Microsoft DirectX 8.1 (Visual Basic)

State Blocks

A state block in Microsoft® Direct3D® is a group of device states—render states, lighting and material parameters, transformation states, texture stage states, and current texture information. The state block is a snapshot of the device's current state, or it is explicitly recorded. The snapshot can be applied to a device in a single call. Device-state blocks can be optimized by the rendering device to accelerate the common sequences of state changes that your application requires, or they can simply make applying device states easier.

In Microsoft Visual Basic®, you receive a state-block handle when you finish recording a state block by calling the Direct3DDevice8.EndStateBlock method, and when you capture a predefined set of device state data by calling the Direct3DDevice8.CreateStateBlock method.

Additional information is contained in the following topics.