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Creating Your First DirectX Application

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In this section, we will guide you through the process of creating your first DirectX application. This will involve setting up a basic window, initializing DirectX, and rendering a simple scene. By the end of this section, you will have a working DirectX application that displays a blank window.

Steps to Create Your First DirectX Application

  1. Setting Up the Project
  2. Creating the Window
  3. Initializing DirectX
  4. Rendering a Blank Screen
  5. Handling the Message Loop

  1. Setting Up the Project

First, let's set up a new project in Visual Studio.

  1. Open Visual Studio and create a new project.
  2. Select "Windows Desktop Application" and click "Next".
  3. Name your project (e.g., "FirstDirectXApp") and choose a location to save it.
  4. Click "Create".

  1. Creating the Window

To create a window, we need to define a window class and create a window instance.

#include <windows.h>

// Forward declarations
LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);

// Entry point
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow) {
    // Define the window class
    WNDCLASSEX wc = {0};
    wc.cbSize = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
    wc.style = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
    wc.lpfnWndProc = WindowProc;
    wc.hInstance = hInstance;
    wc.hCursor = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
    wc.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW + 1);
    wc.lpszClassName = "DirectXWindowClass";

    // Register the window class
    RegisterClassEx(&wc);

    // Create the window
    HWND hWnd = CreateWindowEx(0, "DirectXWindowClass", "DirectX Application", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
                               CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, 800, 600, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);

    // Show the window
    ShowWindow(hWnd, nCmdShow);

    // Main message loop
    MSG msg = {0};
    while (msg.message != WM_QUIT) {
        if (PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE)) {
            TranslateMessage(&msg);
            DispatchMessage(&msg);
        }
    }

    return static_cast<int>(msg.wParam);
}

// Window procedure
LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
    switch (message) {
        case WM_DESTROY:
            PostQuitMessage(0);
            return 0;
        default:
            return DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
    }
}

  1. Initializing DirectX

Next, we need to initialize DirectX. This involves creating a Direct3D device and a swap chain.

#include <d3d11.h>
#pragma comment (lib, "d3d11.lib")

// Global declarations
IDXGISwapChain* swapChain;
ID3D11Device* device;
ID3D11DeviceContext* deviceContext;
ID3D11RenderTargetView* renderTargetView;

void InitD3D(HWND hWnd) {
    // Describe the swap chain
    DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_DESC scd = {0};
    scd.BufferCount = 1;
    scd.BufferDesc.Format = DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UNORM;
    scd.BufferUsage = DXGI_USAGE_RENDER_TARGET_OUTPUT;
    scd.OutputWindow = hWnd;
    scd.SampleDesc.Count = 4;
    scd.Windowed = TRUE;

    // Create the device, device context, and swap chain
    D3D11CreateDeviceAndSwapChain(NULL, D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE, NULL, 0, NULL, 0,
                                  D3D11_SDK_VERSION, &scd, &swapChain, &device, NULL, &deviceContext);

    // Get the address of the back buffer
    ID3D11Texture2D* backBuffer;
    swapChain->GetBuffer(0, __uuidof(ID3D11Texture2D), (LPVOID*)&backBuffer);

    // Create the render target view
    device->CreateRenderTargetView(backBuffer, NULL, &renderTargetView);
    backBuffer->Release();

    // Set the render target
    deviceContext->OMSetRenderTargets(1, &renderTargetView, NULL);
}

void CleanD3D() {
    // Release the Direct3D objects
    swapChain->Release();
    device->Release();
    deviceContext->Release();
    renderTargetView->Release();
}

  1. Rendering a Blank Screen

To render a blank screen, we need to clear the render target view.

void RenderFrame() {
    // Clear the back buffer to a deep blue
    float color[4] = {0.0f, 0.2f, 0.4f, 1.0f};
    deviceContext->ClearRenderTargetView(renderTargetView, color);

    // Present the back buffer to the screen
    swapChain->Present(0, 0);
}

  1. Handling the Message Loop

Finally, we need to integrate the DirectX initialization and rendering into the message loop.

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow) {
    // Define the window class
    WNDCLASSEX wc = {0};
    wc.cbSize = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
    wc.style = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
    wc.lpfnWndProc = WindowProc;
    wc.hInstance = hInstance;
    wc.hCursor = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
    wc.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW + 1);
    wc.lpszClassName = "DirectXWindowClass";

    // Register the window class
    RegisterClassEx(&wc);

    // Create the window
    HWND hWnd = CreateWindowEx(0, "DirectXWindowClass", "DirectX Application", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
                               CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, 800, 600, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);

    // Initialize Direct3D
    InitD3D(hWnd);

    // Show the window
    ShowWindow(hWnd, nCmdShow);

    // Main message loop
    MSG msg = {0};
    while (msg.message != WM_QUIT) {
        if (PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE)) {
            TranslateMessage(&msg);
            DispatchMessage(&msg);
        } else {
            RenderFrame();
        }
    }

    // Clean up Direct3D
    CleanD3D();

    return static_cast<int>(msg.wParam);
}

Summary

In this section, we covered the following steps to create your first DirectX application:

  • Setting up a new project in Visual Studio.
  • Creating a window using the Win32 API.
  • Initializing DirectX by creating a Direct3D device and swap chain.
  • Rendering a blank screen by clearing the render target view.
  • Handling the message loop to keep the application running and rendering.

By following these steps, you now have a basic DirectX application that displays a blank window. In the next module, we will dive deeper into Direct3D basics and start rendering simple shapes.

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