Jaton 3DForceS-128, User Manual

Page: 30 / 46

30
Microsoft's API for 3D graphics. One of the components of
DirectX. Supported by all gaming-oriented 3D accelerators so
far.
DirectX
A set of APIs developed by Microsoft. DirectX is made of
several components, each of which can be used to access
different hardware devices. The members of this family
include:
•
Direct Draw for enhanced 2-D graphics services.
•
Direct3D for enhanced 3-D graphics services.
•
Direct Sound for enhanced sound-mixing and playback
services.
•
Direct Play for enhanced multiplayer game connectivity
over the Internet.
•
Direct Input for enhanced joystick and other input device
performance.
•
DirectX is a low-level API designed specially for high-
performance applications such as games. It is a thin layer
providing direct access to hardware services (hence the
name). The technology takes advantage of available
hardware accelerators and emulates accelerator service
when accelerators are present.
Dithering
The process of mixing colors to create the effect of another
ones. This process is useful for 8-bit or even, in some cases,
16-bit color systems to extend the limited color palette. It is
possible to create the appearance of other colors that are not in
the palette by mixing different colored pixels in a semi-random
pattern. This technique can be used to make 256-color images
look like 64K-color images. The reverse is also true: dithering
can be used to render with only 256 colors some images which
were computed using 64K colors.
Double Buffering