| DirectX SDK |
If the computer on which your application is running is equipped with a display adapter that supports Direct3D, your application should use it for 3-D operations. Direct3D HAL devices implement all or part of the transformation, lighting, and rasterizing modules in hardware.
Applications do not access 3-D cards directly. They call Direct3D functions and methods. Direct3D access the hardware through the hardware abstraction layer (HAL). If the computer that your application is running on supports the HAL, it will gain the best performance by using a HAL device.
To create a HAL device from C++, call the IDirect3D7::CreateDevice method, and pass the IID_IDirect3DHALDevice value as the first parameter. For details, see Creating a Direct3D Device.
To create a HAL device from Visual Basic, call the Direct3D7.CreateDevice method, and pass the "IID_IDirect3DHALDevice" string constant as the first parameter. For details, see Creating a Direct3D Device.
Note Unlike the software-emulation RGB device, hardware devices cannot render to 8-bit render-target surfaces.