Direct. X Wikipedia. Microsoft Direct. X is a collection of application programming interfaces APIs for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct. D, Direct. Draw, Direct. Music, Direct. Play, Direct. Sound, and so forth. Information about Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8 including tweaks, slipstreaming, install, registry, and forum for all Windows versions. How to install CSR Bluetooth device drivers and enable Bluetooth headset profile HSP on Microsoft Windows 7 Vista Server 2008 32 and 64bit x86 x64. While Windows Vista contains many new features, a number of capabilities and certain programs that were a part of previous Windows versions up to Windows XP were. MS Paint, the first app you used for editing images, will probably be killed off in future updates of Windows 10, replaced by the new app Paint 3D. Microsoft lists. The latest PC gaming hardware news, plus expert, trustworthy and unbiased buying guides. Windows 7 had a set of nice, beautiful games including the classic card games with new shiny graphics and some great new games from Vista like Chess Titans, Mahjong. The best way to experience the Vista betas, or any operating system for that matter is to dualboot. Dualbooting offers you next to maximum performance, whilst. Latest trending topics being covered on ZDNet including Reviews, Tech Industry, Security, Hardware, Apple, and Windows. Windows Vista Ultimate Rtm Sounds Of Music' title='Windows Vista Ultimate Rtm Sounds Of Music' />The name Direct. X was coined as a shorthand term for all of these APIs the X standing in for the particular API names and soon became the name of the collection. When Microsoft later set out to develop a gaming console, the X was used as the basis of the name Xbox to indicate that the console was based on Direct. X technology. 1 The X initial has been carried forward in the naming of APIs designed for the Xbox such as XInput and the Cross platform Audio Creation Tool XACT, while the Direct. X pattern has been continued for Windows APIs such as Direct. D and Direct. Write. Direct. 3D the 3. D graphics API within Direct. X is widely used in the development of video games for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox line of consoles. Direct. 3D is also used by other software applications for visualization and graphics tasks such as CADCAM engineering. As Direct. 3D is the most widely publicized component of Direct. X, it is common to see the names Direct. X and Direct. 3D used interchangeably. The Direct. X software development kit SDK consists of runtime libraries in redistributable binary form, along with accompanying documentation and headers for use in coding. Originally, the runtimes were only installed by games or explicitly by the user. Windows 9. 5 did not launch with Direct. X, but Direct. X was included with Windows 9. OEM Service Release 2. Windows 9. Windows NT 4. Direct. X, as has every version of Windows released since. 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. Starting with the release of Windows 8 Developer Preview, Direct. X SDK has been integrated into Windows SDK. Development historyeditIn late 1. Microsoft was ready to release Windows 9. An important factor in the value consumers would place on it was the programs that would be able to run on it. Three Microsoft employeesCraig Eisler, Alex St. John, and Eric Engstromwere concerned because programmers tended to see Microsofts previous operating system, MS DOS, as a better platform for game programming, meaning few games would be developed for Windows 9. This was compounded by negative reception surrounding the Windows port of the video game The Lion King. The game used Win. G, which crashed on Compaq Presarios that came shipped with it following a partnership between Compaq and Disney, as the Cirrus Logic display drivers used by the Presarios were not thoroughly tested with the API. DOS allowed direct access to video cards, keyboards, mice, sound devices, and all other parts of the system, while Windows 9. Microsoft needed a quick solution for programmers the operating system was only months away from being released. Eisler development lead, St. John, and Engstrom program manager worked together to fix this problem, with a solution that they eventually named Direct. X. The first version of Direct. X was released in September 1. Windows Games SDK. It was the Win. 32 replacement for the DCI5 and Win. G APIs for Windows 3. Direct. X allowed all versions of Microsoft Windows, starting with Windows 9. How To Update Idoc Status. Eisler wrote about the frenzy to build Direct. X 1 through 5 in his blog. Direct. X 2. 0 became a component of Windows itself with the releases of Windows 9. OSR2 and Windows NT 4. Since Windows 9. 5 was itself still new and few games had been released for it, Microsoft engaged in heavy promotion of Direct. X to developers who were generally distrustful of Microsofts ability to build a gaming platform in Windows. Alex St. John, the evangelist for Direct. X, staged an elaborate event at the 1. Computer Game Developers Conference which game developer Jay Barnson described as a Roman theme, including real lions, togas, and something resembling an indoor carnival. It was at this event that Microsoft first introduced Direct. D and Direct. Play, and demonstrated multiplayer Mech. Warrior 2 being played over the Internet. The Direct. X team faced the challenging task of testing each Direct. X release against an array of computer hardware and software. A variety of different graphics cards, audio cards, motherboards, CPUs, input devices, games, and other multimedia applications were tested with each beta and final release. The Direct. X team also built and distributed tests that allowed the hardware industry to confirm that new hardware designs and driver releases would be compatible with Direct. X. Prior to Direct. X, Microsoft had included Open. GL on their Windows NT platform. At the time, Open. GL required high end hardware and was focused on engineering and CAD uses. Direct. D was intended to be a Microsoft controlled alternative to Open. GL, focused initially on game use. As 3. D gaming grew, Open. GL developed to include better support for programming techniques for interactive multimedia applications like games, giving developers choice between using Open. GL or Direct. 3D as the 3. D graphics API for their applications. At that point a battle began between supporters of the cross platform Open. GL and the Windows only Direct. D. Incidentally, Open. GL was supported at Microsoft by the Direct. X team. If a developer chose to use Open. GL 3. D graphics API, the other APIs of Direct. X are often combined with Open. GL in computer games because Open. GL does not include all of Direct. Xs functionality such as sound or joystick support. In a console specific version, Direct. X was used as a basis for Microsofts Xbox, Xbox 3. Xbox Oneconsole API. The API was developed jointly between Microsoft and Nvidia, which developed the custom graphics hardware used by the original Xbox. The Xbox API was similar to Direct. X version 8. 1, but is non updateable like other console technologies. The Xbox was code named Direct. Xbox, but this was shortened to Xbox for its commercial name. In 2. Microsoft released Direct. X 9 with support for the use of much longer shader programs than before with pixel and vertex shader version 2. Microsoft has continued to update the Direct. X suite since then, introducing Shader Model 3. Direct. X 9. 0c, released in August 2. As of April 2. 00. Direct. Show was removed from Direct. X and moved to the Microsoft Platform SDK instead. Direct. X has been confirmed to be present in Microsofts Windows Phone 8. The original logo resembled a deformed radiation warning symbol. Controversially, the original name for the Direct. X project was the Manhattan Project, a reference to the US nuclear weapons initiative. Alex St. John, head of Microsoft Direct. X evangelism at the time, claims1. Manhattan Project the nuclear bombing of Japan is intentional, and that Direct. X and its sister project, the Xbox which shares a similar logo, were meant to displace Japanese videogame makers from their dominance of the video game industry. However, Microsoft publicly denies this account, instead claiming that the logo is merely an artistic design. Direct. X 1. 08. Direct. X 9. 01. ComponentseditDirect. X is composed of multiple APIs Direct. D D3. D for drawing 3. Please enable cookies and refresh the page.