Direct3D retained mode???
Author
Him a bought tricks of the windows programming............. blah blah blah a long time ago but I've never looked at the 3D on line book that came with it much until now.
I had a pretty good look over it befor and it focuses on using D3D retained mode, I looked at a few other tutorials and none of them mention retianed mode at all, and the online book on it really isn't that good.
so a few questions:
What is retained mode?
How is it different from any other mnode?
and, Should I use it?
EDIT - Also, does anyone know where I can download a smaller version of the DX8 SDK, without all the tutorials and such?
[edited by - flukus on December 1, 2003 4:04:24 AM]
If i am not mistaken, Microsoft removed retained mode from DirectX. It was meant to be some sort of 3d graphics engine built on top of immediate mode(D3D as it is used now), so that people could load in models,move around a world without having to spend months writing an engine.
I don''t know why it was removed, ive never used DirectX b4, so i wouldnt really know.
I don''t know why it was removed, ive never used DirectX b4, so i wouldnt really know.
Retained Mode is dead dead dead. Nobody ever really used it, and MS removed it, I believe in DX7.
It was somewhat similar to OpenGL's Open Inventor, actually.
"Sneftel is correct, if rather vulgar." --Flarelocke
[edited by - sneftel on December 1, 2003 4:31:01 AM]
It was somewhat similar to OpenGL's Open Inventor, actually.
"Sneftel is correct, if rather vulgar." --Flarelocke
[edited by - sneftel on December 1, 2003 4:31:01 AM]
Wouldnt that be going against the rules of COM? That once something is a COM Object, it cannot be modified or removed? So do current versions of DX run RM applications made years back when it was supported?
quote:Original post by GamerSg
Wouldnt that be going against the rules of COM? That once something is a COM Object, it cannot be modified or removed? So do current versions of DX run RM applications made years back when it was supported?
Sure, they still offer support for programs compiled with the older versions. But developing apps with the DX9 SDK that use retained mode would be extremely difficult, as the required headers and export libraries are no longer included.
"Sneftel is correct, if rather vulgar." --Flarelocke
Author
OK, thanks, I won;t be using retained mode then.
What about the second question, does anyone know where I can download A Direct X light or something? I have the DX8 SDK on disk but it won''t install if your hard drive is anything other than C:\.
What about the second question, does anyone know where I can download A Direct X light or something? I have the DX8 SDK on disk but it won''t install if your hard drive is anything other than C:\.
You can still use retained mode in Dx9. All previous versions of DX are included in Dx. This is a com thing. I would not recommend using retained mode, it not recommended by anyone. Basically you got all you need in the D3DX extensions which also are heavily optimized and use the latest optimization techniques. Think of it as STL for DirectX. You won't loose much performance using them. D3DX extensions have been greatly improved performance wise for the Dx9 version. It goes without saying that if you want the very best performance you'll either need a 3rd party engine like Jupiter (Lithtech) or write your own. But for development purposes I would imagine you'll do just fine with them in the beginning.
As for the second question: You don't need to install it. Just copy the libraries and headers to a folder of your choice. Then point the compiler to that folder.
[edited by - MichaelT on December 1, 2003 5:28:37 AM]
As for the second question: You don't need to install it. Just copy the libraries and headers to a folder of your choice. Then point the compiler to that folder.
[edited by - MichaelT on December 1, 2003 5:28:37 AM]
If you''re developing for directx, i would really advise people to program for directx 9 or 8.1. Directx 9 is already a year old, 8.1 came out in 2001 I believe, 8.0 is from 2000.
Still many people program for directx 7.0 from 1999, or go back even further. The availability of outdated books being sold for almost nothing that cover directx 7 or 6 might have something to do with that. Also a lot of tutorials on internet are from 1998-1999, and cover directx 7, also here at gamedev. A decent programmer would know to only read those for general ideas but to ignore the implementation part.
But if you program for DX7, you''re treating new graphics cards with a lot of great features as nothing more than really fast TNT cards.
Also, DirectX 8.0 was a major overhaul, all interfaces were made much more simple. The code to setup and create the device used to take hundreds of lines, in DX8 only 20% of the number of lines.
Still many people program for directx 7.0 from 1999, or go back even further. The availability of outdated books being sold for almost nothing that cover directx 7 or 6 might have something to do with that. Also a lot of tutorials on internet are from 1998-1999, and cover directx 7, also here at gamedev. A decent programmer would know to only read those for general ideas but to ignore the implementation part.
But if you program for DX7, you''re treating new graphics cards with a lot of great features as nothing more than really fast TNT cards.
Also, DirectX 8.0 was a major overhaul, all interfaces were made much more simple. The code to setup and create the device used to take hundreds of lines, in DX8 only 20% of the number of lines.
It really depends on what you want to do. If it is only 2D stuff, stick with Dx7. If it is HLSL or anything else stick with Dx9.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
