Looking for a Direct3D system architecture diagram...

Hi all...

I am looking for detailed block diagram information that describes the Direct3D architecture.

Thus far I have found only limited architecture information like the diagram here: http://www.hide-link.com/ . Other than the preceding link, I have found that most online Direct3D information relates to the function calls in the API. While function calls are the knobs and dials of the Direct3D system, I really need to see the system blueprint to understand how it works. Does such information exist in the public domain

My background: I am a C++/C# developer with a masters in image/video processing and computer vision. I have been using Direct3D for about 1-2 months now for some data visualization projects. My Direct3D experience involves basic knowledge of texturing, vertex buffers, and the device object. While I am using C# for my current project, I also have past COM programming experience using DirectShow.

Thanks in advance to any that can point me to a deeper understanding of how Direct3D works.

Cheers,
-Eric

Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.3

Direct3D in version 9 has an architecture very similar to OpenGL. If you can find an OpenGL system diagram, you can pretty much translate it into D3D terms ("texture stage state" == "texture environment", etc).

I know there's a giant poster of the OpenGL state machine that comes with "the blue book" (The OpenGL Reference manual) although that's pretty old by now (not including shaders, for example). Given that the hardware underneath is the same, the two APIs by necessity affords mostly the same variation points, anyway.

You almost certainly want to look at Richard Thomson's Direct3D Pipeline poster. Its not quite as simple as the block-diagram you linked to, but you should be able to split it apart - and at the very least see what order things are done...

hth
Jack