Microsoft DirectX

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.

DirectX Graphics

• 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.

APIs such as Direct3D and DirectSound need to interact with hardware, and they do this through a device driver. Hardware manufacturers have to write these drivers for a particular DirectX version's device driver interface (or DDI), and test each individual piece of hardware to make them DirectX compatible.

Determine the Version of DirectX Using the DirectX Diagnostic Tool

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.

Installation

The new Microsoft Games for Windows DirectX 10 page has the installer and steps to install. The web site is operated by Microsoft, it is not a 3rd party site. It is interesting to note that DirectX is necessary for some video capture software, which is not game related, yet Microsoft makes the existence and download point entirely game oriented.

• Go Directly to the DirectX 10 download at Microsoft.com

DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer

WARNING! WGA Virus Windows Genuine Advantage check is required to download DirectX 10 from Microsoft.com. Do not proceed if you are running a non-licensed version of Microsoft Windows.

To AVOID THE WGA CHECK you can download the DirectX runtimes instead of using the web installer.

• DirectX End-User Runtimes download page.

Outdated Download links: Each link above is to a specific version of DirectX. You will have to check Microsoft.com for the latest end user runtimes.

The Windows Genuine Advantage section called HowTo Download Popular Microsoft Software from Microsoft and Skip the WGA Check also has DirectX downloads.