How can I use DirectX to create a video editor in C#?

Question

Is it possible to create a video editor in C# by using DirectX or should I use a different SDK to make a video editor? Keep in mind that I need to be able to animate objects (shapes and paths like in After Effects if possible).

Answer 1

There are really two Windows APIs you should consider for a video editor:

• Media Foundation which is the modern Windows media API for video and audio.

• DirectShow which is an older technology that dates back to the late 90s.

The DirectX SDK is not applicable to video application development. DirectShow was pulled out of the DirectX SDK back in April 2005. Media Foundation never shipped in the DirectX SDK. See DirectX SDKs of a certain age .

Note that even the DirectX SDK itself is legacy these days. See MSDN

Instead, these APIs are available in the Windows SDK. If you are using Visual Studio, you likely already have a copy of this SDK. For a list of versions, see A Brief History of Windows SDKs

To make use of either of these APIs from C#, you should take a look at Media Foundation and directshow.net .

There is a Direct3D 11 Video technology that is part of the DirectX 11.1 Runtime (Windows 8 SDK or later). It is extremely low-level and is really intended for things like Media Foundation itself to use as a renderer with some ability to do GPU acceleration of the processing.