directx beginner (need advice on books)
Author
I''m totally new to directx, and I have this gift certificate to my school store. So I went out to look at the directx books, and of course all they had was directx7, but then I started thinking maybe I should just wait til some dx8 books come out. So anyways, my question is.. for a totally new person is it worth it to just go ahead and get a dx7 book and learn off that, or would it be wiser to wait til they come out with dx8 books?
I don''t use DX 8 yet myself so I may be talking out of my @$$ here, but...
It is my undertanding that DX 8 gets rid of the ability to just use DirectDraw and surfaces. From what I''ve seen (again, I''ve not looked into it in great detail) DX 8 is geared towards 3D games. If you are a beginner you are not going to be making 3D games; therefor, you won''t gain much by waiting for books on DX 8 and it may actually be a bad idea to start with DX 8 instead of DX 7.
I say go ahead and buy a book that covers DX 7.
It is my undertanding that DX 8 gets rid of the ability to just use DirectDraw and surfaces. From what I''ve seen (again, I''ve not looked into it in great detail) DX 8 is geared towards 3D games. If you are a beginner you are not going to be making 3D games; therefor, you won''t gain much by waiting for books on DX 8 and it may actually be a bad idea to start with DX 8 instead of DX 7.
I say go ahead and buy a book that covers DX 7.
Author
Great, thank you for the advice. I really didn''t want to wait anyways, so that''s a good excuse to just go out and do it.
Mike''s correct. I started out as a complete newbie to DirectX (although quite a bit of Windoze GDI and OpenGL experience), trying to write a strictly 2D application with DirectX 8. Then I discovered DirectX 7, and found it was MUCH easier to use for that kind of thing. DirectX 8 simplifies some things (like the backbuffer flipping / blitting stuff), and it seems to have some nice sprite functions in the D3DX library. I think it would be a great choice to start out with if you''re doing strictly 3D stuff, or only need simplistic 2D support in your application. But from a newbie''s perspective, I can say that DirectX 7 makes much more sense to me! :-)
Incidentally, as I understand it, the removal of direct access to the surfaces is supposed to speed things up. I also read that there will be some sort of API for 2D stuff in DirectX 9, but that it will require Win2K to run. If that''s true, then DirectX 7 seems definitely the way to go at the moment (if you want to support Win98 too!). Can somebody confirm or deny this?
Incidentally, as I understand it, the removal of direct access to the surfaces is supposed to speed things up. I also read that there will be some sort of API for 2D stuff in DirectX 9, but that it will require Win2K to run. If that''s true, then DirectX 7 seems definitely the way to go at the moment (if you want to support Win98 too!). Can somebody confirm or deny this?
from what i have heard i think you are wrong
DirectX 8.0 is a completely different API. Its kind of a programmable API, meaning that the API is customizable. Its another revolution to DirectX and 3D. As soon as DirectX complaiant video cards arrive (cards that FULLY support DirectX 8.0) it will OWN the market. I used to be an OpenGL programmer, but realizing its inferiority to DirectX 8.0 made me switch. I suggest to any beginner that DirectX 8.0 is learned. There is no sense in wasting your time learning an API that is going to become obsolete in a few months (and not to mention, is much too complicated for beginners anyways)
Somebody correct me if i am wrong here, but i am almost certain that i am not
DirectX 8.0 is a completely different API. Its kind of a programmable API, meaning that the API is customizable. Its another revolution to DirectX and 3D. As soon as DirectX complaiant video cards arrive (cards that FULLY support DirectX 8.0) it will OWN the market. I used to be an OpenGL programmer, but realizing its inferiority to DirectX 8.0 made me switch. I suggest to any beginner that DirectX 8.0 is learned. There is no sense in wasting your time learning an API that is going to become obsolete in a few months (and not to mention, is much too complicated for beginners anyways)
Somebody correct me if i am wrong here, but i am almost certain that i am not
Not exactly, infact, thats totally off. Where did you hear that? Anyway, Mike is correct.
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A wise man once said "A person with half a clue is more dangerous than a person with or without one."
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It is most likely that there will not be any DirectX 8 books until shortly before DirectX 8 is released, and so waiting for them would only mean that you were out of date with DirectX 9 (which has Blt as part of its functionality). So you might as well learn DirectX 7 and learn DirectX 9 when it comes out.
Just because you''re outnumbered doesn''t mean you''re wrong.
Just because you''re outnumbered doesn''t mean you''re wrong.
quote:Original post by Lancelet
Then I discovered DirectX 7, and found it was MUCH easier to use for that kind of thing.
True, it is to start with, but if you want to do rotation, alpha blending, 16-bit fades, etc DirectX 8 can do that more easily for you. (And you get more hardware support).
quote:
I also read that there will be some sort of API for 2D stuff in DirectX 9
Actually, no, 2D and 3D stuff will never be in separate APIs again. Blitting functions will be part of the DirectX Graphics 9 API (on Direct3D surfaces).
Just because you''re outnumbered doesn''t mean you''re wrong.
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