Inside DirectX (Microsoft Programming Series)

Today, the most popular PC games all run on Windows 95--not DOS. No doubt Microsoft's DirectX gaming platform is the reason. Inside DirectX delivers you to the world of building games on Windows 95 and NT using Microsoft DirectX technology.

Bargen and Donnelly walk beginners through the features of DirectX, beginning with its underlying COM architecture and basic concepts for all DirectX programmers, such as surfaces, double-buffering, and "blting" (or copying) graphics. The rest of the book explores the fundamentals of programming with the various aspects of DirectX. These include DirectDraw (for 2-D graphics), DirectSound (for sound), DirectPlay (for multiplayer gaming) and DirectInput (for mouse and joystick input). Also included are the basics of Internet gaming. Direct3D, the part of DirectX that handles 3-D rendering, is wisely omitted here in the interest of simplicity.

The samples in the text are small and manageable enough for any experienced C programmer to handle; the accompanying CD includes a copy of DirectX 5.2. DirectX has a well-deserved reputation for being tricky, but Inside DirectX has all you need to get started on writing games and other high-performance multimedia applications. --Richard Dragan