DirectX 9 or DirectX 10 for starters?

Question

I want to do projects to make my resume more appealing to game companies. So I am going to start buying books. But I don\'t know rather to read DirectX 9 or 10 api books to

Answer 1

Yes do not waste your time with DX10 it was never really adopted as the industry standard for any period of time, there wasn't any big enough changes to warrant people upgrading from DX9 but for DX11 there was.

Answer 2

I would suggest learning the basics using directx9 and then rapidly moving on to dx11. DirectX11 is harder to get started in than DirectX9 because it's slightly more complex but also a lot of the utility functions in D3DX are no longer there, or have been moved to source code like the effects framework. This is no bad thing, but it does make it signifiacantly more complex to learn as you have to learn a lot more things at once.

Spend 2 or 3 weeks learning DX9 then move to DX11 for "real" work :P

Learn basic DX9 using the fixed pipeline and d3dx for loading models etc. It's a lot simpler than DX11 and much better documented, and you'll get a triangle and then a model on screen very much faster. Play with that until you completely understand the basic concepts and tranformations.

But then rewrite it all using shaders only. You'll need to use them in DX10/11 anyway but it's a lot easier to learn when you already have a working framework of code, and it's a lot simpler to get that working in DX9.

Once you have that working, learn DX11. You'll have to switch math libraries. You'll have to invent your own model formats and loaders. You'll have to either invent your own effects framework or use the example one, but they are all much easier now you already know the basics of 3d and programming shaders.

Answer 3

If your intention is really to learn a skill that you would use in the game industry, stick with DirectX 9. Since DirectX 10 and 11 both require Vista or Window 7, game developers are still mostly ignoring them and targeting DirectX 9 in order to have support for Windows XP.

That being said, it doesn't really matter which you start with. The differences are not that large. If you understand the concepts behind 3D APIs and how the GPU pipeline works, you can pick up any of the three or even OpenGL with minimal effort.

Answer 4

TBH further to OneOfOne's comment if you know how to do 3D development in GL, D3D9, D3D10 or D3D11 then you can transfer those skills to any of the others with a little bit of work.

Personally I'd aim for D3D11 as that way you are learning the cutting edge. You'll find you'll be able to do GL, D3D9 or D3D10 with a little work. Do enough work on the theory and you'll discover that its not even that hard to transfer the skills to a fully software engine.

Answer 5

You can check Luna's books for DX9 /DX11(I suggest you start with 11). You can check out http://www.rastertek.com/tutdx11.html but he doesn't explain everything so you can go in Luna s book to see what is with those functions or properties

Answer 6

I suggest directx 11, there's no reason in my opinion to waste time on deprecated functions or techniques. Learning shaders from the start will make things way more clear