Summary

This hour laid the groundwork for the game graphics that you develop and use throughout the remainder of the book. I know; you're no doubt getting antsy because you've yet to touch on anything terribly game-specific. However, keep in mind that game programming, especially in Windows, involves a variety of different programming disciplines that must come together before a complete game can be built. Even so, hopefully you're feeling a significant sense of accomplishment now that you know how to draw graphics with a little animated pizzazz using the GDI.

Hour 5 continues along in the exploration of GDI graphics programming by uncovering the most important game development concept: graphical images. You find out about bitmap images, how they work, and how to load and display them in a Windows program. You also put your image handling skills to work by creating a slideshow that you can use to display storyboards for your games , or maybe just pictures from your last vacation.