I need to copy the image from my IDirect3DSurface8 primary buffer to another surface but I want the new copy to be a scaled down so the usual CopyRects() won''t work. How can I scale the image data from a surface? I''m trying to save scaled down screenshots of my program.

Hi - have you considered creating a surface that can serve as a render target and then using Direct3DDevice8.SetRenderTarget to render to this surface instead of your primary buffer? DX8 should scale the output to fit the target. You could then use the d3dx8.SaveSurfaceToFile to save your render target surface to a file.

There are two tutorials on www.mvps.org that might be of help. While neither tells you how to do the above completely, their info might be combined...

1) Rendering to multiple windows
http://www.mvps.org/directx/articles/rendering_to_multiple_windows.htm

This explains the basics or using SetRenderTarget to redirect rendering output to a different window -- here you could simply redirect it to a render-target-enabled surface.

2) Saving a Screen Shot in DirectX Graphics
http://www.mvps.org/directx/articles/screengrab.htm
This explains how to use d3dx8.SaveSurfaceToFile -- it''s aimed at full-size screenshots, though.

Hope all of this helps-

BM

quote:Original post by bmoberly
Hi - have you considered creating a surface that can serve as a render target and then using Direct3DDevice8.SetRenderTarget to render to this surface instead of your primary buffer? DX8 should scale the output to fit the target. You could then use the d3dx8.SaveSurfaceToFile to save your render target surface to a file.

That''s a good idea! But SetRenderTarget() won''t work with a standard IDirect3DSurface8 created with CreateImageSurface(). According to the SetRenderTarget() docs: "The new render target surface must have at least D3DUSAGE_RENDERTARGET specified."

How do I enable a simple image surface to have D3DUSAGE_RENDERTARGET specified?

Ah! That works perfectly! Thank you, Sages.

oops - Sages is right - use createrendertarget. You can also create a texture with the rendertarget usage flag set and then render to that texture''s surface -- this is what I was thinking of. BUT Sages'' suggestion is much more efficient.

Good luck!

-BM