and whatabout Directx

[Jim Brown]

And furhermore, can someone tell me about directX?

All I know about it is, that when I install some games, they install Directx. So what does it buy me as a programmer, and if I need it how do I get it?

Cheerio

[Fox]

DirectX is the direct interface to your hardware. Since Windows doesn't allow direct memory access there were only good (fast) DOS games. So Microsoft decided to make an SDK so you can get around windows and have fast games in windows, too. Also DirectX always supports the newest hardware features and emulates them if your hardware doesn't support them. That makes many things much easier! (Especially for 3D games). And since VB 6.0 DirectX is officially supported by Visual Basic.

Here's a list of the DirectX components:

DDraw, Fast 2D graphics
D3D, Fast 3D graphics / acceleration
DInput, Direct access to input devices
DSound, Fast sound mixing
DMusic, Midi streaming and mixing
DPlay, Network access for multiplayer

Hope I didn't forget one ;)
Well, if you want to code games for DirectX I'd recommend to start with DInput, then DDraw, DSound and so on (DPlay is probably one of the hardest parts). There are DDraw and DInput sample projects on my page if you need.

[Fox]

I said VB6, not DX6 ;) However, thanks for clearing that.

Oh.. my bad lol.. what I should have said was..

"Correction fox, Directx can be used in VB5 or 4(32bit)... :)"