borland direct x

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2 comments, last by Aardvajk 17 years, 8 months ago
hi, how can I use direct3d with borland c++ 5.0 can i get a converter .lib file from microsoft to borland gettin a omf .lib error message when linking d3d9.lib from directx sdk 9.0
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Hey.

You can use implib on the DLLs to create Borland libs, but you won't be able to use the d3dx stuff like that since that is a statically linked lib that Microsoft no longer distribute in a Borland compatible form.

If you go here that will provide links to some Direct3D 8 Borland libs. The trouble is that you then need to distribute a DLL wrapper with your software that bridges between the d3dx stuff and Borland correctly.

It is a lot easier to just download Visual Studio Express 2005 to be honest, and I speak from long bitter experience here. Getting DirectX 9 to work with Borland is even harder.

Post back or PM me if you get stuck.

Paul
cheers paul,

I am new to direct3d, have borland 5.0 and have spent the last couple of days
trying to get them linked.

where will i get Visual Studio Express 2005 please mate?
Visual C++ Express 2005 is here.

The platform SDK, which you need to create Windows apps including DirectX apps is here. The instructions for installing and setting up are superb on this link but do need to be followed carefully.

The DirectX SDK (latest version) is here. I haven't installed the August yet, but having installed VS2005 and the PSDK, the June DX SDK seemed to integrate with VS2005 automatically. If it doesn't, what you learn from installing the Platform SDK should point you in the right direction.

Some of these are very big downloads so if you can't get them and decide to stick with Borland, you can get it all to work.

My solution was to copy all the .h files from the DXSDK include directory into a directory called sdk in the Borland default include directory, then copy all the Borland libs from the link in my previous post into a directory called sdk in the Borland default lib directory.

I was doing this with the command line and make so my .cpp files that included the directX files had stuff like:

#include <sdk\d3d8.h>
#include <sdk\d3dx8.h>

then in my makefile, my link line looked a bit like:

x.exe : x.obj sdk\d3d8bor.lib sdk\d3dx8bor.lib

or whatever the files are called. As I said though, there is a d3dxbor.dll or something file that ships with the Borland files mentioned above that is needed at runtime for it all to work. I put this in Windows\System on my development PC but you'd need to include it in the same directory as your executable if you were to distribute your finished exe.

If you can get Visual C++, do so. If you can't, my advice would be to stick with DirectX 8 with Borland until you can get the Microsoft compiler.

Borland-compatible DX9 libs are available if you google a bit, but all the ones I found needed a few DLLs to work and there seemed to be distribution restrictions on the DLLs. This was actually one of the main reasons I ended up buying a new computer so I could run XP and get VS2005.

HTH Paul

[EDIT] This is probably in the wrong forum so don't be upset if a mod moves it to For Beginners or DirectX. Welcome to GameDev by the way.

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