Architectural Overview of the Direct3DX Utility Library

The Direct3DX utility library is a helper layer on top of the Direct3D and DirectDraw components of DirectX 7.0. It is comprised of features such as initialization support, texturing support, and sprite support, each of which are largely independent of each other.

The only application programming interface (API) elements that tie the utility library's functionality together are the D3DXInitialize and D3DXUninitialize functions, which are initialization functions.

The following graphic illustrates how the Direct3DX utility library is related to Direct3D and DirectDraw:

Note  D3DXInitialize must be called before using the Direct3DX utility library APIs; D3DXUninitialize must be called before the application terminates, freeing the resources allocated by Direct3DX.