D3DX has a function, D3DXGetErrorString() which will translate DDraw and D3D HRESULT's into a string. You could then print that out to a log file, or to a message box. You can use this function without using any other component of D3DX.

Also, with the debug DLL's, errors are displayed in the debugger window in VC (along with a lot of other, helpful information.) This requires that you either have a dual-monitor setup, or that your application can run in a window.

Also...

I think most of the error codes exist as #defines in either ddraw.h or winerror.h. Might want to do a find-in-files in your include directories.

Mason McCuskey
Spin Studios
www.spin-studios.com

first of all - thanks for your fast reply!

ive tried to compile my code using D3DXGetErrorString() but without success. im using dx sdk 5.x. it is possible that it works only in sdk 6.x or higher ?
a search over the sdk tutorial also gets no success. on my machine ive installed dx6.0 runtime. what can i do to get D3DXGetErrorString() run on my machine?

and: has somebody any idea or an online manual how to install the terminal debugger on a win95(development machine) and a winnt-server(should be the terminal debugger) under vc++ using a tcp/ip network. vc++ books includes == NULL and the ms sites have 1000000 sites with 1000000 information for this prob.

thanks for all help
elmo

hello!
can anybody tell me what this errorcode, coming from a createsurface-call, means:
ff80070057 ?????????

and: can anybody tell me how to compare errorcodes with the directx sdk errorcode defines such as DDERR_ILLEGALRECT. I mean the problem is that the routine allways gives me a number, so getting this number i must compare through a list of errorcodes to find the correct one and than i can read the errorcode - or is this wrong - which is the best work and where can i find a list of errorcodes such as (DD_OK = 0)

thanks for any help
elmo

D3DX is only available with DirectX 7.0 and higher.

You may find it worthwhile to upgrade to the latest version.

Writing your own version of it is trivial, just do something like the following:

const char* GetDDrawErrorString(HRESULT hresult)
{
switch(hresult)
{
case DDERR_SURFACELOST:
return "Surface Lost";
case DDERR_SURFACEBUSY:
return "Surface is busy";
case DDERR_ALREADYLOCKED:
return "Survace was already locked";

. . .
default:
return "Unknown Error";
}
}