Platform SDK: DirectX

Space Donuts Sample

[Visual Basic]

This topic pertains only to application development in C and C++. See DirectDraw Visual Basic Samples.

[C++]

Description

This simple game shows how to combine DirectDraw, DirectInput, and DirectSound. Although it demonstrates other DirectX components, it is primarily intended to show how to animate multiple sprites.

Path

Source: (SDK root)\Samples\Multimedia\DDraw\Src\Donuts

Executable: (SDK root)\Samples\Multimedia\DDraw\Bin\Donuts.exe

User's Guide

Input is from the keyboard by default, but you can select a joystick from the Game menu.

The commands are listed on the opening screen. All numbers must be entered from the numeric keypad. "Joy" refers to a joystick button.

Key Command
ESC, F12 Quit
4 Turn left
6 Turn right
5 (Joy 3) Stop
8 Accelerate forward
2 Accelerate backward
7 (Joy 2) Shield
SPACEBAR (Joy 1) Fire
ENTER Start game
F1 Toggle trailing afterimage effect on/off
F3 Turn audio on/off
F5 Toggle frame rate display on/off
F10 Main menu

Space Donuts defaults to 640x480 at 256 colors. You can specify a different resolution and pixel depth on the command line.

The game uses the following command line switches, which are case-sensitive:

e Use software emulation, not hardware acceleration
t Test mode, no input required
x Stress mode. Never stop if you can help it
S Turn sound off/on

These switches may be followed by three option numbers representing x-resolution, y-resolution, and bits per pixel. For example:

donuts -S 800 600 16
 

Programming Notes

This game demonstrates many of the features of DirectDraw. It takes advantage of hardware acceleration if it is supported by the driver.

The program requires less than 1 MB of video RAM.

The sound code is deliberately designed to stress the DirectSound API. It is not intended to be a demonstration of how to use DirectSound API efficiently. For example, each bullet on the screen uses a different sound buffer. Space Donuts creates over 70 sound buffers (including duplicates), and between 20 to 25 may be playing at any time.

The sounds are implemented using the helper functions in Dsutil.h and Dsutil.c (found in the Sdk\Samples\Misc directory). These functions might help you to add sound to your application quickly and easily.