I know that most people have DirectX9-capable cards but is it really necessary to install the DirectX9 SDK in order to develop DX9 apps or is it possible to do it using the latest DX SDK?
+1
A:
The latest DirectX SDK (March 2009) supports DirectX 9, DirectX10, and includes the preview of DX11.
You can use it to develop against any of these DX versions.
You do need the DX SDK installed to develop for DirectX, unless you're doing it indirectly through a library. The header files, libraries, etc, are included with the SDK. That being said, even if you're using a library, you'll want to install the latest SDK - it's very, very difficult to debug DX applications without the SDK, since the SDK is what allows you to run using the Debug version of DirectX.
Reed Copsey
2009-06-26 00:28:51
Thanks for the info. I think the best way to do such a thing is downloading the DX SDK, but I wanted to be sure I could develop DX9-compliant apps using the latest SDK instead of an older one.Is there any book you can recommend focused on 2D? Thanks in advance again.
pctroll
2009-06-26 02:43:04
This is the main book I usually recommend if you're wanting to learn DX9: http://www.d3dcoder.net/d3d9c.aspx It's not really 2D specific (although they do cover many 2D topics). I would learn 3D and 2D simulatenously, anyways, though - many good 2D games still use 3D rendering (with a flat, orthographic camera) for many elements, since it provides much more control than trying to do things with sprites, etc.
Reed Copsey
2009-06-26 16:37:52