DirectDraw Interface

DirectX is the collective name for Microsoft's software development kit (SDK) designed specifically for creating high-performance games on Win32 platforms. DirectX consists of several components, including DirectDraw, Direct3D, DirectSound, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectInput, and DirectSetup. Fastgraph supports but does not require the DirectDraw and Direct3D components of DirectX.

The DirectDraw component provides video memory management and hardware-accelerated blitting and page flipping capabilities. DirectDraw is most useful for creating full screen programs because you can define both the screen resolution and color depth "on the fly", much like setting a video mode under DOS. This lets you select a screen mode that matches your drawing surfaces, which usually improves performance.

Fastgraph includes DirectX libraries for all supported compilers. Fastgraph's DirectX libraries require DirectX 2 or later if creating a DirectDraw program, or DirectX 5 or later if creating a Direct3D program. Applications linked with Fastgraph's DirectX libraries will not run if the DirectX run-time components aren't installed on the user's system. This should only be an issue for Windows 95 and NT4, as the DirectX run-time components are included with Windows 98 and Windows 2000.

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