VB.NET and DX9 better than VB6 and DX8?

[Valon]

O.k., so I was wondering, for those of you who use the .NET platform, Ive been with VB for a few years, but havent picked up VB.NET yet. I had JUST started work on a basic graphics engine, but halted until I could decide whether to do it in VB.NET w/DX9 or just stick with VB6. but VB6 cant use DX9, so thats got me leaning toward VB.NET. Is it worth the change? Is it faster than VB6? Is the OO system easier to work with than the COM of the VB6 platform? Thanks in advance for the input.

 

[Machaira]

Better - Yes, IMO
Faster - you wont notice much difference more than likely

Once you get used to the .NET Framework, you should love the OO features that VB.NET gives you. Still lacking true pointers (when are they going to listen to us!!! ), but, its way beyond what VB6 gives you.

I started putting together some stuff on RPG programming using VB6 and DX8. I scrapped it and rewrote everything in VB.NET and DX9.

 

[mutant]

DirectX9 contains many updated things, like HLSL. It is newer then DX8 which means it will contain more features, will be better overall. I would suggest you go with DX9. The speeds of Managed DX almost reach the speeds of C++ with DX, so in terms of speed it is not bad either.

 

[Machaira]

I was watching an episode of the .NET Show which discussed DirectX and the guy from MS said the Managed version was around 95-98% of the speed of unmanaged. Pretty good.

 

[samsmithnz]

Originally posted by Machaira

Still lacking true pointers (when are they going to listen to us!!!

? why do you want pointers in VB? It would ruin a perfectly good language that has tryed to not expose that sort of crap. If you really want to use pointers maybe you should switch to c++.

 

[Nerseus]

You CAN use pointers in VB, like you always could. Not sure why youd want to if you dont have to (hence the managed version of DirectX9).

I would go with VB.NET and DX9 over VB6 UNLESS you wanted DirectDraw. If you *really* want DirectDraw, Id probably stick with DX7 and VB6. Thats just me.

-Nerseus