Okay, so as a newbie game-programmer I wrote my Tetris game, using a blatant rip-off of the game engine from Ian Parberry''s "Introduction to Computer Game Programming w/ DirectX 8.0". It wasn''t too awful - 640x480x16bpp, using a family photo for background, isometric views of the blocks w/ my kids'' photos on the front face, all that jazz. Now I want to take the next step. My Question: Should I continue to use DirectDraw, since I''m doing everything in 2D (my next learning project is a very simple rip-off of HOMM)? I downloaded the DX9 SDK, and noticed that everything is D3D - nary a DirectDraw mention in the whole DirectX Graphics section. It''s all vertex shaders, and mesh files, etc. I mean, I suppose I could do a D3d version (kinda HOMM w/ an Empire Earth look to it...), but doesn''t that seem kinda square peg/round hole? I''d appreciate your thoughts. DCarraher C++ Tyro

Back when direct draw was popular, graphics hardware was optimized for fast blits. These days however, hardware is designed for one thing, triangles. Moving up to the 3D level will increase your applications performance. So in short, move on, the days of direct draw are over. The hardware has spoken. Not to mention DirectGraphics has a much more simple interface than ddraw, with far more functionality built in.

umm, just one note...I am using DirectX9.0 and VB.NET and I am using DirectDraw, I love it, my apps are running at around 200-300 frames per second even on pentium 3's and a dual pentium 2...

EDIT: btw, I have used Direct3D in DirectX8 to draw 2d things and it was very nice and I may upgrade my graphics engine from DirectDraw to Direct3D9 but I haven't decided...don't see a use for it yet.

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[edited by - Krisc on January 20, 2003 1:49:18 AM]