Form.Refresh (Invalidate) C# and Direct3D

It is not recommended that you manually invalidate the form to trigger drawing messages. Instead, hook into the Application.Idle event, as described by Tom Miller here.

Just as a side note, Managed DirectX (which it sounds like you're using) is completely dead and is no longer recommended for general use. If you're looking for an alternative, look into XNA or SlimDX.

I am confused by the comment that Managed DirectX is completely dead. Have you seen anything from Microsoft to that end?

I have my own existing C++ cross-platform engine technology and tool chain, and am in the process of porting it over to C#. I am doing it mostly to stay current. I think that in 5 years if I tell people that my engine is C++ only than I might start to look like an old dog.

Certainly DirectX is not dead - that is a core API, which is used by both Windows and Xbox. What makes Managed DirectX "dead".

If on the other hand you are suggesting that if you are a newcomer to "Windows 3D" than you might be better off starting with XNA becasue it gives you so much for free and integrates nicely with modern managed languages like C#, than I complete understand and agree.

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Original post by starman2049 I am confused by the comment that Managed DirectX is completely dead. Have you seen anything from Microsoft to that end? I have my own existing C++ cross-platform engine technology and tool chain, and am in the process of porting it over to C#. I am doing it mostly to stay current. I think that in 5 years if I tell people that my engine is C++ only than I might start to look like an old dog. Certainly DirectX is not dead - that is a core API, which is used by both Windows and Xbox. What makes Managed DirectX "dead". If on the other hand you are suggesting that if you are a newcomer to "Windows 3D" than you might be better off starting with XNA becasue it gives you so much for free and integrates nicely with modern managed languages like C#, than I complete understand and agree.

Managed DirectX is "dead" because Microsoft discontinued it, there will be no update in the future, no DX10/11 version etc... (And in the current SDK's even the examples are removed.)
You will not have any kind of support or bug-fix from them. You can use the current functionality, just that...

As Mike pointed out, pass to XNA (if you need simplicity or Xbox support) or to SlimDX (that is a wrapper over DirectX still supported and developed)

All great comments, thank you. I was having a difficult time finding managed DirectX resources so it makes sense if Microsoft is phasing it out. I was going to go the XNA route, but not sure if I want to go that way or not (versus just using C++ to do what I need to do).

slimdx is awesome imho, ive been using it for directx with c# for almost a year now.

If you're looking at SlimDX vs XNA, keep in mind that they have different aims. SlimDX is meant to be a thin wrapper around all levels of DirectX technology, with all of the functionality being exposed to your managed code.

XNA is more of a game-development framework that happens to include a managed wrapper of Direct3D9. The wrapper is generally good enough to do 95-99% of the stuff you'd do in native D3D9, but some things are not exposed or have weird usage semantics in order to maintain compatibility with the Xbox 360. There's also other features like the Game class and the Content Pipeline that are more general-purpose tools for game development.