Overall: Due to the new driver model in Windows Vista and continuing through Windows 7, DirectX 10 is specially designed around those specifications, especially around ATI and nVidia cards.

The Windows Aero user interface relies on D3D 9Ex.ĭirect3D 10 for DirectX 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. This is the only API available if there are only XP graphic drivers (XDDM) installed, after an upgrade to Vista for example.ĭirect3D 9Ex: allows full access to the new capabilities of WDDM (if WDDM drivers are installed) while maintaining compatibility for existing Direct3D applications. Details and advantages of Vista's Windows Display Driver Model are hidden from the application if WDDM drivers are installed. Here are a list of some improvements and modifications to the DirectX series up until the release of DirectX 10:ĭirect3D 9: emulates Direct3D 9 behavior as it was on Windows XP. 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. 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 the Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool system (XACT) and lost support for hardware accelerated audio, since Vista audio stack renders sound in software on the CPU. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs. Microsoft DirectX 10 is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. Gaming driver for graphics cards enabling advanced features and shader 4.0 that fulfills the requirements and support for modern games on Windows laptops and desktops. A library useful for games and multimedia.

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