C

camera

A Direct3DRMFrame object used by the viewport to define the viewing position and direction. The viewport renders only what is visible along the positive z-axis of the camera frame, with the up direction being in the direction of the positive y-axis.

clip list

A series of rectangles that describes the visible areas of the surface. The clip list cannot be set if a window handle is already associated with the DirectDrawClipper object.

clipper

A DirectDrawClipper object.

codec

Represents the phrase "compressor and decompressor."

collision detection

The process of determining if any pixels for two images share the same location on-screen. (See also, hit detection).

color key

A value indicating the color to be used for transparent or translucent effects. When using a hardware blitter, for example, all of the pixels of a rectangular area will be blitted except for the value that was set as the color key, thereby creating nonrectangular sprites on a surface.

color space

Any of several different methods of encoding and visualizing color. The two most common types of color space are RGB and YUV.

color-space conversion

A technique for converting a color in one color space to another color space. Typically, this conversion is from YUV colors from a video source to RGB for display.

color table

An array of n color values (normally RGB triples).

complex surface

The collective term for several DirectDrawSurface objects, all of which are attached to a root surface. The complex-surface structure can be destroyed only by destroying the root.

current play position

The location in a DirectSound buffer where a sound is being played.

current write position

The location in a DirectSound buffer where it is safe to change data in that buffer.