Unlike XNA (which was a sandboxed, simplified toy for Xbox Live Arcade), SlimDX aimed for . It wasn't a "framework." It was a 1:1 mapping of Direct3D 9, 10, 11, DirectInput, XAudio2, and DXGI to C#. The Magic of slimdx.lib When you downloaded SlimDX, you got a managed DLL ( SlimDX.dll ) and an unmanaged helper library: slimdx.lib (and its accompanying slimdx.dll ).
Most developers ignored the .lib . They just referenced the C# DLL and moved on. But the .lib was the heart of the beast. slimdx.lib
Why? Because C# cannot inherit from C++ COM interfaces. You cannot write class MyDevice : ID3D11Device in C#. The v-table layout is wrong; the calling convention is wrong; the world is wrong. Unlike XNA (which was a sandboxed, simplified toy
SlimDX.lib was the Rosetta Stone. It allowed you to write: Most developers ignored the