IDirectDraw7*?

**Hunter2** · 11-23-2002

Hey everyone, I've been looking at bitmap stuff for DirectX, and for a function that loads a bitmap onto a surface and returns the surface, one of the parameters (arguments?) is an IDirectDraw7*. I was just wondering if there is any reason why it should be a pointer and not a reference? I couldn't really spot anything based on the code there.

Oh yeah, another thing: In the book I was using before, it used LPDIRECTDRAW's and LPDIRECTDRAWSURFACE's, but in the code I was talking about earlier, it used IDirectDraw7*'s and IDirectDrawSurface7*'s. Is the book using an old version of DirectX, or is the all-caps version just a #define of the same thing?

**jdinger** · 11-23-2002

An LPDIRECTDRAWSURFACE7 is just a typedef for an IDirectDrawSurface7*.

As for passing a pointer instead of a referrence I'd have to see the code in the function you're talking about to say why. In my own bitmap loading code I only pass the main DirectDraw Object (needed to create the surface in the function), the bitmap name and the colorkey (a DWORD) to use for transparency. I create a temporary surface in the function and blit the bitmap onto it. Then I return it.

**edit** also, consider that you're talking about MS here and that they still have examples in MSDN that use

Code:

void main()
{
}

**Hunter2** · 11-24-2002

An LPDIRECTDRAWSURFACE7 is just a typedef for an IDirectDrawSurface7*.

What about just a LPDIRECTDRAWSURFACE?

I'll post the code for the function later, I'm not on my computer right now.

**cozman** · 11-24-2002

yes it is an older version, it's still fine to use though. It's also (I think in almost every case) ok to just add the 7 to the end.

By any chance is the book by Ian Parberry, he has released two books that use the old LPDIRECTDRAWSURFACEs:
Computer Game Programming with Direct X 7.0
(and using the same code)
Computer Game Programming with Direct X 8.0

**Hunter2** · 11-25-2002

Okay, thanks. By the way, what version of DX comes with windows 98?

**cozman** · 11-25-2002

I believe 98 comes with DirectX 5.. I could be mistaken.

to check what DX is installed on your system go into
Control Panel -> DirectX
in there you'll see settings for DX as well as a version number.

**Hunter2** · 11-27-2002

Heh, that would work but I've already updated directx

P.S. The CD that came with my geforce2 GTS had DirectX 4 on it... does that mean that my video card is really really outdated?

**Hunter2** · 11-27-2002

Hmm, I have a problem... I changed my IDirectDraw* to a IDirectDraw7*, and I ran into trouble with my CreateDirectDraw(). Apparently, it'll only take a IDirectDraw** (or just 1 pointer? dunno).

And sadly enough for me, there's no CreateDirectDraw7() (or any variations of it), and my DirectX8 SDK has no docs on directdraw, and neither does my MSVC help (only directx 5 or something), and M$ decided to delete the DirectX7 SDK off its download page, and also deleted the DirectX7 docs off of MSDN. What do I do now?

**EDIT**
Never mind

Google is my friend.

**cozman** · 12-31-2002

if CreateDirectDraw is a member of a class you are using the old version of that class most likely

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