D

dark light

A light source that removes illumination from a scene, created by specifying negative values for the colors of the light.

DCI

Display Control Interface. Defined by the Intel® and Microsoft® corporations, DCI is an interface that offers improved graphics performance as a result of direct video memory access.

dead zone

An area within the range of an axis within which the axis is considered to be at the center.

decal

A texture that is rendered directly, as a visual. Decals are rendered into a viewport-aligned rectangle.

destination color key

The color that (in the case of blitting) is replaced or (in the case of overlays) is covered on the destination surface.

device window

A visible application window that Microsoft® DirectDraw® uses for display. Applications can have a device window for each display device attached to a given computer. See also focus window.

directional

Description of a light source that is attached to a frame but appears to illuminate all objects with equal intensity, as if it were at an infinite distance from the objects. Directional light has orientation but no position, and it is commonly used to simulate distant light sources, such as the sun.

DirectPlay address

A data format that Microsoft® DirectPlay® uses to pass addressing information between lobby servers, applications, DirectPlay, and service providers. A DirectPlay address is a sequence of variable-length data chunks tagged with a globally unique identifier (GUID) that supplies all the address information needed by DirectPlay. Examples of address information are: the network address of a server, the network address of a player, the e-mail name of a player, and the network address of a session.

DLS

Downloadable sounds (sometimes called downloadable samples). Digital samples in software that are used by a synthesizer to create instrument timbres.