| Microsoft DirectX 8.1 (Visual Basic) |
Complicated geometry is usually modeled using 3-D modeling software and saved to a file. A example of this is the .x file format. Microsoft® Direct3D® uses meshes to load the objects from these files. Meshes are somewhat involved, but Microsoft® Direct3DX contains functions to help out. The Meshes sample project introduces the topic of meshes and shows how to load, render, and unload a mesh.
This tutorial shows how to load and render a mesh with the following steps.
The path of the Meshes sample project is:
(SDK root)\Samples\Multimedia\VBSamples\Direct3D\Tutorials\Tut06_Meshes.
The code in the Meshes sample project is nearly identical to the code in the Lights sample project, except that the Meshes sample project does not create a material or a light. This tutorial focuses only on the code unique to Meshes and does not cover initializing Direct3D, rendering, or shutting down. For information on these tasks, see Tutorial 1: Creating a Device.
This tutorial also uses custom vertices and a vertex buffer to display geometry. For more information on selecting a custom vertex type and implementing a vertex buffer, see Tutorial 2: Rendering Vertices.
This tutorial also makes use of matrices to transform geometry. For more information on matrices and transformations, see Tutorial 3: Using Matrices.
This tutorial also uses textures to cover the surface of the mesh. For more information on loading and using textures, see Tutorial 5: Using Texture Maps.