I'm getting ready to overhaul my whole code that renders a map of of ~14k hexagons to use Direct2D instead of GDI. Screenshots here.
I could never really get fully rid of screen flicker on the minimap as I initially thought I did. Scrolling the main map window also does present one problem: fast scrolling produces a ghost image. Meanwhile, although I do like the aliased look of the map window, I think it will benefit a lot more from antialias. Direct2D will also allow me to implement a zoom feature so the player can see more or less of the map according to their needs and visual requirements.
So 3 years later and as I actually near the "completion" of this project, it's time to look back and start changing stuff.
But I have a few questions:
- If I render Direct2D to a GDI DC, will I still take advantage of hardware emulation?
- No backport to Windows XP really p... me off. I'll have to leave the GDI code and somehow choose between them both at runtime. Suggestions?
- What does it mean exactly Direct2D's ability to render to intermediate layers? Are we talking graphics layers as in Photoshop (which would be a real cool thing and much needed by me to create decals for the map), or is this something else entirely?
And finally... do you have an opinion on Direct2D? Should I used Direct3D's own rendering_2d() function instead? Something else? Keep in mind the type of program I'm involved with.