A light source that removes illumination from a scene. Dark light is created by specifying negative values for the colors of the light.
DCI
Display Control Interface. Defined by the Intel and Microsoft® corporations, DCI is an interface that offers improved graphics performance as a result of direct video memory access.
deadband
A zone around the offset of a force-feedback axis at which a condition is not active.
dead zone
An area within the physical range of an axis where the axis is considered to be at the center.
decal
A texture that is rendered directly, as a visual. Decals are rendered into a viewport-aligned rectangle.
destination color key
The color that (in the case of blitting) is replaced or (in the case of overlays) is covered on the destination surface.
device window
A visible application window that Microsoft® DirectDraw® uses for display. Applications can have a device window for each display device attached to a given computer. See also focus window.
directional
Description of a light source that is attached to a frame but appears to illuminate all objects with equal intensity, as if it were at an infinite distance from the objects. Directional light has orientation but no position, and it is commonly used to simulate distant light sources, such as the sun.
DirectPlay address
A data format that Microsoft® DirectPlay® uses to pass addressing information between lobby servers, applications, DirectPlay, and service providers. A DirectPlay address is a sequence of variable-length data chunks tagged with a globally unique identifier (GUID) that supplies all the address information needed by DirectPlay. Examples of address information are: the network address of a server, the network address of a player, the e-mail name of a player, and the network address of a session.
DLS
Downloadable Sounds. A standard for synthesizing wave sounds from digital samples stored in software. The DLS level 1 and level 2 standards are published by the MIDI Manufacturers Association.
DMO
Microsoft® DirectX® Media Object. A COM object that processes multimedia data streams from buffers allocated by the client.