Software Interfaces for Graphics Hardware under WinNT
GDI / DDI
Used by any software that uses Win32 APIs
(before Direct Draw, this meant ALL software).
All graphics acceleration is 2D; benchmarks for
this interface measure graphics performance for
business software (spreadsheets, word processing,
window management, etc).
Direct Draw / DD Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
New API from Microsoft for game programming, HAL
offers ‘thinner’ layer between DD API and hardware.
Supports both 2D and 3D acceleration
OpenGL
Graphics API from Silicon Graphics that offers access
to both 2D and 3D acceleration. Compete directly with
Direct Draw API.