DirectX
Current DirectX
Developed by	Microsoft
Latest release	6. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product 00. 6001. 18000 / 4 February 2008
OS	Microsoft Windows
Genre	Application framework
License	Proprietary EULA
Website	DirectX Homepage

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Events 211 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use In Computer programming, an application framework is a Software framework that is used to implement the standard structure of an application for a A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. Game programming, a subset of Game development, is the Programming of computer, console or Arcade games. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and so forth. DirectX, then, was the generic term for all of these Direct-something APIs, and that term became the name of the collection. After the introduction of the Xbox, Microsoft has also released multiplatform game development APIs such as XInput, which are designed to supplement or replace individual DirectX components. The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation.

Direct3D (the 3D graphics API within DirectX) is widely used in the development of computer games for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Xbox, and Microsoft Xbox 360. A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. Direct3D is also used by other software applications for visualization and graphics tasks, most notably among the engineering sector for CAD/CAM, because of its ability to quickly render high-quality 3D graphics using DirectX-compatible graphics hardware. Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model, by means of computer programs A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to As Direct3D is the most widely publicized component of DirectX, it is common to see the names "DirectX" and "Direct3D" used interchangeably.

The DirectX software development kit consists of runtime libraries in redistributable binary form, along with accompanying documentation and headers for use in coding. A software development kit ( SDK or " devkit " is typically a set of development tools that allows a Software engineer to create applications In Computer programming, a runtime library is a special Program library used by a Compiler, to implement functions built into a Programming language In Computer programming, particularly in the C and C++ programming languages a header file or include file is a file, usually in Originally, the runtimes were only installed by games or explicitly by the user. Windows 95 did not launch with DirectX, but DirectX was included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. ^[1] Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 both shipped with DirectX, as has every version of Windows released since. Windows 98 ( codenamed Memphis) is a graphical Operating system released on 25 June 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95 Windows NT 40 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented Operating system designed to work with either Uniprocessor or symmetric The SDK is available as a free download. While the runtimes are proprietary, closed-source software, source code is provided for most of the SDK samples.

The latest versions of Direct3D, namely, Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 9Ex, are exclusive to Windows Vista. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops The reasons, as Microsoft claims, is that there were extensive changes in the Windows graphics architecture, and in particular the introduction of the Windows Display Driver Model. Windows Display Driver Model ( WDDM, also WVDDM) is the Graphic driver architecture for Video card drivers running Microsoft Windows Critics argue that there may be possible commercial motives as well. Planned obsolescence (also built-in obsolescence The purpose of planned obsolescence is to hide the real cost per use from the consumer and charge a higher price than they would This redesign of the graphics infrastructure for Windows Vista supports virtualizing graphics hardware to multiple applications and services such as the Desktop Window Manager, in contrast to the exclusive access afforded to DirectX applications on Windows XP. Desktop Window Manager ( DWM, previously Desktop Compositing Engine or DCE) is a Compositing window manager, introduced with Windows Vista Both Direct3D 9Ex and Direct3D 10 rely on the WDDM infrastructure and WDDM drivers.

Components

DxDiag from DirectX 6. DxDiag (" DirectX Diagnostics" is a utility designed to display the specifications of the user's Hardware, as well as to test DirectX software including 1 (4. 06. 02. 0436) running on
Windows 95 and DirectX 1. Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. 0

The components comprising DirectX are

• DirectX Graphics, which consists of several APIs:
  • DirectDraw: for drawing 2D Graphics (raster graphics). DirectDraw is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. DirectDraw is used to Render graphics in applications where top performance is important In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels 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. Direct3D is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows Operating systems ( Windows 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer
  • DXGI: for enumerating adapters and monitors and managing swap chains for Direct3D 10 and up. DirectX Graphics Infrastructure ( DXGI) is a user-mode component of Windows Vista which provides a mapping between particular graphics APIs such as Direct3D
• DirectInput: for interfacing with input devices including keyboards, mice, joysticks, or other game controllers. In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling A game controller is an Input device used to control a Video game. Deprecated after version 8 in favor of XInput for Xbox360 controllers or standard WM INPUT window message processing for keyboard and mouse input.
• DirectPlay: for communication over a local-area or wide-area network. DirectPlay is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. DirectPlay is a network communication library intended for Computer game development although Deprecated after version 8.
• DirectSound: for the playback and recording of waveform sounds. DirectSound is a software component of the DirectX library supplied by Microsoft, that resides on a computer with the Windows Operating system
  • DirectSound3D (DS3D): for the playback of 3D sounds. DirectSound is a software component of the DirectX library supplied by Microsoft, that resides on a computer with the Windows Operating system 3D audio effects are a group of Sound effects that attempt to widen the stereo image produced by two Loudspeakers or stereo headphones or to create the illusion
• DirectMusic: for playback of soundtracks authored in DirectMusic Producer. DirectMusic is a component of the Microsoft DirectX API that allows music and sound effects to be composed and played and provides flexible interactive control over the way they DirectMusic is a component of the Microsoft DirectX API that allows music and sound effects to be composed and played and provides flexible interactive control over the way they
• DirectX Media: comprising DirectAnimation for 2D web animation, DirectShow for multimedia playback and streaming media, DirectX Transform for web interactivity, and Direct3D Retained Mode for higher level 3D graphics. DirectX Media is a set of Multimedia -related APIs for Microsoft Windows complementing DirectX. DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow) codename Quartz, is a Multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft Streaming multimedia is Multimedia that is constantly received by and normally presented to an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider (the DirectShow contains DirectX plugins for audio signal processing and DirectX Video Acceleration for accelerated video playback. In Computer music and Professional audio creation a DirectX plugin is a software processing component that can be loaded as a plugin into host applications Audio signal processing, sometimes referred to as audio processing, is the processing of a representation of auditory signals, or Sound. DirectX Video Acceleration ( DXVA) is a Microsoft API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms that allows

As of April 2005 DirectShow is no longer a part of the DirectX API. It now comes bundled along with the Platform SDK.

• DirectX Media Objects: support for streaming objects such as encoders, decoders, and effects. DirectX Media Objects (DMOs are COM -based multimedia and data-streaming components
• DirectSetup: for the installation of DirectX components. DirectSetup is an extremely simple library of functions for installing DirectX on a machine Not a game API per se.

DirectX functionality is provided in the form of COM-style objects and interfaces. Component Object Model ( COM) is an interface standard for Software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993 Additionally, while not DirectX components themselves, managed objects have been built on top of some parts of DirectX, such as managed Direct3D 9 ^[2]and the XNA graphics library^[3]. Managed code is computer program code that executes under the management of a Virtual machine, unlike unmanaged code which is executed directly by the computer's

DirectX 10

See also: Direct3D 10, Direct3D and Vista, List of games with DirectX 10 support

A major update to DirectX API, DirectX 10 ships with and is only available with Windows Vista; previous versions of Windows are not able to run DirectX 10-exclusive applications^[4]. Direct3D is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows Operating systems ( Windows Direct3D is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows Operating systems ( Windows This is a list of released and upcoming games that support DirectX 10 for Windows Vista. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops Changes for DirectX 10 were extensive, but only Direct3D featured a major overhaul of the API. Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Longhorn) has many new features compared with previous Microsoft Windows versions covering most aspects of the operating

Many former parts of DirectX API were deprecated in the latest DirectX SDK and will be preserved for compatibility only: DirectInput was deprecated in favor of XInput, DirectSound was deprecated in favor of XACT and lost support for hardware accelerated audio, since Vista audio stack renders sound in software on the CPU. DirectSound is a software component of the DirectX library supplied by Microsoft, that resides on a computer with the Windows Operating system XACT (Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool is an audio Programming library and engine released by Microsoft as part of the DirectX SDK. Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Windows "Longhorn") has many significant new features compared with previous Microsoft Windows versions covering The DirectPlay DPLAY. DLL was also removed and was replaced with dplayx. dll; games that rely on this DLL must duplicate it and rename it to dplay. dll.

In order to achieve backwards compatibility, DirectX in Windows Vista contains several versions of Direct3D:^[5]

• Direct3D 9: emulates Direct3D 9 behavior as it was on Windows XP. Details and advantages of Vista's Windows Display Driver Model are hidden from the application if WDDM drivers are installed. Windows Display Driver Model ( WDDM, also WVDDM) is the Graphic driver architecture for Video card drivers running Microsoft Windows This is the only API available if there are only XP graphic drivers (XPDM) installed, after an upgrade to Vista for example.
• Direct3D 9Ex (known internally during Windows Vista development as 9. 0L or 9. L, the L standing for Vista's codename: Longhorn): allows full access to the new capabilities of WDDM (if WDDM drivers are installed) while maintaining compatibility for existing Direct3D applications. The Windows Aero user interface relies on D3D 9Ex. Windows Aero is the Graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista, an Operating system released by Microsoft
• Direct3D 10: Designed around the new driver model in Windows Vista and featuring a number of improvements to rendering capabilities and flexibility, including Shader Model 4. The High Level Shader Language or High Level Shading Language (HLSL is a proprietary Shading language developed by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft

Direct3D 10. 1 is an incremental update of Direct3D 10. 0 which is shipped with, and requires, Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops ^[6] This release mainly sets a few more image quality standards for graphics vendors, while giving developers more control over image quality. ^[7] It also requires a whole new set of requirements, including Shader Model 4. 1 and 32-bit floating-point operations. Direct3D 10. 1 still fully supports Direct3D 10 hardware, but in order to utilize all of the new features, updated hardware is required. ^[8] As of April 24, 2008, only the ATI Radeon HD3xxx series GPUs are compliant.

History

In late 1994 Microsoft was just on the verge of releasing its next operating system, Windows 95. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. The main factor that would determine the value consumers would place on their new operating system very much rested on what programs would be able to run on it. Three Microsoft employees — Craig Eisler, Alex St. John, and Eric Engstrom — were concerned, because programmers tended to see Microsoft's previous operating system, MS-DOS, as a better platform for game programming, meaning few games would be developed for Windows 95 and the operating system would not be as much of a success. Alex St John, along with Craig Eisler and Eric Engstrom created the original Microsoft DirectX specification A game programmer is a Programmer who primarily develops Video games or related Software (such as Game development tools. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft.

DOS allowed direct access to video cards, keyboards and mice, sound devices, and all other parts of the system, while Windows 95, with its protected memory model, restricted access to all of these, working on a much more standardized model. In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) A sound card (also known as an audio card is a Computer Expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to/from a computer under Microsoft needed a way that would let programmers get what they wanted, and they needed it quickly; the operating system was only months away from being released. Eisler, St. John, and Engstrom worked together to fix this problem, with a solution that they eventually named DirectX.

The first version of DirectX released was shipped September of 1995 as the Windows Games SDK. It was the Win32 replacement for the DCI and WinG APIs for Windows 3.1. The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of Application programming interfaces (APIs available in the Microsoft Windows Operating WING "ESPN 1410" is a commercial AM radio station in Dayton Ohio operating with 5000 watts at 1410 kHz with studios offices and transmitter located on David A development team at ATI brought fundamental game graphics technology to the attention of Microsoft. The development of DirectX was led by the team of Eisler (development lead), St. John, and Engstrom (program manager). Simply put, it allowed all versions of Microsoft Windows, starting with Windows 95, to incorporate high-performance multimedia. Eisler wrote about the frenzy to build DirectX 1 through 5 in his blog. ^[9]

Prior to DirectX's existence, Microsoft had already included OpenGL on their Windows NT platform. OpenGL ( Open G raphics L ibrary is a standard specification defining a cross-language Cross-platform API for writing applications that produce Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 At the time, OpenGL required "high-end" hardware and was limited to engineering and CAD uses. OpenGL ( Open G raphics L ibrary is a standard specification defining a cross-language Cross-platform API for writing applications that produce Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and Direct3D (introduced by Eisler, Engstrom, and St. John as an alternative to SGI's OpenGL) was intended to be a lightweight partner to the then-slower OpenGL for game use. As the power of graphics cards and the computers running them grew, OpenGL became the de-facto standard and a mainstream product. A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to At that point a "battle" began between supporters of the cross-platform OpenGL and the Windows-only Direct3D, which many argued was another example of Microsoft's embrace, extend and extinguish business tactic (see Fahrenheit or Direct3D vs. OpenGL). " Embrace extend and extinguish," also known as " Embrace extend and exterminate," is a phrase that the U Fahrenheit was an effort to create a unified high-level API for 3D computer graphics to unify Direct3D and OpenGL. This article compares two computer graphics APIs Direct3D is a proprietary API designed by Microsoft Corporation for hardware 3D Nevertheless, the other APIs of DirectX are often combined with OpenGL in computer games because OpenGL does not include all of DirectX's functionality (such as sound or joystick support). A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather However, the combination of OpenGL and SDL for this purpose is becoming increasingly popular. Simple DirectMedia Layer ( SDL) is a cross-platform Free and open source software multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface

In a console-specific version, DirectX was used as a basis for Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 console API. The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. The API was developed jointly between Microsoft and Nvidia, who developed the custom graphics hardware used by the original Xbox. The multinational NVIDIA Corporation ( (ɪnˈvɪdiə specializes in the manufacture of graphics-processor technologies for Workstations The Xbox API is similar to DirectX version 8. 1, but is non-updateable like other console technologies. The Xbox was code named DirectXbox, but this was shortened to Xbox for its commercial name. ^[10]

In 2002 Microsoft released DirectX 9 with support for the use of much longer shader programs than before with pixel and vertex shader version 2. 0. Microsoft has continued to update the DirectX suite since then, introducing shader model 3. 0 in DirectX 9. 0c, released in August 2004.

As of April 2005, DirectShow was removed from DirectX and moved to the Microsoft Platform SDK instead. DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow) codename Quartz, is a Multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft The Microsoft Windows SDK (Software Development Kit is a Software development kit from Microsoft that contains Header files libraries, The DirectX SDK is, however, still required to build the DirectShow samples^[11].

Release history

Notes:

1. DirectX 4 was never released. Events 211 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Raymond Chen explained in his book, The Old New Thing, that after DirectX 3 was released, Microsoft began developing versions 4 and 5 at the same time. Raymond Chen is a well-known developer on the Windows Shell team at Microsoft. Version 4 was to be a shorter-term release with small features, whereas version 5 would be a more substantial release. The lack of interest from game developers in the features slated for DirectX 4 resulted in its being shelved, and the corpus of documents that already distinguished the two new versions resulted in Microsoft choosing to not re-use version 4 to describe features intended for version 5. ^[13]
2. The version number as reported by Microsoft's DxDiag tool (version 4. DxDiag (" DirectX Diagnostics" is a utility designed to display the specifications of the user's Hardware, as well as to test DirectX software including 09. 0000. 0900 and higher) use the x. xx. xxxx. xxxx format for version numbers. However, the DirectX and Windows XP MSDN page claims that the registry always has in the x. The Microsoft Developer Network ( MSDN) is the portion of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers hardware developers interested xx. xx. xxxx format. Put another way, when the above table lists a version as '4. 09. 00. 0904' the registry may have it as '4. 09. 0000. 0904'. ^[14]

History of DirectX logo

The logo originally resembled a deformed radiation warning symbol. Hazard symbols are easily recognizable symbols designed to warn about hazardous materials or locations Controversially, the original name for the DirectX project was the "Manhattan Project", a reference to the US nuclear weapons initiative and its ultimate outcome — the nuclear bombing of Japan. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at Alex St. John, the director of the DirectX project at its inception, claims that this connotation is intentional, and that DirectX and its sister project, the Xbox (which shares a similar logo), are meant to displace Japanese videogame makers from their dominance of the industry. Alex St John, along with Craig Eisler and Eric Engstrom created the original Microsoft DirectX specification The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ^[15] However, this meaning is publicly denied by Microsoft, who instead claims that it is merely artistic design. ^[15]

DirectX 1. 0–6. 0

DirectX 9. 0

Awards and accolades

On January 8, 2007, DirectX (specifically, Direct3D) earned a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for Microsoft and partners AMD and Nvidia Corporation "for pioneering work in near and real-time fully programmable shading via modern graphics processors. Events 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. A Technology and Engineering Emmy Award is given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS for outstanding achievement in technical or "^[16]

Compatibility

APIs such as Direct3D and DirectSound need to interact with hardware, and they do this through a device driver. In computing a device driver or software driver is a Computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a Hardware device 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. Hardware is a general term that refers to the physical artifacts of a Technology. Some hardware devices only have DirectX compatible drivers (in other words, one must install DirectX in order to use that hardware). Early versions of DirectX included an up-to-date library of all of the DirectX compatible drivers currently available. This practice was stopped however, in favor of the web-based Windows Update driver-update system, which allowed users to download only the drivers relevant to their hardware, rather than the entire library. Windows Update is a service provided by Microsoft for users of Microsoft Windows which provides updates for the Operating system and its installed components

Prior to DirectX 10, DirectX was designed to be backward compatible with older drivers, meaning that newer versions of the APIs were designed to interoperate with older drivers written against a previous version's DDI. For example, a game designed for and running on Direct3D 9 with a graphics adapter driver designed for Direct3D 6 would still work, albeit possibly with gracefully degraded functionality. However, as of Windows Vista, due to the significantly updated DDI for Windows Display Driver Model drivers, Direct3D 10 cannot run on older hardware drivers.

Various releases of Windows have included and supported various versions of DirectX, allowing newer versions of the operating system to continue running applications designed for earlier versions of DirectX until those versions can be gradually phased out in favor of newer APIs, drivers, and hardware.

. NET Framework

In 2002 Microsoft released a version of DirectX compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework, thus allowing programmers to take advantage of DirectX functionality from within . NET applications using compatible languages such as managed C++ or the use of the C# programming language. C# (pronounced C Sharp is a Multi-paradigm This API was known as "Managed DirectX" (or MDX for short), and claimed to operate at 98% of performance of the underlying native DirectX APIs. Managed DirectX (short MDX is an API to DirectX programming under. In December 2005, February 2006, April 2006, and August 2006, Microsoft released successive updates to this library, culminating in a beta version called Managed DirectX 2. 0. While Managed DirectX 2. 0 consolidated functionality that had previously been scattered over multiple assemblies into a single assembly, thus simplifying dependencies on it for software developers, development on this version has subsequently been discontinued, and it is no longer supported. The Managed DirectX 2. 0 library expired on October 5th, 2006.

During the GDC 2006 Microsoft presented the XNA Framework, a new managed version of DirectX (similar but not identical to Managed DirectX) that is intended to assist development of games by making it easier to integrate DirectX, High Level Shader Language (HLSL) and other tools in one package. The Game Developers Conference ( GDC) is the largest annual gathering of professional Video game developers focusing on learning inspiration and networking Microsoft XNA (" X NA's N ot A cronymed" in other words XNA is not an acronym is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by The High Level Shader Language or High Level Shading Language (HLSL is a proprietary Shading language developed by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft It also supports the execution of managed code on the Xbox 360. The XNA Game Studio Express RTM was made available on December 11, 2006, as a free download for Windows XP. Events 359 - Honoratus, the first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Unlike the DirectX runtime, Managed DirectX, XNA Framework or the Xbox 360 APIs (XInput, XACT etc) have not shipped as part of Windows. Managed DirectX (short MDX is an API to DirectX programming under. Microsoft XNA (" X NA's N ot A cronymed" in other words XNA is not an acronym is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. Developers are expected to redistribute the runtime components along with their games or applications.

No Microsoft product including the latest XNA releases provides DirectX 10 support for the . NET Framework.

Alternatives

There are alternatives to the DirectX family of APIs, some more complete than others. While there is no unified solution that will do everything DirectX does, with a combination of libraries — SDL, Allegro, OpenMAX, OpenML, OpenGL, OpenAL, FMOD, etc. Simple DirectMedia Layer ( SDL) is a cross-platform Free and open source software multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface Allegro is a free and open source Software library for Video game development OpenMAX is a royalty-free cross-platform set of C-language programming interfaces that provides abstractions for routines especially useful for audio video and still Open Media Library ( OpenML) is a free cross-platform programming environment designed by the Khronos Group for capturing transporting processing displaying OpenGL ( Open G raphics L ibrary is a standard specification defining a cross-language Cross-platform API for writing applications that produce OpenAL ( Open A udio L ibrary is a Free software cross-platform audio API. FMOD is a commercial audio library made by Firelight Technologies that plays music files of diverse formats on many different platforms. — one can implement a comparable but cross-platform and frequently free/open source solution.

There are also alternative implementations that aim to provide the same API, such as the one in Wine. Wine is a free Software application which aims to allow Unix-like computer Operating systems on the X86 architecture to execute

See also

• OpenGL
• Comparison of OpenGL and Direct3D
• Graphics Device Interface (GDI)
• Graphics pipeline
• DxDiag
• DirectX plugin
• ActiveX
• List of games with DirectX 10 support

References

External links

• Microsoft's DirectX site
• DirectX Wiki site from DirectXers
• CodeSampler.com, DirectX Code Samples
• DirectX at the Open Directory Project