Back to the time when computers were using Windows XP system, at that time, when someone got a new computer, he had to install some basic software by himself, especially when run a computer game at first time, sometimes it would show a error that said you have to install a software named DirectX. This error is not common after windows 7 system, because almost every computers have already automatic installed this software.Anyway, why this software is so important that we can't run game on PC without it?
DirectX, first released in 1995,full name is Microsoft DirectX and 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 Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and so forth. The name DirectX was coined as a shorthand term for all of thses 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 DirectX technology. The X initial has been carried forward in the naming of APIs designed for the Xbox such as Xlnput and the Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool(XACT), while the DirectX pattern has been continued for Windows APIs such as Direct2D and DirectWrite.
Direct3D (the 3D graphics API within DirectX) is widely used in the development of Video games for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox line of consoles. Direct3D is also used by other software applications for visualization and graphics tasks such as CAD/CAM engineering. As Direct3D is the most widely publicized component of DirectX, it is common to see the names " DirectX" and "Direct3D" used interchangeably.
Summary, DirectX allows software to write instructions directly to audio and video hardware, improving multimedia performance.Game that include DirectX have the capability of utilizing multimedia and graphics accelerator features more efficiently.
The DirectX software development kit(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, DirectX SDK has been integrated into Windows SDK. So this is why after Windows 7 ,we are no longer need to install DirectX by ourselves.
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