DirectX 9 in visual basic 2005

Hello all,
I am an experinced user of Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, but am failing terribly when trying to apply DirectX, Direct3D and other techniques. Does anyone know where I can find directx tutorials that have visual basic code examples? I would really like ot learn. I have tried literally hundreds of c++ tutorials and they never compile, whether the creater of the source says it works or not. I have the DirectX SDK August 2005. I have gone through the help file as well, but it is so confusing, or maybe I am just dumb. Thanks for any info, Timothy
[568 byte] By [hallscreations] at [2007-12-23]
# 1
Have a look at www.thezbuffer.com, as zman has some of the sdk samples converted to VB, and also has links to various resources that Might help. Also have a look at www.ircomm.net, as I also have links and samples for Managed DirectX programming in VB.NET.

Mykre at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 2
There's not much
Couple of converted SDK samples http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/187.aspx
Tutorials & sample code
http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/100.aspx
http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/120.aspx
http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/136.aspx
http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/138.aspx
http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/125.aspx

Books:
(http://www.thezbuffer.com/categories/books.aspx)

The Managed DirectX Kickstart book has VB samples - but there are a few tweaks to make the code work with current SDKs. Code is not available without the book

David Weller's book has a VB variant and the code is available online http://www.apress.com/book/supplementDownload.html?bID=357&sID=2184 (buy the book if it's useful to you!)

TheZMan at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 3
I'm a vb.net developer also, but I have no real trouble converting those c#.net examples too vb.net. All managed dx functions are the same for both languages.
PeterKiers at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 4
You could always try one of the code converters, I have a small list of the ones availible ( http://www.ircomm.net/forums/562/ShowPost.aspx).
Mykre at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 5
Thanks guys for all the links, it helped me a lot.
hallscreations at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 6
I am looking for a book that will teach game programming and vb all in one. Is there something like that? I have seen some on amazon but most of them are out-dated
Korab at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 7
The only book I know is "Beginning .NET Game Programming in VB.NET", most other books only cover c#.net or c++.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590594010/002-3094679-8989609

PeterKiers at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 8
YUeah i know, I saw that one but all the reviews on it weren't very good
Korab at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 9

I have the book myself, and I find it usefull. The sad thing is that people expect that after one book, they are able to write whole multiplayer 3d games. If you want to learn game programming you should start learning to write tetris clones and that kind of games.

There are not many books about managed dx in vb.net, this because Managed DX isn't around that long like unmanaged directx, and still many game developers still think it isn't as powerfull as unmanaged c++ code. But there is a lot of information on the internet, check the links in this topic.

PeterKiers at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 10
Being realistic there is not much difference between C# and VB.Net, if you followed one of the c# books and used the converters you should be able to get the basics done. As you are just starting out this method should help, all you really need to work on at the moment is the basics.

By the basics I mean creating a device and drawing something on the screen. Once you have gotten to this stage you should have the knowledge to move forward no matter what language that you decide to code in, then the basic principles is all you would be learning and adapting to the code base you have chosen.

One of the things that I did was to look around and find some open source projects and have a look what they have done to complete the task. Another option is to yet again find one of the open projects, look at the tasks and bugs that are with it and try to fix or implement them.

Mykre at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 11
This link my be valuable as well. It is translated via Google.

<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1C8DC451-2DBE-4ECC-8C57-C52EEA50C20A&displaylang=en>

Coder0 at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 12
Korab wrote:
YUeah i know, I saw that one but all the reviews on it weren't very good

Ouch.

ok, yes, there were some mistakes in the book. We fixed those in the second printing (which is what you'll find in bookstores now).

Ironically, Chris Williams (the "Spotlighted Reviewer" who gave my book one star), actually told me a few months ago that he's found the book far more valuable than he first thought.

If you're REALLY cautious, you can get used copies on Amazon for around $18.

DavidWeller at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 13
David Weller wrote:
Korab wrote:
YUeah i know, I saw that one but all the reviews on it weren't very good

Ouch.

ok, yes, there were some mistakes in the book. We fixed those in the second printing (which is what you'll find in bookstores now).

Ironically, Chris Williams (the "Spotlighted Reviewer" who gave my book one star), actually told me a few months ago that he's found the book far more valuable than he first thought.

If you're REALLY cautious, you can get used copies on Amazon for around $18.


oh. ok, sorry about that. So what really is the book centered around because I am not a beginner VB programmer so I don't want someting designed for beginners. I would be wasting time learning stuff I already know. But if it gave really good tutorials on game programming I would be interested. Just what is the difficulty of the vb code?
Korab at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...
# 14
So does directx work with full functionality in express edition? I asked this in another post but the person who answered didn't know.
ggo6 at 2007-8-30 > top of Msdn Tech,Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.,Game Technologies: DirectX 101...