Particle Effects and Light Engines in DX7

Well, I would like to figure this out. Me and I know quite a few of you are trying to do 2d rpgs in DX 7 using Direct Draw and due to this we are left out of the mix which allows easy use of Particle and Light engines. I know its easy to do particle engines that spew pixels everywhere but thats not a good particle engine. A good one is like this

http://www.exhedra.com/DirectX4VB/Images/ParticleFX.jpg

That is what I know a lot of people want to do. If we had that ability in direct draw apps we could do a lot. Rain, Snow, Fog, Fire, Explosions etc. I am dedicating a lot of my time to figure this out. It must be possible and it cant be TOO hard at that. I have emailed the webmaster and coder of DirectX4vb to ask and I am waiting for a response.

I also am trying to figure out if lighting effects are possible in direct draw apps but I think that is less likely. Well, I will post more as I find out more.

You could do a simple particle system using SetPixel on a DirectDraw surface. As for lighting, direct lighting isn't possible although you can use D3D7RM to make some basic lighting if you import it correctly, I've also seen a bit on "light maps". Fogs can be done using a colored background with some calculations. I just use pictures for explosions/fire but there is probably a better way. Snow and Rain can also be done by drawing pixels or by placing an overlay over the scene

That particle effect screen you put the link to is a simple matter of implementing just draw(Blt) different colored circles around the screen using the gravity and life logic

Lightmaps need alphablending or textureblending, which are only possible with D3D, or using external libraries. Same with fog.
Particles are simple to achieve in DD. They're just small sprites which move about with certain physics attributes.

Wouldnt things like setpixel be kinda laggy? I do have this dll written by David Goodlad that allows for alpha blending. Its written in C++ and its royalty free so I could use this if I can figure it out. Maybe move fog/cloud images around and using alpha blending to give it a fog effect?

For snow and rain im not sure yet. I want to actually make images or something because pixels are...well...not detailed enough for what I wanna do. (laughs at the thought of a detailed pixel) I guess I could do it for snow if I used a lot of them but rain and stuff would need to be bigger or something. How slow would using setpixel or something be?

U can do AlphaBlending with a DirectDraw and Direct3D Hybrid, on Lucky's VB Gaming Site, theres a link and a file that shows little spinny things made with DD and D3D, they change colour and blend in and out of the background....

I think when I do add this I will just use that DLL written by Jim Goodlad. I just need to figure out how to use it first ;) Thanks though for telling me about it.