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Managed Wrappers for the DirectX APIs in Windows 7

For applications developed using the .NET framework, there is now a way to leverage the Windows 7 DirectX APIs (Direct3D10, Direct2D, DirectWrite, WIC and Direct3D 11) from your managed applications.  The Windows API Code Pack is now available on MSDN.  Using Windows API Code Pack you can now incorporate the power of DirectX into your applications without having to write managed-native interop code yourself.

The Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework provides a source code library that can be used to access some new Windows 7 features (and some existing features of older versions of Windows operating system) from managed code.  It also includes sample applications and API reference documents. You can build the included solution files to get the assemblies for use in your applications (pursuant to the attached license).  More information about the Windows API Code Pack is here.

Published Thursday, August 13, 2009 5:35 PM by srirams

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# re: Managed Wrappers for the DirectX APIs in Windows 7 @ Thursday, August 13, 2009 8:57 PM

Fantastic!  Interfacing with the shell by writing your own NativeMethods classes over has always been tedious.  Thanks for making this available.

pepkaro

# re: Managed Wrappers for the DirectX APIs in Windows 7 @ Friday, August 14, 2009 6:08 AM

I'm sorry it's it a bit rough but... why would I trust you again?

SlimDX http://slimdx.org/ never betrayed me: it's efficient, clean and is definitely here to stay.

I can't imagine that someone would lose time switching to your not mature (yet) managed wrapper and lose all the advantages an open source project like SlimDX bring.

How reactive will you be in case of bugs while I can submit a patch to SlimDX code base when something doesn't work for me?

How can I trust you won't let this new piece of wrapper rot like you did with MDX?

I trust SlimDX authors, they know their job. You might know yours, you're motivated by leadership and control while they filled in a gap with passion, that's the difference!

Good luck anyway.

grp

# re: Managed Wrappers for the DirectX APIs in Windows 7 @ Saturday, August 22, 2009 1:14 PM

It's really a mess, you guys canceled mdx,now come back with a wrap again?? Does this mean xna framework will never support 10/11?? Please show some mercy to all managed deveoplers, give us a clear roadmap. BTW, I also heard this "wrap" is not so mature....

clayman

# re: Managed Wrappers for the DirectX APIs in Windows 7 @ Tuesday, August 25, 2009 1:32 PM

http://blogs.msdn.com/msaleh/archive/2009/08/25/introducing-directx-features-of-windows-api-code-pack.aspx

Mahmoud

# re: Managed Wrappers for the DirectX APIs in Windows 7 @ Friday, September 11, 2009 7:19 PM

Regarding the comments relating to these wrappers and other related wrappers like XNA;

Microsoft XNA framework is targeted for game development, and runs on a version of the Common Language Runtime that is optimized for gaming. The runtime enables XNA games to run on any platform that supports the XNA Framework.  These include Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Xbox 360.

The Windows API Code Pack is targeted for use by Windows application developers who need to use the new DirectX APIs introduced with Windows 7 to implement high performance graphics scenarios in their managed application.   Specifically, the Windows API code pack provides thin wrappers around native IUnknown interfaces (and for a few D3D 10 classes, non-IUnknown interfaces).   This enables a similar performance and memory footprint as native applications and gives managed applications all the control available to a native applications.  The library also implements interoperability between Direct3D 10.1, Direct2D and DirectWrite.

There are no higher-level abstractions provided that are available with XNA or WPF.   However, there is a sample library that shows how to make use of the most common tasks, such as loading precompiled shaders, textures and meshes.

Finally, the Windows API Code Pack is distributed as source code and allows for modifications within the terms of the license for this libary.

srirams

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