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.

To start off, we will do a lesson covering the basics of DirectInput, as well as how to initialize it and get it started.  Then we will talk about how to use the keyboard and look for certain keystrokes.

In this lesson, we will extend our knowledge of DirectInput and learn how to detect mouse movement and mouse clicks.

Next, we're looking at making a lesson on how to use joysticks.  After that, there is XInput, the interface used for XBox controller input.