What is the exact definition of an "interface"? tcache Contact Me ----------- AH! MY BRAIN IS GOING TO SELF-DETONATE! -- Yours Truly (Jan, 2003)

Definition #2 from Webster.com:

" the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other <the man-machine interface> b : the means by which interaction or communication is achieved at an interface"

.. so what kind of interface are you talking about???

Like a DirectX interface.


tcache
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AH! MY BRAIN IS GOING TO SELF-DETONATE! -- Yours Truly (Jan, 2003)

This is still really vague. I''ll attempt an answer... DirectX "interfaces" in several ways. The first and foremost in my mind is that it is a collection of COM objects (called interfaces) that allow for direct hardware access for video, sound, input, and network devices (to name a few). It accomplishes this via several other interfaces -- DirectX Graphics, DirectSound, DirectMusic, DirectInput, DirectPlay, DirectShow (there may be others but I think those are the major ones). To write a program that makes use of these interfaces, you simply include the predefined header file, define some variables, initialize COM, and then initialize the specific interfaces you are wishing to use for your program. The best place to learn the knowledge you need to do all of this is right here on gamedev, and what''s not easily found here can be found with a decent search engine. If you know nothing about programming, do NOT buy a game development book or continue with game development until you have the knowledge of at least one programming language under your belt.

If this did not answer your question, please be more specific with what you''re looking for.

Good Luck.

So an interface is like a group of tools?



tcache
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AH! MY BRAIN IS GOING TO SELF-DETONATE! -- Yours Truly (Jan, 2003)

The interface is the method in which you interact with these tools...

As an example:

Lets say you are working in an Atomic energy plant. Would you want to go into the reactor core and drop the control rods into the core yourself, or would you rather use the computer terminal and tell the system to do that for you? i don''t know about you, but i would much rather prefer using the computer terminal.

In this example, the interface is the computer terminal that you use to tell the system to drop the rods into the core. In DirectX or, for that matter, any class of object you create (or you are using), the interface is the code you use to tell the class what to do, without actually messing with the code contained within the class. You can consider the interface of a class to be the public methods of the class...