals:

- The Microsoft DirectDraw program programming interface

  This accelerates hardware and software animation techniques by provid- ing
  direct access to bitmaps in off-screen display memory as well as extremely
  fast access to the blitting and buffer-flipping capabilities of the hardware.

- The Microsoft DirectSound program programming interface

  This enables hardware and software sound mixing and playback.

- The Microsoft DirectPlay program programming interface

  This allows easy connectivity of games over a modem link or network.

- The Microsoft Direct3D program programming interface

  Direct3D is a complete set of real-time 3D graphics services that delivers
  fast software-based rendering of the full 3D rendering pipe- line
  (transformations, lighting, and rasterization) and transparent access to
  hardware acceleration. Direct3D is fully scalable, enabling all or part of
  the 3D rendering pipeline to be accelerated by hardware. Direct3D exposes
  advanced graphics capabilities of 3D hardware accelerators, including
  z-buffering, anti-aliasing, alpha blending, mipmapping, atmospheric effects,
  and perspective-correct texture mapping. Integration with other DirectX
  technologies enables Direct3D to deliver such features as video mapping,
  hardware 3D rendering in 2D overlay planes, and even sprites, providing use
  of 2D and 3D graphics in interactive media titles.

- The Microsoft DirectInput program programming interface

  This provides joystick input capabilities to your game that are scaleable to
  future Windows hardware input APIs and drivers.

- The Microsoft AutoPlay feature of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system

  This lets your CD-ROM run an installation program or the game itself
  immediately upon insertion of the CD-ROM


For more information about Windows 95 OSR2, please see the following article in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q155003 Description of Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2

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Keywords          : win95 
Technology        : kbWin95search kbOPKSearch kbWin95
Version           : WINDOWS:95

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