Cheat Engine

[NINTENDO]

Tell me a good drawing api. At first I wanna do 2d but also 3d in the future, so it should support 3d.

[AtheistCrusader]

DirectX
openGL

Windows API

[iPromise]

use the graphics() class and you have a list of good functions.

[NINTENDO]

[hcavolsdsadgadsg]

DX is probably your best bet



ID3DXSPRITE makes 2d work simple as shit, it handles all the internal vertex / index buffers for you, the retarded half pixel DX9 shit, sets up the render states, handles all the batching, etc.
ID3DXFONT provides you with a nice way to render text. Just make sure you use the preload functions and pass it a sprite interface for batching or you'll rape your performance.
IND3XMESH has a bunch of nice features for 3d work, especially the optimization functions which do all kinda of nice reordering on your data.
D3DX also has various functions for loading all kinds of data so you don't have to write your own.


D3DX has tons of functionality that will make your life so much easier and it's FAST. You're probably unlikely to get any faster, the functions tend to be optimized by both AMD and Intel and it will pick the appropriate code path, and it'll do work in the graphics hardware instead wherever beneficial.



Your biggest enemy in 2d is going to be draw calls / state changes and fillrate. Each time you change texture, you're making a state change. ID3DXSPRITE has a flag that will reorder drawing so that it draws all of one texture at a time to minimize changes, but the most common optimization in 2d to avoid this cost is to use a texture atlas (aka keep as much as your textures in 1 texture and merely shift where you're pulling from on the texture to avoid a state change).

I could go on forever, but graphics work is a lot of fun... and equally as deep. There's a TON of shit to get caught up in.

These are some really good tutorials to get started. http://thetavern.servebeer.com/?p=articles

[NINTENDO]

Thanks for your reply

I'll try it out.

I have installed the sdk, however it doesn't show up in the list of reference objects. I look under the tab .net where it should be.

[iPromise]

I meant look at the api's inside the graphics() class.

[hcavolsdsadgadsg]

You never said what language you're using?

if you're using .NET you can use SlimDX

[NINTENDO]