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Display Drivers (Windows 2000 Model)

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Microsoft NT-based operating system display driver writers are concerned with two core software interfaces:

  • Graphics DDI interface--The set of functions that the display driver implements. GDI can call the graphics DDI interface to process graphics commands.

  • GDI interface--System-supplied helper routines called by display drivers to simplify driver implementation.

This section describes key concepts associated with NT-based operating system display drivers as well as some implementation information. See GDI Support for Graphics Drivers and Using the Graphics DDI for graphics driver design details that are common to both printer drivers and display drivers, such as driver initialization and termination, and graphics output.

Display driver writers can also implement the following DDIs:

  • DirectDraw DDI -- Graphics interface that allows vendors to provide hardware accelerations for DirectDraw. See DirectDraw for details.

  • Direct3D DDI -- 3D graphics interface that allows vendors to provide hardware accelerations for Direct3D. See Direct3D DDI for details.