The set of colors used by an object or application. In Microsoft® DirectX®, a DirectDrawPalette object.
palette index
An integer index into the palette table array that is used to select a particular color.
palettized surface
A DirectDrawSurface object that uses an attached palette to contain color information.
pan value
The relative volume, measured in hundredths of decibels, between the left and right audio channels.
parallel point
Description of a light source that illuminates objects with parallel light, but the orientation of the light is taken from the position of the parallel point light source. For example, two meshes on either side of a parallel point light source are lit on the side that faces the position of the source.
PChannel
Performance channel. A PChannel is a MIDI channel in a particular channel group on a particular port.
PCM
Pulse code modulation. An uncompressed wave data format in which each value represents the amplitude of the signal at the time of sampling.
peer-to-peer session
A Microsoft® DirectPlay® session in which the session's complete state is replicated on all the computers in the session. The session description data—the list of players and groups and the names and remote data associated with each session—are duplicated on every computer. When one computer changes something, it is immediately propagated to all the other computers. This is the default mode of communication for DirectPlay. See alsoclient/server session.
perspective correction
The technique of applying a texture map to a polygon that is angled away from the camera, interpolating so that the texture is stretched onto the polygon appropriately for the apparent depth of the polygon. Microsoft® Direct3D® supplies perspective correction automatically.
pick
To search for visuals in a scene, given a 2-D coordinate in a viewport.
PID
Physical interface device. A USB class that enables humans to feel force feedback from a computer.
pitch
The distance, in bytes, between an address that represents the beginning of a bitmap line and the beginning of the next line. Do not confuse memory pitch and memory width because not all display memory is laid out as one linear block. For example, with rectangular memory, the pitch of the display memory could include the width of the bitmap plus part of a cache. See alsowidth and stride.
player
A single participant in a Microsoft® DirectPlay® session. Each player is associated with a player ID that enables messages to be exchanged among players.
player ID
A unique number that is assigned to each participant in a Microsoft® DirectPlay® session when the participant is created. The application can exchange messages among players by using player IDs. The host is always assigned the DPID_SYSMSG player ID.
PNG
Portable Network Graphics. A nonproprietary bitmap format using lossless compression.
point light
A light source that radiates equally in all directions from its origin.
point list
The simplest 3-D primitive. A collection of unconnected points in 3-D space.
power
In the specular property of a material, the value that determines the sharpness of specular highlights. A value of 5 gives a metallic appearance, and higher values give a more plastic appearance.
primary sound buffer
An object that mixes and plays the final audio output. The primary buffer is generally used to mix sound from secondary buffers, but it can be accessed directly for custom mixing or other specialized activities.
primary surface
The area in memory containing the image being displayed on the monitor.
projection space
Frame of reference containing vertices after they are modified from their world space locations by the projection transformation. Projection space is a homogeneous cuboid space in which all vertices in a scene have x- and y-coordinates that range from –1.0 to 1.0, and a z-coordinate that ranges from 0.0 to 1.0. Projection space is sometimes referred to as post-perspective homogeneous space.