Thread: Linking error with DirectDrawCreateEx

hey. I'm back. Where did everyone go? Hopefully there is a few experts left here to help out. It's kind of scarey posting on a board that is so dead.

I'm getting a linking error when compiling on MSVC 6.0. I am trying to make a Tetris game and am learning how to load bitmaps. This program is supposed to load bitmaps. I added the bitmap to the project but still get the linking error.

--------------------Configuration: Tetrisbegin - Win32 Debug--------------------
Linking...
tetrisbeg.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DirectDrawCreateEx@16
Debug/Tetrisbegin.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals
Error executing link.exe.

Tetrisbegin.exe - 2 error(s), 0 warning(s)



Here is the code at which directdrawcreateEx is called

Code:

int Game_Init(void *parms)
{
// this function is where you do all the initialization 
// for your game

// create object and test for error
if (DirectDrawCreateEx(NULL, (void **)&lpdd, IID_IDirectDraw7, NULL)!=DD_OK)
   return(0);

// set cooperation level to windowed mode normal
if (lpdd->SetCooperativeLevel(main_window_handle,
           DDSCL_ALLOWMODEX | DDSCL_FULLSCREEN | 
           DDSCL_EXCLUSIVE | DDSCL_ALLOWREBOOT)!=DD_OK)
    return(0);

// set the display mode
if (lpdd->SetDisplayMode(SCREEN_WIDTH,SCREEN_HEIGHT,SCREEN_BPP,0,0)!=DD_OK)
   return(0);

// Create the primary surface
memset(&ddsd,0,sizeof(ddsd));
ddsd.dwSize         = sizeof(ddsd);
ddsd.dwFlags        = DDSD_CAPS;
ddsd.ddsCaps.dwCaps = DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE;

if (lpdd->CreateSurface(&ddsd,&lpddsprimary,NULL)!=DD_OK)
   return(0);

// now load the 16 bit color bitmap
Load_Bitmap_File(&bitmap16bit, "ANDRE16.BMP");

// return success
return(1);

} // end Game_Init

I appreciate any help at all.

BTW, I didn't write that code. I am not at that stage yet. Just trying understand why it has a problem with directdrawcreateEx. Thanks in advance for replies.

huh....I figured it out. I didn't put

dxguid.lib ddraw.lib dinput.lib

in the Link part of Project settings. I guess that shows how much of a beginner I am.

Any further advice is welcome. I am making my first C++ tetris game. I'm going to try not to look at any other tetris games while doing it. Just loading the main bitmap right now. Haven't got to controls or anything like that yet.

I've got a new problem now. My bitmap is appearing but its flashing up on the screen so fast that I can't see if it is working correctly or not.

The instructional cd and book that I'm using had the program make a 640 x 480 bitmap which was full screen.

My bitmap is 500 x 600 and is not full screen anymore so I've changed everything and now it won't stay on the screen.

Actually, it was staying on the screen at 640 x 480 but it distorted the hell out of my bitmap so had to change the dimensions of the screen.

For the love of god.

No one has a piece of C++ code for keeping a damn window on the screen. No one wants to see 150 lines of code. It won't let me post that much on here anyway, I've tried it before.

Blit the bitmap to the screen using the hardware blitter. I'm not sure what you mean here so some explaining would help.