No. But as with everything, knowing the API and how to use it can be a boon.

The thing is, the vast majority of the time YOU will not be writing DX code at all. That will be in the engine, or similar. You may end up writing shaders, or similar code, but the low level interfaces are very quickly taken care of fairly early in the development of an engine.

Like Washu said, most of the time you wont be writing any dx code at all.
But it depends on what job you are after exactly, Graphics programmers must know either DirectX or OpenGL (I always recommend OpenGL because its cross platform),
If you are going to use a premade Graphics Engine then you don't really need to know much about or how it works and you can be on your way programming gameplay and mechanics, though adding new things to the graphics engine or messing with shaders is always nice and therefor you should look into learning Graphics programming. :3

Come on, graphics programming is (of course arguably) the most interesting part of programming

I'd argue against it. Personally, I find graphics to be one of the least interesting part of programming. Give me an easy Graphical interface (ala SFML) and I'm satisfied.

But, that's just me.

Probably not necessary, but learning it will definitely make you a more capable programmer. As a gameplay programmer you probably wouldn't interact with graphics very much, but it could definitely happen. And if you do need to so something graphics-related, you'll be a lot better at if you have at least some background knowledge on how graphics API's and GPU's work.

Hello! I am new here, and I have a quick question.

I know a lot of C++ (Obviously not everything, and I am constantly learning more), and I hope to be a game programmer in the near future.

As for game programming, is DirectX necessary? I am not asking if I should learn another library, etc. I am asking if, in order to be, for example, a "Gameplay programmer", is directX necessary to learn?

I have looked at job postings for such a job, and most say "Great c++ programming skills" as a requirement, but never direct x. Some say "Experience with DX9 2.0 or above level Shaders and HLSL a plus", but a PLUS is not a REQUIREMENT. I realize it would probably be a great increase in my ability to land a job.

So, my question is, In order to work at a game studio as a gameplay programmer, is it necessary to know DirectX?

No, DirectX is really only useful if you're applying as a graphics programmer, and have been in the game industry for years. A junior programmer will almost always end up as a gameplay programmer. You will be expected to learn their game engine; which could be a custom engine or something like Unreal or Unity. Each of these engine will isolate you from the underlying OS and graphics API.

It is more important that you can demonstrate the ability to solve problems, write quality software, work within a large code base, and be able to effectively debug code. Exposure to other languages is also valued; a working knowledge of C# could be valuable for writing tools. Companies working on web or mobile games might also be looking for Actionscript or Javascript experience.

...go ahead and learn that DX or OGL.

I would argue that your time would be better spent finding a graphics API (SDL, Cocos2d-x, HaXE NME, etc.) Using low level graphics APIs requires learning more about the OS than is really necessary. Most of these problems are already solved in SDL or Cocos2d-x.

[quote name='TheEbola' timestamp='1351659672' post='4995697']
Hello! I am new here, and I have a quick question.

I know a lot of C++ (Obviously not everything, and I am constantly learning more), and I hope to be a game programmer in the near future.

As for game programming, is DirectX necessary? I am not asking if I should learn another library, etc. I am asking if, in order to be, for example, a "Gameplay programmer", is directX necessary to learn?

I have looked at job postings for such a job, and most say "Great c++ programming skills" as a requirement, but never direct x. Some say "Experience with DX9 2.0 or above level Shaders and HLSL a plus", but a PLUS is not a REQUIREMENT. I realize it would probably be a great increase in my ability to land a job.

So, my question is, In order to work at a game studio as a gameplay programmer, is it necessary to know DirectX?

No, DirectX is really only useful if you're applying as a graphics programmer, and have been in the game industry for years. A junior programmer will almost always end up as a gameplay programmer. You will be expected to learn their game engine; which could be a custom engine or something like Unreal or Unity. Each of these engine will isolate you from the underlying OS and graphics API.

It is more important that you can demonstrate the ability to solve problems, write quality software, work within a large code base, and be able to effectively debug code. Exposure to other languages is also valued; a working knowledge of C# could be valuable for writing tools. Companies working on web or mobile games might also be looking for Actionscript or Javascript experience.
[/quote]
Also a likely place to start is on UI jobs and i would argue that in those cases actual knowledge of DX or GL is useful. Most of the time the graphics guys don't wish to touch the UI rendering layers, they aren't always pretty , in those cases you have to debug that DX or GL code. And even for Gameplay at least an understanding of how graphics API's work is usefull when they stick you on the camera systems.