Before you can do this tutorial, you will need the following:

1.  Visual Studio 2005 (or Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition)*.
2.  A knowledge of basic C++ and Win32 programming.
3.  DirectX SDK (February 2005 or later) and a knowledge of its basics.
4.  A burning desire to make games.

* - other versions of C++ compilers will also run DirectX, however, there are some language specific changes you may need to make in each of the demo applications.

This is the first of the lessons in 2D graphics.  To do 2D graphics at all, we must know how to use sprites, a common method of drawing flat images.  This lesson will cover how to draw a simple sprite onto your screen.

2D graphics are not as boring as they appeared in Lesson 1.  There are many parameters and flags that can be utilized to make very good-looking 2D graphics.

In game displays, it is important to have some form of animation.  Most displays (although some still manage to do without them) have lots of animations, and because of this they are full of life and action.  This lesson will cover the fundamentals of animation, while the exercises will get you ready to build your own.

Where would a game display be without text?  It would be without ammo indicators, health indicators, text messages, or anything.  This lesson covers the basics of text display.

Now we finally get to build a game display.  In this lesson, we will go over various methods of using sprites to build a great game display.