This document provides an overview of programming conventions for Direct3D game programming, including how to access COM objects, naming conventions like Hungarian notation, debugging tips, and using return codes. It discusses accessing COM objects through interfaces like Direct3DCreate9 and IDirect3DDevice9, common DirectX libraries to include, naming conventions for variables and classes, debugging techniques like OutputDebugString and debug textures, and checking return codes with SUCCEEDED and FAILED macros.

1. Beginning Direct3D Game Programming:
3. Programming Conventions
jintaeks@gmail.com
Division of Digital Contents, DongSeo University.
April 2016

2. Presentation Outline
 How to access a COM object.
 The naming convention (Hungarian notation) used in the
DirectX SDK.
 Useful debugging tips for Direct3D applications.
 How and why to use return codes.
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3. Accessing COM Objects
 COM objects and C++ objects are binary-compatible so that
compilers handle COM interfaces and C++ abstract classes in
the same way.
 The in-memory layout in C++ of a class instance that inherits
from a pure virtual base class (a class with only methods that
are virtual and equal to zero) has the same memory
representation as a COM interface.
hr = m_pd3dDevice->SetLight(0, &light );
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4.  A number of import libraries to compile a DirectX program.
– d3dx9.lib
– d3dxof.lib
– d3d9.lib
– winmm.lib
– dxguid.lib
 Direct3D run-time COM objects and DLLs must be registered
to and loaded by Windows.
 You must include the previously mentioned libraries in your
Windows project so that the wrapper methods you call are
linked.
 You must include the proper include files in your source file
and in the include path entry forms of your IDE.
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5. Visual Studio Library Settings
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6. Visual Studio Include Directory Settings
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7. LPDIRECT3D9 m_pD3D = NULL;
m_pD3D = Direct3DCreate9( D3D_SDK_VERSION );
hr = m_pD3D->CreateDevice( m_d3dSettings.AdapterOrdinal()
, pDeviceInfo->DevType, m_hWndFocus
, behaviorFlags
, &m_d3dpp, &m_pd3dDevice );
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8. Naming Conventions
 Hungarian Notation
 Camel Notation
 Types and constants begin with an uppercase letter, but you
can use underscores in the names, for example:
#define D3DPRESENT_BACK_BUFFERS_MAX 3L
 You must prefix all C++ classes with a capital C, for example:
class CD3DMesh
{
public:
};
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9. Hungarian Notation
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10. Typical Direct3D application class:
class CMyD3DApplication : public CD3DApplication
{
CD3DFont* m_pFont;
CUSTOMVERTEX m_QuadVertices[4];
LPDIRECT3DTEXTURE9 m_pCustomNormalMap;
LPDIRECT3DTEXTURE9 m_pFileBasedNormalMap;
D3DXVECTOR3 m_vLight;
BOOL m_bUseFileBasedTexture;
BOOL m_bShowNormalMap;
HRESULT CreateFileBasedNormalMap();
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11. Debugging DirectX
 The DirectX Control Panel allows you to set the debug output
level from 0 to 5.
 Using a memory manager can reduce memory allocation and
de-allocation problems. Visual C++ provides a memory
manager called CRT.
 You can debug vertex and pixel shaders with PIX or Nvidia
PerfHud.
 You can measure the performance of your application with
something like Intel’s VTune.
 The OutputDebugString() function is a useful debugging aid.
 Using a simple log file class is helpful in larger applications.
 It is quite common to use a debug texture to see whether
problems with texture alignment or filtering are occurring.
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12. Return Codes
 A return code indicates the success or failure of a call and, if
applicable, the reason why the call failed.
 Checking the return codes is simplified by the SUCCEEDED()
and FAILED() macros provided with the DirectX 9.0 SDK.
– They take an HRESULT as an argument and return whether it indicates
a success code or a failure code.
– Don’t try to check HRESULT against S_OK; not every method returns
S_OK if it succeeds.
 Every DirectX method returns an HRESULT
– you need to structure your code to check for and handle all potential
errors.
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13. References
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