SlimDX Allows .NET 2.0+ applications to use Microsoft's DirectX APIs
Download

SlimDX Ranking & Summary

SlimDX Tags

development Library application development develop development library Microsoft Multimedia API

SlimDX Description

SlimDX was developed to be an open source library originally prototyped by Promit Roy which allows .NET 2.0+ applications (including C#, VB.NET, IronPython, F#, and more) to use Microsoft's DirectX APIs, as well as several related Microsoft multimedia APIs. This role was previously filled for .NET 1.1 applications by Microsoft's own Managed DirectX (MDX) library. However, the age of .NET 1.1, and Microsoft's lack of interest in continuing MDX, have made it necessary to build a new library. Thanks to enthusiastic community support and the invaluable contributions of several other developers who have worked on and with SlimDX, the library has become a fully viable platform on which to build DirectX based applications. Why not use XNA Game Studio? XNA Game Studio (XNA GS) is Microsoft's new initiative for game development in .NET, targeting Windows and the Xbox 360. It is mostly source compatible between both Windows and Xbox 360 platforms. Note that "XNA" is used as shorthand for the XNA Framework. Although XNA and SlimDX share several goals and expose some common components, the overall intent of the two libraries is very different. While XNA's main focus is to provide a comprehensive solution for producing managed games, SlimDX seeks to faithfully expose as much of the Windows multimedia architecture as possible for all kinds of applications. As a result, the actual features and interfaces in each are quite different. Getting Started Getting started is easy! In order to work with SlimDX, you need to have a development environment that allows you to write and run code in a .NET language. We recommend Visual C# Express, but any similar tool should work just fine. It's also recommended that you download the latest DirectX SDK from the Microsoft DirectX Developer Center. This SDK contains a lot of Microsoft's documentation, as well as sample projects in C++ (which are easily translated to SlimDX code) showcasing many useful tricks and techniques. However, this is a very large package, typically over 450 MB, and not required to build SlimDX applications. If you prefer, you can simply use online documentation, tutorials, and samples. Current Status SlimDX was first publically revealed in beta form on June 30, 2007. It has grown explosively since then, with a number of new developers signing up to develop and test. As of the June 2008 release, it is no longer in beta and is considered stable. Several commercial projects and companies are using SlimDX, including at least one shipped AAA game title for Windows. With support for many libraries, including DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectSound, XAudio2, XInput, and even the Windows 7 beta libraries, SlimDX is the most complete multimedia library for .NET you will find anywhere.

SlimDX Related Software