Ive been learning dx from LaMothe''s "Tricks" book but Ive had a lot of problems with some of his code so Im taking the stuff I need and putting it my own file and using that instead. One of his functions creates a directx surface like this int DDraw_Init(int width, int height, int bpp) { // this function initializes directdraw int index; // looping variable LPDIRECTDRAW lpdd_temp = NULL; // used to get directdraw1 // create IDirectDrawdirectdraw interface 1.0 object and test for error if (FAILED(DirectDrawCreate(NULL,&lpdd_temp,NULL))) return(0); // now query for IDirectDraw4 if (FAILED(lpdd_temp->QueryInterface(IID_IDirectDraw4, (LPVOID *)&lpdd))) return(0); // set cooperation level to requested mode if (FAILED(lpdd->SetCooperativeLevel(main_window_handle, DDSCL_ALLOWMODEX | DDSCL_FULLSCREEN | DDSCL_EXCLUSIVE | DDSCL_ALLOWREBOOT))) return(0); // set the display mode if (FAILED(lpdd_temp->SetDisplayMode(width,height,bpp,0,0))) return(0); here I get an error, SetDisplayMode does not take 5 parameters so I changed the code to this int DDraw_Init(int width, int height, int bpp) { // this function initializes directdraw int index; // looping variable LPDIRECTDRAW4 lpdd4 = NULL; // create IDirectDrawdirectdraw interface 1.0 object and test for error if (FAILED(DirectDrawCreate(NULL,&lpdd_temp,NULL))) return(0); // now query for IDirectDraw4 if (FAILED(lpdd->QueryInterface(IID_IDirectDraw4, (LPVOID *)&lpdd4))) return(0); // set cooperation level to requested mode if (FAILED(lpdd4->SetCooperativeLevel(main_window_handle, DDSCL_ALLOWMODEX | DDSCL_FULLSCREEN | DDSCL_EXCLUSIVE | DDSCL_ALLOWREBOOT))) return(0); // set the display mode if (FAILED(lpdd4->SetDisplayMode(width,height,bpp,0,0))) return(0); no problems up to here now, I complie the file fine, but when I build I get Animal.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "struct IDirectDraw4 * lpdd4" (?lpdd4@@3PAUIDirectDraw4@@A) Debug/Animal.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals before I added this function I didnt get a linking error with any of the other functions I put in so Im sure my includes are right and Ive included the right libraries, dxguid, ddraw, winmm, etc. Im not too familiar with directx so this hard for me to figure out. If anyone could offer some advice Id be very appreciative. The entire function before my changes is below. Thanks int DDraw_Init(int width, int height, int bpp) { // this function initializes directdraw int index; // looping variable LPDIRECTDRAW lpdd_temp = NULL; // used to get directdraw1 // create IDirectDrawdirectdraw interface 1.0 object and test for error if (FAILED(DirectDrawCreate(NULL,&lpdd_temp,NULL))) return(0); // now query for IDirectDraw4 if (FAILED(lpdd_temp->QueryInterface(IID_IDirectDraw4, (LPVOID *)&lpdd))) return(0); // set cooperation level to requested mode if (FAILED(lpdd->SetCooperativeLevel(main_window_handle, DDSCL_ALLOWMODEX | DDSCL_FULLSCREEN | DDSCL_EXCLUSIVE | DDSCL_ALLOWREBOOT))) return(0); // set the display mode if (FAILED(lpdd->SetDisplayMode(width,height,bpp,0,0))) return(0); // set globals screen_height = height; screen_width = width; screen_bpp = bpp; // Create the primary surface memset(&ddsd,0,sizeof(ddsd)); ddsd.dwSize = sizeof(ddsd); ddsd.dwFlags = DDSD_CAPS | DDSD_BACKBUFFERCOUNT; // we need to let dd know that we want a complex // flippable surface structure, set flags for that ddsd.ddsCaps.dwCaps = DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE | DDSCAPS_FLIP | DDSCAPS_COMPLEX; // set the backbuffer count to 1, 2 for triple buffering ddsd.dwBackBufferCount = 1; // create the primary surface lpdd->CreateSurface(&ddsd,&lpddsprimary,NULL); // query for the backbuffer i.e the secondary surface ddscaps.dwCaps = DDSCAPS_BACKBUFFER; if (FAILED(lpddsprimary->GetAttachedSurface(&ddscaps,&lpddsback))) return(0); // create and attach palette // create palette data // clear all entries defensive programming memset(palette,0,MAX_COLORS_PALETTE*sizeof(PALETTEENTRY)); // create a R,G,B,GR gradient palette for (index=0; index < MAX_COLORS_PALETTE; index++) { // set each entry if (index < 64) palette[index].peRed = index*4; else // shades of green if (index >= 64 && index < 128) palette[index].peGreen = (index-64)*4; else // shades of blue if (index >= 128 && index < 192) palette[index].peBlue = (index-128)*4; else // shades of grey if (index >= 192 && index < 256) palette[index].peRed = palette[index].peGreen = palette[index].peBlue = (index-192)*4; // set flag to force directdraw to leave alone palette[index].peFlags = PC_NOCOLLAPSE; } // end for index // now create the palette object if (FAILED(lpdd->CreatePalette(DDPCAPS_8BIT | DDPCAPS_INITIALIZE | DDPCAPS_ALLOW256, palette,&lpddpal,NULL))) return(0); // attach the palette to the primary if (FAILED(lpddsprimary->SetPalette(lpddpal))) return(0); // clear out both primary and secondary surfaces DDraw_Fill_Surface(lpddsprimary,0); DDraw_Fill_Surface(lpddsback,0); // return success return(1); } // end DDraw_Init ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Dunno if this will work-but I had a similar problem and it fixed it. If you have MS VC++ do this:
Click Tools, Options,Directories Tab, & then move the DX7 or 6 directory to the top of the list. I dunno how to this in Borland-Hope this helps!