Personally, I dont like using the framework. It introduces a lot of inflexibility. Take for instance the Sprite class they give you. Theres no to control the blending mode for it. Your just stuck with what they give you. I could be wrong but I think Mr. Mike just used it in the code because it got the job done in fewer lines of code and made it easier to understand. In my project I abstracted all the rendering functions to an abstract interface and then implemented them in DirectX or OpenGL at run time through a QueryInterface() function. Its a little harder to put together but its worth it.


-Frank

You are missing a critical aspect of object oriented programming: If you feel their Sprite class is missing some vital fuctionality that you really want, just inherit from it and use your UltraSprite child class instead. You gain all of their work and you can still add what you need or override behavior you don't like. There is no "inflexibility" except in the mind of the creator - "free your mind, Neo."

Rich

...Although there is such a thing as inheritance abuse.

I have a feeling that MrMike intended for his code to be a starting point, and there is no reason why he wouldn't mind if you ended up editing his original Sprite class for your own purposes or redid the main loop in a different way.

On the topic of inheritance abuse, you want your inheritance tree to be as flat as possible. A tall inheritance tree increases the chance of cruft forming in the older base classes that never gets used and only serves to confuse newcomers (google "lava flow antipattern") as well as needlessly inflate the memory footprint of the exe.

Originally posted by Kain
increases the chance of cruft forming ...(google "lava flow antipattern")

Just when I get to the point of thinking I'm on top of knowing O.O. design ideas... I put back in place ... off to google now.

Perhaps the strongest case for using the DirectX framework is the virtual elimination of wacky Windows specific application and screen resolution problems - such as Alt-tabbing away from a full screen game app to another Windowed game app and switching the screen resultion from 32-bit to 16-bit and dragging the windowed game app halfway onto a second monitor while having a third person use remote desktop to see what's going on while accessing Microsoft Outllook.

See what I mean?

This is why I prefer console game development!

whats with directx? OpenGL seems simpler but Directx is more popular for games is there a major difference?

They are completely different API's, so nearly everything is different.

At a higher level, DirectX is Microsoft-specific and runs on Windows machines (and Xbox) while OpenGL tries to be as system independant as possible and runs on pretty much everything. Use whichever one you feel most comfortable with. If you're just starting, using something your comfortable with is much more important.

Most game companies I know of will license a real 3D engine (like Gamebryo, which is what we use) that abstracts it all so you never have to worry about it. Some venture forth and write their own.

-Rez

You're allowed to modify the DXUT framework as much as you like. So just change the Sprite class the way you wish it to be.
I modified my version of DXUT to remove the 'UNICODE only' restriction. And I'm not using the Sprite class or other types of classes they wrote.
Because I really dislike their style of designing a system.