Changing Video Modes

Greetings All,

Well, I did it, but I don't understand *why* my code
actually changes the video mode instead of just the
window size. Anyone have some working code that will
change video modes? Code which they can explain ?


Sincerely,

Mr. John Hardeman

Changing the back-buffer dimensions is done by calling IDirect3DDevice9::Reset, with the BackBufferWidth and BackBufferHeight of the D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS set to the desired size. The the other step is to resize your window so that your client area matches the new back-buffer size (you can have different sized client areas and back-buffers, the back-buffer will just be stretched or shrank), which in plain old Win32 you can do with AdjustWindowRect() and SetWindowPos().

That's really all there is to it...I can't give you any of my code though since they're all VS2005 projects. Speaking of which, why are you using such an old version of Visual Studio? The newer versions of the DX SDK don't even support VS 2003 anymore, nevermind VC6. I'd definitely recommend switching to VS 2008 Express.

And another note...If you want to make NES-style games with 8-bit color then I don't think Direct3D is the right choice. Most of the API is designed for heavy-duty 3D work, and therefore even doing simple 2D work can be quite complicated. While it will offer hardware acceleration, you're definitely not going to need it for 2D sprites. I would instead recommend using a software graphics API, which will be much easier to use and set up, and will also give you per-pixel access. Some good choices are Allegro, SDL, and PixelToaster. These are all cross-platform, and have some other useful built-in facilities (keyboard/mouse input, window creation, sound/music, networking). GDI+ is also somewhat useful, but is Windows-only and only handles graphics.