DirectX 8 - Tutorials - DirectX 8 Basics - Intro

"Microsoft® DirectX® is a set of low-level application programming interfaces (APIs) for creating games and other high-performance multimedia applications. It includes support for two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) graphics, sound effects and music, input devices, and support for networked applications such as multiplayer games." (From Microsoft DirectX 8 for Visual Basic SDK)

To cover all that is said above, DirectX8 is a low-level API for creating games.

In order for you to be able to do DirectX 8 programming with Visual Basic, you need to answer YES to the following questions:

• Do you know what Visual Basic 5/6 is?
• Do you know how to program in Visual Basic 5/6?
• Would you consider your self to be a Intermediate Programmer in Visual Basic 5/6?
• Do you know what DirectX 8 is?
• Do you know what a class is?
• Do I have the right components to be programming DirectX8 in Visual Basic? Which of course I could download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx

All right, so did you answer YES to those questions? If not, then learn them, because I won't be teaching it.

All right, for just this step, I will go through it quickly, since it isn't very hard.

1. Start Visual Basic 5 or 6
2. Create a New Project (Standard EXE ofcourse)
3. Create a New Module
4. Go to the Project Menu and select the menu item Preferences...
5. Check the check box beside the item in the long list that says : DirectX 8 for Visual Basic Type Library. (If it is not there, you must go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx and download the DirectX 8 for Visual Basic Type Libraries.)

Now you are done the introduction.