Hi. I'm new to Delphi game programming and am still in the process of choosing a game library/component set to use for my first project. I originally thought of using DirectX, but as I am very poorly informed in this field, any recommendations are welcome. I am looking for a simple yet powerful set that can do the following:

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...ono/Eruruw.jpg

This is screenshot from a game where one graphic (the girl) is displayed against a background graphic. Note how there is no sharp contrast between the edges of the character image and the background. It has been suggested to me that this is done using multiple levels of transparency as opposed to the single transparency colour used by Bitmap files. It has also been pointed out to me that DirectDraw does not support PNG files that have better support for transparency (at least not by default).

Could someone please recommend me a solution for dealing with hard edges like this and possibly suggest a game library/component set that allows it? For example, if you think using PNG files is the solution, could you please recommend me a good component set that allows for PNGs?

Bear in mind that I have no experience in game programming with Delphi.

Thank you in advance.