what is it. I just noticed it in the dx 7a SDK and in the MSDN library is it some sort of new easier d3d or what?

The way I understand it is it''s almost a wrapper around D3DIM, but most people don''t use it because of speed issues.

Nah, it isn''t a wrapper of all of D3DIM, it just handles the initialization. It contains functionality to make it easy to get DirectDraw and Direct3D 7 started up. Simplifies stuff like finding all the video devices and other fun things. I think the only real reason not to use it is that you lose a bit of flexibility.

Jonathan

d3dim is the microsoft answer to their discontinuation of d3drm, it is also an integration of d3d and dd.

There aren''t any speed issues with D3DX. Basically, your still using D3D, but D3DX does initialization and other difficult and error prone tasks for you.

--TheGoop

Jonathan and Goop are correct here. Cloxs seems to be confusing D3DX with D3DRM.

D3DX is just a utility library around D3DIM to make it easier to initialize your display and do other common, but tedious, tasks like texture loading and management. My suggestion is that if D3DX does something you need in your program, use it, unless you specifically need more flexibility than it allows.

It won''t slow your program down, but it should speed up your development time. Also, the fact that its well-tested and written by the same folk as the underlying API means it''ll likely be more robust than a home-grown solution for the same tasks.