Direct X

[TheJackal]

What exactly does Direct X do?
How does it work?
How is it used in game programming?

[doctorgonzo]

DirectX allows complete direct control of a computer's audio, video, input, and other components. Obviously, this is useful for games and multimedia, which need to be able to control video and audio at high speeds.

DirectX allows you to write code that doesn't depend on the particular hardware implementation. Your code essentially says "Draw these triangles on the screen and cover them with this texture"; it is then up to your particular graphics card to actually do it.

[TheJackal]

What development tools are required to make use of Direct X technology?

What did software developers have to do before Direct X was created?

[doctorgonzo]

DirectX is an M$ thing, so you can go here for the info and SDK.

There are alternatives as far as graphics goes, such as OpenGL.

Before DirectX there was no standard, so code had to be specific to hardware. On the really old games, that is why you could choose which graphics cards you had. There simply wasn't a standard way of doing graphics.

[TheJackal]

Will DirectX work with Linux systems?

[doctorgonzo]

Nope. Given that DirectX belongs to M$, it isn't going to work on any platforms natively other than Windows. If you want something that can work in Linux, you can use OpenGL for 3D graphics and SDL for everything else.

[TheJackal]

Thanks... Where can I find info on OpenGL?

[doctorgonzo]

You can start with www.opengl.org. There are tons of tutorials and information on the web if you search for it.

[aym]

A great site for OpenGL tutorials:
nehe.gamedev.net
I started there