I''d say "don''t bother" APIs like DirectX, OpenGL & even higher APIs for full 3D engines have literally tens or hundreds of man years worth of work put into them. There is simply no way a single programmer can effectively compete. Think about it, even if directX only took 5 guys a year to write - it will take you 5 years to write. More likely to took 20 PhD''s a year or more to write......hmmmm

Just my $0.02
Brad

Most system software nowadays is written in C (perhaps some even in C++). Quite often, parts of them are implemented in assembly, but very seldom is the whole program/library implemented in pure assembly. There simply is no reason; C is pretty ''close to the metal''.

Your main problem in writing such an API is speed. Sure, you could write your own basic api for graphics in assembly, just as if you were writing some ModeX stuff in Dos.

However, DirectX accesses the graphics card directly in order to achieve hardware acceleration. This therefore means it knows how a vast and diverse range of graphics cards work and function in order to cater for each user's individual system.

Without hardware acceleration in your API, you'll be stuck with just copying system memory buffers to the graphics memory each frame. There is only so much speed you can get out of this, even in the finest tuned assembly. DirectX has this implemented for older cards where hardware acceleration is unavailable/limited.

You could quite probably improve on DirectX's software emulation of hardware acceleration, however, if you were interested in some direct manipulation of pixels etc. for alpha blending or the like. But then you may as well use DirectX as a base anyway for the initial setup of your app (setting screen res etc.), all of which would be quite a feat to program in itself.

Writing your own such API as DirectX would take a lifetime, as well as a large budget to purchase all your test hardware. However, for purely learning purposes I guess you could find some documentation on your current graphics card and play about with some of its functions in assembly. I'm not sure how feasible getting, or implementing, this information would be though.

Trust me, leave it to Microsoft

--
Russ

Edited by - rah on July 30, 2001 8:02:45 PM

Perhaps Afterlife's goal is not to write graphics API's and low level stuff on his own, but to write such code professionally for a company such as microsoft, developing low level systems software, device drivers etc...

If so, you should definitely study computer science and some electronics and computer hardware stuff at a university/college level.

Or if you for some reason don't want to do it for a living, and don't mind using Linux; the Linux kernel hackers or XFree86 people would probably appreciate people like you, willing to write low level stuff (at least when/if you know what you're doing ).

You could also check out the Wine project and/or other projects working on getting DirectX to work under XFree86/Wine. (Wine is a kind of windows emulator for the X Windowing System (used under Linux/UNIX/*BSD etc...). WINE is a recursive acronym, meaning: Wine Is Not an Emulator, so it's not quite an emulator, more of a compatibility layer for running windows programs under the X Windowing System).

Edited by - Dactylos on July 30, 2001 8:21:06 PM

One of the best abilities of a guru is noticing when he/she doesn''t have to write code, and focus on the important stuff. Get a couple of thick books, I''ll make a list of a couple at the bottom of the post. Get a copy of Linux, no doubt about it, and if you''re fairly proficient at c/c++ head over to www.linuxassembly.org and tune up on assembly, and get to know how to use gcc so you can use it without consulting a manual. If you have a broadband connection then by all means use it, surf the web for any and all info you need and want. If encryption is your thing then search for some of the main algorithms like RSA, DES, AES, Blowfish, etc.

Books:

Black art of 3d game programming by Andre Lamothe
Several books on tcp/ip and firewalls(no specifics)
Hacking Exposed 2nd edition by Scambray, McClure, and Kurtz
Anything that you find that''s interesting!


Websites:

grc.com
www.analogx.com
www.gamedev.net
www.linuxassembly.org
www.google.com (Search away!)