SharpDX is an open-source platform independent Managed DirectX

Managed DirectX

Managed DirectX is an API to DirectX programming under .NET developed by Microsoft. MDX can be used from any language under the .NET runtime .MDX can be used to develop multimedia and interactive applications Managed DirectX (MDX) is an API to DirectX programming under .NET developed by Microsoft....

 API for the .NET. This new API is directly auto-generated from DirectX

DirectX

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...

 C++ SDK Headers and the generated code is purely written in C# without using any C++/CLI assemblies, while still being able to achieve comparable performance.

The API naming convention has been kept as much as possible similar to the well known SlimDX

SlimDX

SlimDX is an open-source API to DirectX programming under .NET. SlimDX can be used from any language under the .NET runtime .SlimDX can be used to develop multimedia and interactive applications...

 API, which is currently using C++/CLI assemblies.

Also, the aim of SharpDX is to provide, on top of the lower APIs (Direct3D11, DXGI, D3DCompiler...), a higher API level similar to XNA but using latest DirectX technology.

The version 1.0 is fully supporting the following low-level DirectX APIs:

• Direct3D
  Direct3D
  Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
  
   10.0, 10.1, 11
• DXGI
  DXGI
  DirectX Graphics Infrastructure is a user-mode component of Windows Vista and above which provides a mapping between particular graphics APIs such as Direct3D 10.0 and above and the graphics kernel, which in turn interfaces with the user-mode Windows Display Driver Model driver...
  
   1.0, 1.1
• DirectInput
  DirectInput
  In computing, DirectInput is a Microsoft API for collecting input from a computer user, via input devices such as the mouse, keyboard, joystick or other game controllers. It also provides a system for action mapping, which allows the user to assign specific actions within a game to the buttons and...
  
  
• DirectSound
  DirectSound
  DirectSound is a software component of the Microsoft DirectX library for the Windows operating system. DirectSound provides a low-latency interface to the sound card driver and can handle the mixing and recording of multiple audio streams....
  
  , XAudio 2, XAPO
• Direct2D
  Direct2D
  Direct2D is a 2D and vector graphics application programming interface designed by Microsoft and implemented in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and also Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and Platform Update Supplement for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008 & KB2505189 update...
  
  , DirectWrite
  DirectWrite
  DirectWrite is a text-layout and glyph-rendering API by Microsoft. It was designed to replace GDI/GDI+ and Uniscribe for screen-oriented rendering and was shipped with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, as well as Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 DirectWrite is a text-layout and...
  
  
• D3DCompiler

External links

• SharpDX
• Article about SharpDX in Russian
• Developer blog: Alexandre Mutel