GxApi is a cross-platform graphics API that is part of the World of Warcraft engine. It:

  • Creates/destroys the window in which the game runs, which starts the game being able to read input events
  • Loads/unloads texture and geometry data
  • Creates/destroys textures
  • Draws to the window.

Graphics device

GxApi supports multiple low-level graphics APIs such as OpenGL and Direct3D (DirectX) 9. It does this by wrapping an base interface class, CGxDevice, whose virtual member functions handle the actual calls to the graphics driver.

Windows device

On Windows, the derived classes include:

CGxDeviceOpenGl
OpenGL implementation. Enabled by passing -opengl as a launch parameter, or setting a CVar: SET gxApi "OpenGL"
CGxDeviceD3d
Direct3D 9 (DirectX) implementation.
CGxDeviceD3d9Ex
Direct3D 9Ex (DirectX) implementation