DirectDraw Summary

The DirectDraw API provides support for hardware accelerated 2-D graphics. It offers fast access to display hardware while retaining compatibility with the Windows graphics device interface (GDI). DirectDraw is a specialized memory manager for both system and display device memory and uses hardware acceleration where available. With DirectDraw, you can allocate and manipulate both system and graphics memory, including transfers between the two.

DirectDraw for Windows CE .NET is adapted from DirectDraw version 4 for Windows-based desktop operating systems. Some features from the desktop version have been extended and others have been curtailed to better suit embedded devices.

The following effects are supported by DirectDraw:

  • Bit-block transfers (blits).
  • Page flipping and multiple back buffers.
  • Overlays, which is placing one image surface over another on the video display.
  • Alpha source over destination blending, which is blending two surfaces using the source alpha image component.
  • Video YUV pixel formats and color conversion.
  • Direct video access to the frame buffer.

See Also

Graphics Technologies | DirectDraw Overview

Last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2005

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.