Microsoft DirectX

A collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, mostly video, on Microsoft Windows. It was released in 1995 and was designed to allow all programs to write instructions for hardware without knowing exactly what hardware is within the computer. Games which include DirectX will have the capability of utilizing multimedia and graphics accelerator features efficiently.

Windows 95 OSR2 was the first version of Windows shipped with DirectX. It included DirectX version 2.0. At the time DirectX did not live up to the expectation of game developers and many opted not to use the technology. Windows NT shipped with DirectX 2.0. Upgrading to Service Pack 3 or higher will install DirectX 3.0. However, there are no higher versions of DirectX available for Windows NT.

• DirectDraw: for drawing 2D Graphics (raster graphics). Now deprecated, though still in use by a number of games and as a video renderer in media applications.
• Direct3D (D3D): for drawing 3D graphics.
• DXGI: for enumerating adapters and monitors and managing swap chains for Direct3D 10 and up.

To use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to determine the version of DirectX that is installed on your computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type dxdiag, and then click OK.
3. On the System tab, note the version of DirectX displayed on the DirectX Version line.
4. On the DirectX Files tab, check the version information for each DirectX file.
5. When you are finished checking file versions, click Exit.

• If Windows cannot find the dxdiag program, DirectX version 5.0 or earlier is installed on your computer. If this is the case, download and install the current version of DirectX.