Common Techniques and Special Effects

Direct3D provides a powerful set of tools that can be used to increase the realistic appearance of a 3-D scene. This section presents information on some common special effects that can be produced with Direct3D. The range of possible effects is by no means limited to those presented here. The discussion in this section is organized into the following topics.

• Fog
• Geometry Blending
• User-defined Clip Planes
• Environment Mapping
• Bump Mapping
• Billboarding
• Clouds, Smoke, and Vapor Trails
• Fire, Flares, Explosions, and More
• Motion Blur
• Stencil Buffer Techniques
• Colored Lights
• Antialiasing