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D3DSWAPEFFECT

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This enumeration defines swap effects.

typedef enum _D3DSWAPEFFECT {
  D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD = 1,
  D3DSWAPEFFECT_FLIP = 2,
  D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY = 3,
  D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY_VSYNC = 4,
  D3DSWAPEFFECT_FORCE_DWORD = 0xFFFFFFFF
} D3DSWAPEFFECT;

Constants

  • D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD
    When a swap chain is created with a swap effect of D3DSWAPEFFECT_FLIP, D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY or D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY_VSYNC, the runtime will guarantee that a IDirect3DDevice8::Present operation will not affect the content of any of the back buffers. Unfortunately, meeting this guarantee can involve substantial video memory or processing overheads, especially when implementing flip semantics for a windowed swap chain or copy semantics for a full-screen swap chain. An application may use the D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD swap effect to avoid these overheads and to enable the display driver to select the most efficient presentation technique for the swap chain. This is also the only swap effect that may be used when specifying a value other than D3DMULTISAMPLE_NONE for the MultiSampleType member of D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS.

    Like a swap chain that uses D3DSWAPEFFECT_FLIP, a swap chain that uses D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD might include more than one back buffer, any of which may be accessed using IDirect3DDevice8::GetBackBuffer or IDirect3DSwapChain8::GetBackBuffer. The swap chain is best envisaged as a queue in which 0 always indexes the back buffer that will be displayed by the next Present operation and from which buffers are discarded once they have been displayed.

    An application that uses this swap effect cannot make any assumptions about the contents of a discarded back buffer and should therefore update an entire back buffer before invoking a Present operation that would display it. Although this is not enforced, the debug version of the runtime will overwrite the contents of discarded back buffers with random data to enable developers to verify that their applications are updating the entire back buffer surfaces correctly.

    For a full-screen swap chain, the presentation rate is determined by the value assigned to the FullScreen_PresentationInterval member of the D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS structure when the device or swap chain is created. Unless this value is D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_IMMEDIATE, the presentation will be synchronized with the vertical sync of the monitor. For a windowed swap chain, the presentation is implemented by means of copy operations and always occurs immediately.

  • D3DSWAPEFFECT_FLIP
    The swap chain might include multiple back buffers and is best envisaged as a circular queue that includes the front buffer. Within this queue, the back buffers are always numbered sequentially from 0 to (N -1), where N is the number of back buffers, so that 0 denotes the least recently presented buffer. When Present is invoked, the queue is "rotated" so that the front buffer becomes back buffer (N - 1), while the back buffer 0 becomes the new front buffer.

    For a full-screen swap chain, the presentation rate is determined by the value assigned to the FullScreen_PresentationInterval member of the D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS structure when the device or swap chain is created. Unless this value is D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_IMMEDIATE, the presentation will be synchronized with the vertical sync of the monitor. For a windowed swap chain, the flipping is implemented by means of copy operations and the presentation always occurs immediately.

  • D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY
    This swap effect may be specified only for a swap chain comprising a single back buffer. Whether the swap chain is windowed or full-screen, the runtime will guarantee the semantics implied by a copy-based Present operation, namely that the operation leaves the content of the back buffer unchanged, instead of replacing it with the content of the front buffer as a flip-based Present operation would.

    For a windowed swap chain, a Present operation causes the back buffer content to be copied to the client area of the target window immediately. No attempt is made to synchronize the copy with the vertical retrace period of the display adapter, so "tearing" effects may be observed. In windowed applications you might want to use D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY_VSYNC instead to eliminate, or at least minimize, such tearing effects.

    For a full-screen swap chain, the runtime uses a combination of flip operations and copy operations, supported if necessary by hidden back buffers, to accomplish the Present operation. Accordingly, the presentation is synchronized with the display adapter's vertical retrace and its rate is constrained by the chosen presentation interval. A swap chain specified with the D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_IMMEDIATE flag is the only exception. (Refer to the description of the FullScreen_PresentationInterval member of the D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS structure.) In this case, a Present operation copies the back buffer content directly to the front buffer without waiting for the vertical retrace.

  • D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY_VSYNC
    Like D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY, this swap effect may be used only with a swap chain made of a single back buffer. It guarantees that a Present operation applied to the swap chain will exhibit copy semantics, as described above for D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY.

    For a windowed swap chain, a Present operation causes the back buffer content to be copied to the client area of the target window. The runtime will attempt to eliminate tearing effects by avoiding the copy operation while the adapter is scanning within the destination rectangle on the display. It will also perform at most one such copy operation during the adapter's refresh period and thus limit the presentation frequency. Note, however, that if the adapter does not support the ability to report the raster status, the swap chain will behave as though it had been created with the D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY swap effect. (Refer to the description of the D3DCAPS_READ_SCANLINE flag value for the Caps member of D3DCAPS8.)

    For a full-screen swap chain, D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY_VSYNC is identical to D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY, except that the D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_IMMEDIATE flag is meaningless when used in conjunction with D3DSWAPEFFECT_COPY_VSYNC. (Refer to the description of the FullScreen_PresentationInterval member of the D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS structure.)

  • D3DSWAPEFFECT_FORCE_DWORD
    Forces this enumeration to compile to 32 bits in size. This value is not used.

Remarks

The state of the back buffer after a call to Present is well-defined by each of these swap effects, and whether the Microsoft® Direct3D® device was created with a full-screen swap chain or a windowed swap chain has no effect on this state. In particular, the D3DSWAPEFFECT_FLIP swap effect operates the same whether windowed or full-screen, and the Direct3D runtime guarantees this by creating extra buffers. As a result, it is recommended that applications use D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD whenever possible to avoid any such penalties. This is because this swap effect will always be the most efficient in terms of memory consumption and performance.

Requirements

OS Versions: Windows CE .NET 4.0 and later.
Header: D3d8types.h.

See Also

IDirect3DDevice8::GetBackBuffer | IDirect3DDevice8::Present | IDirect3DDevice8::Reset | IDirect3DSwapChain8::GetBackBuffer | D3DCAPS8 | D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS

 Last updated on Thursday, April 08, 2004

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