I have not looked at them (don't have VB), but the VB samples that come with the DX7 SDK look pretty straight forward.

Tutorial 1 seems to be nothing more than Blt'ing a bitmap.

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-Kentamanos

The tutorials included with Directx 7 with Visual Basic is not very sufficient. Most of the things you have to figure out for yourselves. I still haven't figured out how to use the clipper in full screen mode. Because of this, I have ordered a book from Amazon.com that is supposed to come out this month. You can find it on this website: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067231634X/o/qid=939687436/sr=8-1/002-7456413-8063024 . Hopefully, it will provide sufficient information.

This is what someone had to day.
"Rules for reading MS Sample apps.
1) Don't.
That's it. From all the samples I've read in the DX6 sdk, I can't think of one that didn't confuse me even more than I was when I started. I will admit that I haven't yet had time to look at the DX7 apps, but I am willing to bet that rule #1 is here to stay."
-Pseudo

Until someone comes out with good tutorials, then the best thing to do is to play around with it until you get something to work, and read the documentation. That's how I get as far as I did. I'm developing a Japanese style RPG in 320x240x16 color. My RPG will be supportive of the open-source code movement, and will be free. To add to that, I also got images to blit on the screen, I am having problems with scrolling, however. If you want to read my source, I'll let you look at it.

Microsoft provides the "Samples" as examples of how the code is implemented. There are some fairly good tutorials in the Direct X SDK Help file which is installed when you install the SDK. There are normaly about 4 or 5 tutorials, and then you can also find refrences to all the functions in that help file. I don't know why more people don't look there, maybe because it says HELP and we are too calky to break down & look.

from what i've been hearing, it appears as if the samples are impossible to learn from. that is not true, however, i learned all of D3D IM from the samples and documentation. yes, they were strange and difficult, but it is very much possible.

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http://members.xoom.com/mutex0

Anyone that says that the tutorials in the DX7 SDK are hard is completely wrong. The SDK was not meant as a C++/VB tutor or a "how to" on making games. It's only there to explain how to use the DX API. The DirectX7 SDK help file goes above and beyond the documentation found in most applications. I would have to say that the SDK help is THE BEST i've seen... EVER. Don't knock DX7 till you try it... it's much better than DX6.

One thing missing from the tutorials is error checking... I also found the tutorials slightly confusing because I always write the majority of my code in modules.. They built everthing into forms.. ick! They could have made some of the code reusable by building it into subroutines in modules.. Maybe this is why Microsoft code is always so fat and bloated. Instead you get buggy non-reusable code.. Good example of how not to write code!

Alright, I have decided that I want to use DX7. I have looked through many tutorials, but most include things that aren't relevant or just plain confuse me. Is there anywhere I can get a tutorial or such that just shows me how to take a bitmap and blt it to another part on the screen. Sounds stupid but it would help me get through all the trash most people put into their source examples. Thanks, John

The SDK for VB is in most cases not enough, especially not for D3DIM, therefore there are alot of resources available on the internet.
Here's my best tips:

http://redrival.com/voodoovb
http://perplexed.com/GPMega
http://www.vbexplorer.com/games.asp
http://www.inode.at/nls
http://www.advantage.co.nz/ur
http://www.chez.com/scribe/

Hope it helps!

[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited October 28, 1999).]