System Integration

The following diagram shows the relationships between Microsoft?Direct3D? the Microsoft Windows?Graphics Device Interface (GDI), the hardware abstraction layer (HAL), and the hardware.

As the preceding diagram shows, Direct3D applications exist alongside GDI applications and both have access to the graphics hardware through the device driver for the graphics card. Unlike GDI, Direct3D can take advantage of hardware features when a HAL device is selected. HAL devices provide hardware acceleration based on the feature set supported by the graphics card. You are provided with a Direct3D method to determine at run time if a device is capable of the task.

For more information about devices supported by Direct3D, see Device Types.