Accessing Video Memory Information...need help!

KneeLess · 08-17-2003, 06:24 PM

Okay, I was going to write a program for fun (and maybe, probably not practical use) that sees how much Video Memory you have, and how much your using. My friend sugessted DirectDraw for this task.

I googled video memory programming, and came up with this link. The first answer says this:

Quote:

...
IDirectDraw7::GetCaps

dwVidMemTotal
Total amount of display memory on the device, in bytes, minus memory reserved for the primary surface and any private data structures reserved by the driver. (This value is the same as the total video memory reported by the IDirectDraw7::GetAvailableVidMem method.)
dwVidMemFree
Free display memory. This value equals the value in dwVidMemTotal, minus any memory currently allocated by the application for surfaces. Unlike the GetAvailableVidMem method, which reports the memory available for a particular type of surface (such as a texture), this value reflects the memory available for any type of surface.
...

From what I've read you need ddraw.h and ddraw.dll (both of which I have).
From MSDN (*dodges flames*) it says that IDirectDrawVideo::GetCaps (HRESULT GetCaps(DDCAPS *pCaps);) can get this information also.

Now, onto my question. Should I use one of these two methods or possibly another one? And is there a good DirectDraw tutorial that teaches use of one of the methods?

I found this. Good tutorial, but it doesn't teach GetCaps or dwVidMemTotal/dwVidMemFree.

Thanks.

KneeLess · 08-19-2003, 01:38 AM

A person suggested to me to use (in addtion to IDirectDraw7::GetCaps, supposed to fill lpDDSCaps2 with GetCaps):

Code:

IDirectDraw7::GetAvailableVidMem( LPDDSCAPS2 lpDDSCaps2, ... )

I'm having trouble initialized it. I found this, and it says to put in the given code. But when I do, it spits out all these errors at me. I've included ddraw.dll (in my project, not as a header file

) and ddraw.h, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

And how exactly would I use GetCaps to fill lpDDSCaps2?