DirectDraw
lastmod 2018-08-17created 2016-04-053 edits
Hardware acceleration for 2D framebuffers. In DirectX8 this component was dropped in favor of Direct3D.
DirectDraw is part of Microsoft's DirectX API. DirectDraw is used to render graphics in applications where performance is important. DirectDraw lets applications run full screen or in windowed mode like most other MS applications. DirectDraw uses hardware acceleration if the client's computer supports it. DirectDraw allows direct access to video memory, hardware overlays, hardware blitters, and page flipping. DirectDraw's video memory manager makes video memory easy to use while taking full advantage of the bit blit and color decompression capabilities of different display adapters.
DirectDraw is a 2D API. That is, it contains commands for 2D rendering but does not support 3D hardware acceleration. Programmers can draw 3D graphics with DirectDraw, but rendering is slow compared with Direct3D, which supports 3D hardware acceleration. In DirectX version 8.0, DirectDraw was merged into a new package called DirectX Graphics. This package is Direct3D with a few DirectDraw API features added. Even so, programmers can still use DirectDraw, but they must use older DirectX interfaces (DirectX 7 and earlier).
DirectDraw has not been considered important since version 7. This is well shown by the fact that it is still included in DirectX but its updates have stalled. Developers are now instructed to use textured quads in Direct3D for 2D graphics. MDX (Managed DirectX) includes a managed wrapper for DirectDraw. DirectDraw has now been replaced by Direct2D.
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