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DirectX
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DirectX
DeveloperMicrosoft
Initial releaseSeptember 30, 1995; 30 years ago (1995-09-30)
Stable release
12 Ultimate API / October 5, 2021; 4 years ago (2021-10-05)
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, Windows Phone 8, Dreamcast,[1] Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Linux (Gallium Nine) (DirectX 12 only, Exclusive to Windows Subsystem for Linux)[2]
TypeAPI

Microsoft DirectX 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 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 DirectX technology.[3] 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 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.

The DirectX 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 95 did not launch with DirectX, but DirectX was included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.[4] Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 both shipped with DirectX, 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, DirectX SDK has been integrated into Windows SDK.[5]

Development history

[edit]

In late 1994, Microsoft was ready to release Windows 95, its next operating system. An important factor in its value to consumers was the programs that would be able to run on it. Microsoft employee Alex St. John had been in discussions with various game developers asking how likely they would be to bring their MS-DOS games to Windows 95, and found the responses mostly negative, since programmers had found that the Windows environment did not provide the necessary features which were available under MS-DOS using BIOS routines or direct hardware access.[6] There were also strong fears of compatibility; a notable case of this was from Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King which was based on the WinG programming interface.[7] Due to numerous incompatible graphics drivers from new Compaq computers that were not tested with the WinG interface which came bundled with the game, it crashed so frequently on many desktop systems that parents had flooded Disney's call-in help lines.[8][9]

Another Microsoft employee, Craig Eisler, had joined the Windows 95 multimedia team to work on game technology.[10] Hearing from St. John that the technology Microsoft had was not resonating with developers, Eisler set out to build a new set of APIs and a driver model that would allow developers to access the native capabilities of graphics hardware, and gave graphics hardware companies the ability to innovate in ways that developers could use.[11] Needing program management support, Eisler recruited Eric Engstrom, and together they were granted 11 patents for their DirectX work.[12] The project was codenamed the Manhattan Project, like the World War II project of the same name, and the idea was to displace the Japanese-developed video game consoles with personal computers running Microsoft's operating system.[8] It had initially used the radiation symbol as its logo but Microsoft asked the team to change the logo.[8] Management did not agree to the project as they were already writing off Windows as a gaming platform, but the three committed towards this project's development.[9] Their rebellious nature led Brad Silverberg, the senior vice president of Microsoft's office products, to name the trio the "Beastie Boys".[13]

Most of the work by the three was done among other assigned projects starting near the end of 1994.[9] Within four months and with input from several hardware manufacturers, the team had developed the first set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which they presented at the 1995 Game Developers Conference.[9] The SDK included libraries implementing DirectDraw for bit-mapped graphics,[14] DirectSound for audio,[15] and DirectPlay for communication between players over a network.[16] Furthermore, an extended joystick API already present in Windows 95 was documented for the first time as DirectInput,[17] while a description of how to implement the immediate start of the installation procedure of a software title after inserting its CD-ROM, a feature called AutoPlay, was also part of the SDK.[18] The "Direct" part of the library was so named as these routines bypassed existing core Windows 95 routines and accessed the computer hardware only via a hardware abstraction layer (HAL).[19] Though the team had named it the "Game SDK" (software development kit), the name "DirectX" came from one journalist that had mocked the naming scheme of the various libraries. The team opted to continue to use that naming scheme and call the project DirectX.[8]

The first version of DirectX was released in September 1995 as the Windows Game SDK. Its DirectDraw component was the Win32 replacement for the DCI[20] and WinG APIs for Windows 3.1.[21] DirectX 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.[22]

To get more developers on board DirectX, Microsoft approached id Software's John Carmack and offered to port Doom and Doom 2 from MS-DOS to DirectX, free of charge, with id retaining all publishing rights to the game. Carmack agreed, and Microsoft's Gabe Newell led the porting project. The first game was released as Doom 95 in August 1996, the first published DirectX game. Microsoft promoted the game heavily with Bill Gates appearing in ads for the title.[8]

DirectX 2.0 became a built-in component of Windows with the releases of Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows NT 4.0 in mid-1996. Since Windows 95 itself was still new and few games had been released for it, Microsoft engaged in heavy promotion of DirectX to developers who were generally distrustful of Microsoft's ability to build a gaming platform in Windows. Alex St. John, the evangelist for DirectX, staged an elaborate event at the 1996 Computer Game Developers Conference which game developer Jay Barnson described as a Roman theme, including real lions, togas, and something resembling an indoor carnival.[23] It was at this event that Microsoft first introduced Direct3D, and demonstrated multiplayer MechWarrior 2 being played over the Internet.

The DirectX team faced the challenging task of testing each DirectX 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 DirectX team also built and distributed tests that allowed the hardware industry to confirm that new hardware designs and driver releases would be compatible with DirectX.

Prior to DirectX Microsoft had added OpenGL to its Windows NT platform.[24] OpenGL had been designed as a cross-platform, window system independent software interface to graphics hardware by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to bring 3D graphics programming into the mainstream of application programming. It could also be used for 2D graphics and imaging, and was controlled by the Architectural Review Board (ARB), which included Microsoft.[25][26] Direct3D was intended to be a Microsoft controlled alternative to OpenGL, focused initially on game use. As 3D gaming grew, game developers discovered that OpenGL could also be used effectively for game development.[27] At that point, a "battle" began between supporters of the cross-platform OpenGL and the Windows-only Direct3D.[28] Incidentally, OpenGL was supported at Microsoft by the DirectX team. If a developer chose to use the OpenGL 3D graphics API in computer games, the other APIs of DirectX besides Direct3D were often combined with OpenGL, since OpenGL does not include all of DirectX's functionality, such as sound or joystick support.

In a console-specific version, DirectX was used as a basis for Microsoft's Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One console 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 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.[29]

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.

DirectX has been confirmed to be present in Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.[30]

Real-time raytracing was announced as DXR in 2018. Support for compiling HLSL to SPIR-V was also added in the DirectX Shader Compiler the same year.[31]

Components

[edit]

DirectX is composed of multiple APIs:

Microsoft has deprecated the following components:

DirectX functionality is provided in the form of COM-style objects and interfaces. Additionally, while not DirectX components themselves, managed objects have been built on top of some parts of DirectX, such as Managed Direct3D[34] and the XNA graphics library[35] on top of Direct3D 9.

Microsoft distributes the debugging tool for DirectX called "PIX".[36]

Versions

[edit]

DirectX 9

[edit]
See also: Direct3D § Direct3D 9

Introduced by Microsoft in 2002, DirectX 9 was a significant release in the DirectX family. It brought many important features and enhancements to the graphics capabilities of Windows. At the time of its release, it supported Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. As of August 2024 it remains supported by all subsequent versions of Windows for backward compatibility.

One of the key features introduced in DirectX 9 was Shader Model 2.0, which included Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 2.0. These allowed for more complex and realistic graphics rendering. It also brought much needed performance improvements through better hardware acceleration capabilities, and better utilization of GPU resources. It also introduced HLSL, which provided a more accessible way for developers to produce shaders.

DirectX 9.0c was an update to the original, and has been continuously changed over the years affecting its compatibility with older operating systems. As of January 2007, Windows 2000 and Windows XP became the minimum required operating systems. This means support was officially dropped for Windows 98 and Windows Me. As of August 2024, DirectX 9.0c is still regularly updated.

Windows XP SP2 and newer include DirectX 9.0c,[37] but may require a newer DirectX runtime redistributable installation for DirectX 9.0c applications compiled with the February 2005 DirectX 9.0 SDK or newer.

DirectX 9 had a significant impact on game development. Many games from the mid-2000s to early 2010s were developed using DirectX 9 and it became a standard target for developers. Even today, some games still use DirectX 9 as an option for older or less powerful hardware.

DirectX 10

[edit]
See also: Direct3D 10
Microsoft DirectX 10 logo wordmark

A major update to the DirectX API, DirectX 10 shipped with and was only available with Windows Vista (launched in late 2006) and later. Previous versions of Windows such as Windows XP are not able to run DirectX 10-exclusive applications. Instead, programs running on a Windows XP system with DirectX 10 hardware would simply use the DirectX 9.0c code path, which was the latest version available for Windows XP .[38]

Changes for DirectX 10 were extensive. Many former parts of DirectX API were deprecated in the latest DirectX SDK and are 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 additionally lost support for hardware accelerated audio, since the Vista audio stack renders sound in software on the CPU. 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:[39]

  • 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. This is the only API available if there are only XP graphic drivers (XDDM) installed, after an upgrade to Vista for example.
  • Direct3D 9Ex (known internally during Windows Vista development as 9.0L or 9.L): 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.
  • 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.

Direct3D 10.1 is an incremental update of Direct3D 10.0 which shipped with, and required, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2008.[40] This release mainly sets a few more image quality standards for graphics vendors, while giving developers more control over image quality.[41] It also adds support for cube map arrays, separate blend modes per-MRT, coverage mask export from a pixel shader, ability to run pixel shader per sample, access to multi-sampled depth buffers[42] and requires that the video card supports Shader Model 4.1 or higher 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.[43]

DirectX 11

[edit]
See also: Direct3D 11
Microsoft DirectX 11 logo wordmark

Microsoft unveiled DirectX 11 at the Gamefest 08 event in Seattle. The Final Platform Update launched for Windows Vista on October 27, 2009, which was a week after the initial release of Windows 7, which launched with Direct3D 11 as a base standard.

Major scheduled features including GPGPU software support (DirectCompute), and Direct3D 11 with tessellation support[44][45] and improved multi-threading support to assist video game developers in developing games that better utilize multi-core processors.[46] Parts of the new API such as multi-threaded resource handling can be supported on Direct3D 9/10/10.1-class hardware. Hardware tessellation and Shader Model 5.0 require Direct3D 11 supporting hardware.[47] Direct3D 11 is a strict superset of Direct3D 10.1 — all hardware and API features of version 10.1 are retained, and new features are added only when necessary for exposing new functionality. This helps to keep backwards compatibility with previous versions of DirectX.

Four updates for DirectX 11 were released:

  • DirectX 11.1 is included in Windows 8. It supports WDDM 1.2 for increased performance, features improved integration of Direct2D (now at version 1.1), Direct3D, and DirectCompute, and includes DirectXMath, XAudio2, and XInput libraries from the XNA framework. It also features stereoscopic 3D support for gaming and video.[48] DirectX 11.1 was also partially backported to Windows 7, via the Windows 7 platform update.[49][50]
  • DirectX 11.2 is included in Windows 8.1 (including the RT version) and Windows Server 2012 R2.[51] It added some new features to Direct2D like geometry realizations.[52] It also added swap chain composition, which allows some elements of the scene to be rendered at lower resolutions and then composited via hardware overlay with other parts rendered at higher resolution.[53]
  • DirectX 11.X is a superset of DirectX 11.2 running on the Xbox One.[54] It actually includes some features, such as draw bundles, that were later announced as part of DirectX 12.[55]
  • DirectX 11.3 was announced along with DirectX 12 at GDC and released in 2015. It is meant to complement DirectX 12 as a higher-level alternative.[56] It is included with Windows 10.[51]

DirectX 12

[edit]
See also: Direct3D 12

DirectX 12 was announced by Microsoft at GDC on March 20, 2014, and was officially launched alongside Windows 10 on July 29, 2015.

The primary feature highlight for the new release of DirectX was the introduction of advanced low-level programming APIs for Direct3D 12 which can reduce driver overhead. Developers are now able to implement their own command lists and buffers to the GPU, allowing for more efficient resource utilization through parallel computation. Lead developer Max McMullen stated that the main goal of Direct3D 12 is to achieve "console-level efficiency on phone, tablet and PC".[57] The release of Direct3D 12 comes alongside other initiatives for low-overhead graphics APIs including AMD's Mantle for AMD graphics cards, Apple's Metal for iOS and macOS and Khronos Group's cross-platform Vulkan.

Multiadapter support will feature in DirectX 12 allowing developers to utilize multiple GPUs on a system simultaneously; multi-GPU (mGPU) support was previously dependent on vendor implementations such as AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI.[58][59][60][61]

  • Implicit Multiadapter support will work in a similar manner to previous versions of DirectX where frames are rendered alternately across linked GPUs of similar compute-power.
  • Explicit Multiadapter will provide two distinct API patterns to developers. Linked GPUs will allow DirectX to view graphics cards in SLI or CrossFireX as a single GPU and use the combined resources; whereas Unlinked GPUs will allow GPUs from different vendors to be utilized by DirectX, such as supplementing the dedicated GPU with the integrated GPU on the CPU, or combining AMD and NVIDIA cards. However, elaborate mixed multi-GPU setups requires significantly more attentive developer support.

DirectX 12 is supported on all Fermi and later Nvidia GPUs, on AMD's GCN-based chips and on Intel's Haswell and later processors' graphics units.[62]

At SIGGRAPH 2014, Intel released a demo showing a computer generated asteroid field, in which DirectX 12 was claimed to be 50–70% more efficient than DirectX 11 in rendering speed and CPU power consumption.[63][64]

Ashes of the Singularity was the first publicly available game to utilize DirectX 12. Testing by Ars Technica in August 2015 revealed slight performance regressions in DirectX 12 over DirectX 11 mode for the Nvidia GeForce 980 Ti, whereas the AMD Radeon R9 290x achieved consistent performance improvements of up to 70% under DirectX 12, and in some scenarios the AMD outperformed the more powerful Nvidia under DirectX 12. The performance discrepancies may be due to poor Nvidia driver optimizations for DirectX 12, or even hardware limitations of the card which was optimized for DirectX 11 serial execution; however, the exact cause remains unclear.[65]

The performance improvements of DirectX 12 on the Xbox are not as substantial as on the PC.[66]

In March 2018, DirectX Raytracing (DXR) was announced, capable of real-time ray-tracing on supported hardware,[67] and the DXR API was added in the Windows 10 October 2018 update.

In 2019 Microsoft announced the arrival of DirectX 12 to Windows 7 but only as a plug-in for certain game titles.[68]

DirectX 12 Ultimate

[edit]

Microsoft revealed DirectX 12 Ultimate in March 2020. DirectX 12 Ultimate will unify to a common library on both Windows 10 computers and the Xbox Series X and other ninth-generation Xbox consoles. Among the new features in Ultimate includes DirectX Raytracing 1.1, Variable Rate Shading, which gives programmers control over the level of detail of shading depending on design choices, Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback.[69][70]

Version history

[edit]
Release timeline
Major releases
1995DirectX 1
1996DirectX 2
DirectX 3
1997DirectX 5
1998DirectX 6
1999DirectX 7
2000DirectX 8
2001
2002DirectX 9
2003
2004
2005
2006DirectX 10
2007
2008
2009DirectX 11
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015DirectX 12
DirectX versions
Version Release date Notes
Major Minor Number
1 1.0 4.02.0095 September 30, 1995 Initially released as Windows Game SDK, replacing WinG for Windows 95 onward
2 2.0 1996 Was shipped only with a few 3rd party applications
2.0a 4.03.00.1096 June 5, 1996 Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows NT 4.0 exclusive
3 3.0 4.04.00.0068 September 15, 1996  
4.04.00.0069 1996 Later package of DirectX 3.0 included Direct3D 4.04.00.0069
3.0a 4.04.00.0070 December 1996 Windows NT 4.0 SP3 (and above)
Last version supporting Windows NT 4.0
3.0b 4.04.00.0070 January 1997 This was a very minor update to 3.0a that fixed a cosmetic problem with the Japanese version of Windows 95 (DSETUPJ.DLL)
4 4.0 Never released DirectX 4 was never released. Raymond Chen of Microsoft 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. 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 stated for DirectX 4 resulted in it being shelved, and the large amount 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.[71][72]
5 5.0 4.05.00.0155 (RC55) August 4, 1997 Available as a beta for Windows 2000 that would install on Windows NT 4.0
4.05.00.0155 (RC66) Installer included on the Windows 95 OSR 2.5 installation media
5.2 4.05.01.1600 (RC00) May 5, 1998 DirectX 5.2 release for Windows 95
4.05.01.1998 (RC0) June 25, 1998 Windows 98 exclusive
6 6.0 4.06.00.0318 (RC3) August 7, 1998[73] Windows CE as implemented on Dreamcast and other devices
6.1 4.06.02.0436 (RC0) February 3, 1999[74]
6.1a 4.06.03.0518 (RC0) May 5, 1999[75] Windows 98 Second Edition exclusive. This is last version that runs on 486 or older CPU.
7 7.0 4.07.00.0700 (RC1) September 22, 1999[76][77][78]
4.07.00.0700 February 17, 2000 Windows 2000 exclusive
7.0a 4.07.00.0716 (RC0) November 1999
4.07.00.0716 (RC1) December 17, 1999 Released only for Windows 95 to 98[79][80]
7.1 4.07.01.3000 (RC1) September 14, 2000[81] Windows Me exclusive. Last version to have built-in RGB software rendering support
8 8.0 4.08.00.0400 (RC10) November 10, 2000[82]
8.0a 4.08.00.0400 (RC14) January 24, 2001[83][84] Last version supporting Windows 95 and last version to have software rendering support in dxdiag.exe
8.1 4.08.01.0810 October 25, 2001 Windows XP, Windows XP SP1, Windows Server 2003
4.08.01.0881 (RC7) November 8, 2001 This version is for the down level operating systems (Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows 2000)
8.1b 4.08.01.0901 (RC7) June 25, 2002 This release includes an update to Direct3D (D3d8.dll). Includes a fix to DirectShow on Windows 2000 (Quartz.dll)
8.2 4.08.02.0134 (RC0) 2002 Same as the DirectX 8.1b but includes DirectPlay 8.2
9 9.0 4.09.00.0900 (RC4) December 19, 2002
9.0a 4.09.00.0901 (RC6) March 26, 2003
9.0b 4.09.00.0902 (RC2) August 13, 2003
9.0c[85] 4.09.00.0904 (RC0) July 22, 2004 First 9.0c version
Periodic hybrid 32-bit/64-bit updates, starting from October 2004, were released bimonthly until August 2007, and quarterly thereafter. The last update was released in June 2010[86]
4.09.00.0904 August 6, 2004 / April 21, 2008* Windows XP SP2 and SP3*, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows Server 2003 R2
October 10, 2006[87] Last version supporting Windows 98, 98 SE and Me[88][89]
February 5, 2010[90] Last version supporting Windows 2000,[89] XP and XP SP1
June 7, 2010[89] Final 9.0c version
Last version supporting Windows XP SP2 and SP3[91]
10 10 6.00.6000.16386 November 30, 2006 Windows Vista exclusive
10.1 6.00.6001.18000 February 4, 2008 Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008
Includes Direct3D 10.1
6.00.6002.18005 April 28, 2009 Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2
Includes Direct3D 10.1
11 11 6.01.7600.16385 October 22, 2009 Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2
6.00.6002.18107 October 27, 2009 Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2, through the Platform Update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008[92]
6.01.7601.17514 February 16, 2011 Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
11.1 6.02.9200.16384 August 1, 2012 Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Server 2012
6.02.9200.16492 February 11, 2013 Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, through the Platform Update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2[93]
11.2 6.03.9600.16384 October 18, 2013 Windows 8.1, Windows RT, Windows Server 2012 R2
12 12 10.00.10240.16384 July 29, 2015 Windows 10
10.00.15063.0000 March 20, 2017 Windows 10, Depth Bounds Testing and Programmable MSAA added[94][95]
10.00.17763.0000 November 20, 2019 Direct3D 12 only for Windows 7 SP1, via a dedicated source code package for app developers[96][97]
12.1 10.00.17763.0001 October 2, 2018 Windows 10, DirectX Raytracing support added[98]
10.00.18362.0116 May 19, 2019 Windows 10, Variable Rate Shading (VRS) support added[99]
12.2 10.00.19041.0928 November 10, 2020 Windows 10, Ultimate
10.00.22000.1000 October 5, 2021 Windows 11, Added native refresh rate switching[100] and improved graphics capabilities to Windows Subsystem for Linux[101]

The version number as reported by Microsoft's DxDiag tool (version 4.09.0000.0900 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 been in the x.xx.xx.xxxx format. Therefore, when the above table lists a version as '4.09.00.0904' Microsoft's DxDiag tool may have it as '4.09.0000.0904'.[102]

Compatibility

[edit]

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.[103]

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. Some hardware devices have only 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.

Prior to DirectX 10, DirectX runtime 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. The application programmer had to query the available hardware capabilities using a complex system of "cap bits" each tied to a particular hardware feature. Direct3D 7 and earlier would work on any version of the DDI, Direct3D 8 requires a minimum DDI level of 6 and Direct3D 9 requires a minimum DDI level of 7.[104] However, the Direct3D 10 runtime in Windows Vista cannot run on older hardware drivers due to the significantly updated DDI, which requires a unified feature set and abandons the use of "cap bits".

Direct3D 10.1 introduces "feature levels" 10_0 and 10_1, which allow use of only the hardware features defined in the specified version of Direct3D API. Direct3D 11 adds level 11_0 and "10 Level 9" - a subset of the Direct3D 10 API designed to run on Direct3D 9 hardware, which has three feature levels (9_1, 9_2 and 9_3) grouped by common capabilities of "low", "med" and "high-end" video cards; the runtime directly uses Direct3D 9 DDI provided in all WDDM drivers. Feature level 11_1 has been introduced with Direct3D 11.1.

.NET Framework

[edit]

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. 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. 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 5, 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, HLSL and other tools in one package. 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. Unlike the DirectX runtime, Managed DirectX, XNA Framework or the Xbox 360 APIs (XInput, XACT etc.) have not shipped as part of Windows. 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.

The other approach for DirectX in managed languages is to use third-party libraries like:

  • SlimDX, an open source library for DirectX programming on the .NET Framework
  • SharpDX,[105][106] which is an open source project delivering the full DirectX API for .NET on all Windows platforms, allowing the development of high performance game, 2D and 3D graphics rendering as well as real-time sound applications
  • DirectShow.NET for the DirectShow subset
  • Windows API CodePack for .NET Framework Archived February 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, which is an open source library from Microsoft.

Alternatives

[edit]

There are alternatives to the DirectX family of APIs, with OpenGL, its successor Vulkan, Metal and Mantle having the most features comparable to Direct3D. Examples of other APIs include SDL, Allegro, OpenMAX, OpenML, OpenAL, OpenCL, FMOD, SFML etc. Many of these libraries are cross-platform or have open codebases. There are also alternative implementations that aim to provide the same API, such as the one in Wine. Furthermore, the developers of ReactOS are trying to reimplement DirectX under the name "ReactX".

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
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DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) developed by to enable the creation of high-performance games and applications on Windows platforms, providing developers with low-level access to for , audio, input, and other tasks. Introduced in 1995 as a set of services to enhance capabilities in the Windows operating , DirectX was designed to give developers transparent access to peripherals such as cards, audio adapters, and input devices, thereby simplifying the development of immersive experiences. Over the years, DirectX has evolved through multiple versions, each introducing advancements in performance and functionality to meet the growing demands of gaming and multimedia. Early releases, such as DirectX 6.1 in 1999, incorporated features like the DirectMusic API for interactive audio with superior timing and support for the Downloadable Sounds (DLS) standard, while later iterations focused on 3D graphics enhancements compatible with processors like the Intel Pentium III family. Key milestones include DirectX 9 (2002), which introduced shader model 2.0 for more realistic rendering; DirectX 10 (2006), launched with and featuring improved shader capabilities; DirectX 11 (2009), adding for detailed geometry; and DirectX 12 (2015), released alongside , which shifted toward low-level programming, multi-threading, and greater efficiency to leverage modern GPU architectures. The core of DirectX lies in its modular components, which address specific multimedia needs while integrating seamlessly with Win32 and (UWP) applications. Direct3D serves as the primary API for 3D graphics rendering in games and scientific visualizations, supporting programmable shaders and real-time effects. Complementary APIs include for hardware-accelerated 2D graphics, DirectWrite for high-quality text rendering, for audio processing and mixing, and XInput for game controller support. More recent additions, such as DirectStorage for optimizing data loading from high-speed storage devices and DirectML for machine learning inference on DirectX 12 hardware, extend its utility beyond traditional gaming into areas like AI-enhanced visuals and efficient asset streaming. These components, supported by tools like DirectXMath for linear algebra operations and DXGI for device management, ensure DirectX remains a foundational technology for Windows-based multimedia development. In its current form as of 2025, DirectX continues to receive active development through initiatives like the DirectX 12 Agility SDK, which allows early access to new features on Windows 10 version 1909 and later, and compatibility layers such as D3D12on7 for older systems, including recent advancements like 1.2 and Advanced Shader Delivery announced in 2025. Legacy components from earlier versions, including those from the June 2010 runtime, are maintained for with existing games, underscoring DirectX's enduring role as the standard for high-fidelity graphics and audio on platforms.

Overview

Definition and Purpose

DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) developed by for handling multimedia-related tasks on Windows platforms, encompassing graphics rendering, audio processing, management, and computational operations. These APIs enable developers to create high-performance applications, particularly games and multimedia software, by providing standardized access to system resources. The primary purpose of DirectX is to facilitate , efficient interaction between software and hardware components, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and sound cards, thereby supporting for demanding tasks like real-time 3D rendering and video playback. By abstracting the underlying hardware variations across different devices, DirectX simplifies development while ensuring optimal and compatibility for applications on platforms. Introduced in September 1995 as part of the Windows Game SDK, DirectX emerged as Microsoft's initiative to establish a robust and framework for Windows, positioning it as a direct competitor to in the burgeoning PC gaming market. Since its integration into and subsequent versions, DirectX has become a foundational element of the Windows ecosystem, powering the majority of and extending to professional applications such as Acrobat's 3D PDF rendering capabilities.

Key Technologies and Ecosystem

DirectX's core technologies revolve around layers that facilitate seamless interactions between GPUs, CPUs, and system resources, allowing developers to leverage diverse hardware without managing low-level details. For instance, the Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP) serves as a high-performance software rasterizer, providing full conformance to 10+ specifications and supporting feature levels from 9_1 up to 12_2 on compatible Windows versions, with maximum levels depending on the OS (such as up to 11_1 on and later, 12_1 on Windows 10 version 1709 and later, and 12_2 on recent builds), enabling rendering on CPU-only systems via multi-core parallelism and instruction sets like and AVX. This abstraction extends to GPU-accelerated workloads through DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI), which manages device enumeration, resource sharing, and presentation across local and remote displays. Shader models form a of DirectX's programmable , evolving to support advanced rendering techniques that expose GPU parallelism directly to developers. In modern iterations, shaders and amplification shaders redefine by replacing fixed-function stages with compute-like thread groups, enabling efficient and dynamic world generation while sharing memory for optimized data access. is integrated via APIs that handle memory allocation, state tracking, and , ensuring efficient GPU utilization; for example, WARP batches rendering commands into thread pools to minimize overhead on multi-core systems without requiring dedicated graphics hardware. Within the Windows ecosystem, DirectX interoperates with foundational components like the (GDI), enabling surface sharing for 2D rendering and hardware-accelerated operations through DXGI 1.1-compatible contexts, which bridge legacy GDI applications with modern pipelines. For (UWP) applications, DirectX acts as the high-performance graphics backbone, supporting 11 for abstracted 3D/2D rendering and 12 for low-level control over GPU commands, complemented by for and DirectWrite for text layout. Development workflows are streamlined via integration, which provides project templates for DirectX 11/12 UWP apps, built-in graphics diagnostics for frame analysis, and resource editors to reduce setup complexity. These technologies deliver key developer benefits by minimizing boilerplate code for hardware-specific implementations, promoting cross-device compatibility through standardized abstractions that work across , , and GPUs as well as CPU fallbacks like WARP. In contemporary applications, DirectX enables advanced features such as ray tracing via (DXR) 1.1, which uses shared acceleration structures for hybrid rasterization and real-time lighting simulations, and AI acceleration through DirectML—a low-level layer that executes operators like convolutions on any DirectX 12-compatible GPU, abstracting vendor differences while allowing graph-based or operator-level control for tasks like upscaling and denoising. DirectX powers the vast majority of PC games on Windows and serves as the primary rendering API for platforms like Steam, where as of October 2025, DirectX 11 and 12 compatibility dominates hardware configurations with over 92% of surveyed systems featuring DirectX 12-capable GPUs, and it is the default rendering backend for major engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity on Windows platforms.

History

Origins and Early Development

DirectX originated as a strategic initiative by Microsoft in late 1994, spearheaded by developers Alex St. John, Craig Eisler, and Eric Engstrom, to transform Windows 95 into a competitive gaming platform amid the dominance of MS-DOS for games and Apple's QuickTime for multimedia. The project, codenamed Manhattan, addressed key limitations in the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI), which was ill-suited for real-time 3D graphics and high-performance multimedia due to its overhead and lack of hardware acceleration support, a need driven by the burgeoning game industry seeking efficient access to PC hardware. This effort was inspired by internal memos like "Taking Fun Seriously," which aimed to engage game developers by providing low-level APIs that bypassed traditional Windows abstractions, ultimately positioning Windows as a unified ecosystem for consumer gaming against fragmented alternatives. The first public release, DirectX 1.0, arrived in September 1995 as the Windows Game SDK, coinciding with Windows 95's launch and focusing on foundational 2D and 3D acceleration through components like for graphics and DirectSound for audio, marking Microsoft's initial push to supplant older APIs such as and DCI. Early adoption was boosted by demonstrations at the 1995 , where prototypes showcased hardware-accelerated rendering, though the faced skepticism from developers accustomed to OpenGL's established role in professional 3D graphics. By DirectX 5.0 in August 1997, enhancements included improved support for hardware transformation and lighting (T&L), enabling more efficient 3D geometry processing on emerging GPUs and solidifying DirectX's aim to unify consumer-oriented APIs while challenging OpenGL's professional stronghold through tighter Windows integration. Subsequent milestones built on this foundation amid intensifying competition. DirectX 6.0, released in August 1998, refined networking capabilities via enhancements to , facilitating multiplayer gaming over IP and modems, which helped games like those from transition from DOS to Windows. DirectX 7.0 followed in September 1999, introducing robust hardware T&L support that offloaded complex 3D computations to GPUs, dramatically improving performance for titles like and further eroding OpenGL's edge in consumer markets by offering scalable, Windows-native tools. Culminating the early era, DirectX 8.0 launched in November 2000, pioneering programmable vertex and pixel shaders for more dynamic effects, such as realistic lighting and textures, while integrating with to broaden its appeal beyond gaming into multimedia applications, all without delving into high-level shading languages that would emerge later.

Evolution Through Windows Eras

Following the release of DirectX 8 in 2000, DirectX 9 emerged in December 2002 as a pivotal update closely aligned with the operating system, which had launched the previous year and became the dominant platform for gaming and multimedia applications. This version introduced Shader Model 2.0, enabling more advanced programmable shading techniques that capitalized on the burgeoning availability of programmable GPUs from manufacturers like and ATI, thereby facilitating greater developer control over rendering effects in real-time applications. The integration with Windows XP's features helped solidify DirectX's role in leveraging the era's GPU advancements, such as improved vertex and , to enhance visual fidelity in games and simulations without requiring full OS overhauls. As Windows evolved to Vista and 7, DirectX 10 arrived in November 2006 exclusively with Windows Vista, marking a departure from backward compatibility by mandating new hardware support, including Shader Model 4.0 capabilities, to enforce stricter feature levels and reduce driver overhead. This shift emphasized hardware-specific optimizations, compelling developers and users to upgrade for access to enhanced geometry processing and resource management, though it initially faced adoption hurdles due to Vista's performance issues. DirectX 11 followed in October 2009 alongside Windows 7, building on this foundation by incorporating tessellation stages into the graphics pipeline, which allowed for more efficient handling of complex surfaces and improved performance on multi-core systems prevalent in that generation of hardware. These updates reflected Microsoft's strategy to tie API advancements directly to OS releases, promoting ecosystem-wide improvements in rendering efficiency and developer tools. In the modern era, DirectX 12 debuted on July 29, 2015, with the launch of , introducing low-level GPU access that granted developers finer control over command queues and resource binding to minimize CPU bottlenecks and maximize hardware utilization in multi-threaded environments. DirectX 12 Ultimate, formalized in March 2020 and integrated into version 20H1, extended this model by incorporating (DXR) 1.1 for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shaders for streamlined geometry processing, aligning with the rise of next-generation GPUs like NVIDIA's RTX series. As of November 2025, no DirectX 13 has been released; instead, continues to deliver enhancements through feature packs in , such as ongoing optimizations for variable rate shading and sampler feedback, ensuring sustained relevance without a major version jump. Throughout these developments, DirectX has trended toward lower-level APIs to boost performance, exemplified by DirectX 12's reduction in driver-layer abstractions that previously limited GPU efficiency on high-end hardware. This evolution also integrated AI and capabilities via DirectML, introduced in March 2018, which provides hardware-accelerated operators for tasks like directly within the DirectX ecosystem, enabling applications in upscaling and procedural content generation. Additionally, DirectStorage, rolled out in September 2022 for , addresses storage and CPU trends by facilitating direct GPU data streaming from NVMe SSDs, leveraging multi-core processors to achieve sustained rates while minimizing CPU usage for asset loading in large-scale games. These adaptations underscore DirectX's responsiveness to hardware paradigms, from programmable shaders to AI-driven rendering and high-speed storage.

Core Components

Graphics and Rendering APIs

Direct3D serves as the primary graphics and rendering API within the DirectX ecosystem, enabling developers to create both 2D and 3D visuals for , scientific applications, and desktop software on Windows platforms. Introduced in 1996 as part of DirectX 2.0, it initially provided a low-level interface for hardware-accelerated through a fixed-function pipeline, where operations like transformation and lighting were predefined by the rather than customizable code. Over time, Direct3D evolved to support a fully programmable pipeline starting with DirectX 8.0 in 2000, which introduced vertex and shaders to allow developers greater control over rendering stages. At its core, Direct3D manages rendering through key elements such as vertex and index buffers, which store geometric data like positions, normals, and texture coordinates for efficient processing of 3D models. Texture mapping applies surface details and materials to these geometries, while state management handles configurations for blending, depth testing, and rasterization to define how scenes are rendered. The programmable includes multiple stages—primarily vertex shaders for transforming , pixel shaders for per-fragment coloring, and shaders (introduced in DirectX 10) for procedural —all written in the High-Level Shading Language (HLSL), a C-like syntax developed for DirectX 9 in 2002 to simplify authoring compared to low-level assembly. These components form a flexible rendering that processes input data through stages like input assembly, rasterization, and output merging to generate final framebuffers. Advanced features in later versions enhance performance and realism without overlapping into non-graphics domains. Direct3D 11, released in 2009, introduced deferred contexts to enable multithreaded rendering, allowing multiple CPU threads to prepare command lists that an immediate context executes on the GPU, reducing bottlenecks in complex scenes. DirectX 12 introduced variable rate shading (VRS) in 2019, which optimizes GPU workload by applying lower shading rates to less perceptually important screen areas, such as backgrounds, to boost frame rates while maintaining visual quality; this feature is certified for hardware under DirectX 12 Ultimate (2020). For realistic lighting effects, DirectX Raytracing (DXR), launched in 2018, integrates ray tracing into the pipeline to simulate global illumination, reflections, and shadows in real-time via dedicated hardware acceleration. As of 2025, supports up to Shader Model 6.8, providing advanced capabilities like wave intrinsics for efficient parallel execution within shaders, while previews of Shader Model 6.9 introduce features such as shader execution reordering for further ray tracing optimizations. This ongoing evolution ensures remains a cornerstone for high-fidelity graphics rendering on modern hardware.

Audio and Input APIs

DirectX's audio and input APIs facilitate real-time sound reproduction and device interaction, enabling developers to create responsive and immersive experiences in and applications. These APIs have evolved from legacy components focused on basic to modern, low-latency systems that support advanced features like 3D positioning and haptic feedback. The audio subsystem began with DirectSound, a legacy API introduced with DirectX 3.0 in 1996 that provided hardware-accelerated mixing and positional 3D audio capabilities. DirectSound's 3D listener interface allowed developers to simulate sound sources with position, orientation, velocity, Doppler effects, and distance-based attenuation, creating virtual acoustic environments for early games. However, designates DirectSound as deprecated, recommending migration to newer alternatives due to its limitations in multirate processing and compressed audio support. Succeeding DirectSound, XAudio2 emerged with DirectX 10 as a low-level, cross-platform audio optimized for on Windows and . It delivers low-latency mixing through a non-blocking model, dynamic buffer submission for sample-accurate streaming, and built-in DSP effects like reverb, filtering, and submixing for independent audio channels. XAudio2 supports native decompression of formats such as ADPCM and handles multichannel output without hardware restrictions, reducing CPU overhead via multirate processing. Key to its design is voice-based architecture, where audio sources are managed as "voices" with per-voice filtering for environmental effects. DirectX 12 integrates spatial audio enhancements via Windows Sonic for Headphones, a platform-level technology that renders 3D soundscapes over stereo outputs, providing directionality and distance cues without specialized hardware. Windows Sonic works alongside to enable immersive 3D audio in games, supporting formats like and DTS:X for broader compatibility in virtual environments. This integration allows developers to author spatialized audio graphs that simulate realistic acoustics, such as occlusion and reverb, directly within the DirectX pipeline. On the input side, serves as a legacy for polling devices like keyboards, mice, and joysticks, offering enumeration and event-driven access to legacy hardware. It abstracts device-specific details but requires more setup than modern alternatives and combines certain inputs, such as Xbox triggers, into single axes without native vibration support. For broader compatibility, DirectInput integrates with Windows (HID) standards to handle universal peripherals. XInput, introduced in 2005 with the , specializes in Xbox-compatible controllers, providing simplified access to analog sticks, triggers, buttons, and voice input across Windows and Xbox platforms. It supports independent left/right trigger control and force feedback through vibration motors, enabling haptic responses like rumble effects tied to in-game events. XInput's streamlined API reduces boilerplate code compared to , though it is limited to XUSB devices and requires fallback to other APIs for non-Xbox hardware. Raw Input complements these by offering low-level, unprocessed data polling from HID-compliant devices, including joysticks and custom controllers, via functions like GetRawInputData and device registration. This API bypasses higher-level filtering for precise, real-time input in DirectX applications, supporting notifications for device changes and integration with Windows' input stack. Core features across these APIs include efficient buffer management in XAudio2 for seamless audio streaming and synchronization, force feedback in XInput for tactile immersion, and HID unification for plug-and-play device support without custom drivers. As of 2025, no major overhauls have occurred to XAudio2 or the core input APIs since DirectX 12, though enhancements in the GameInput API—such as audio-driven haptics and motion sensing—bolster 3D audio and input for VR/AR experiences by extending legacy compatibility.

Compute and Multimedia Libraries

DirectCompute, introduced with Direct3D 11, enables general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) by allowing developers to execute compute shaders for parallel processing tasks beyond traditional graphics rendering. These shaders are written in the High-Level Shading Language (HLSL), which provides a C-like syntax for defining compute kernels that operate on structured buffers, textures, and other resources. DirectCompute supports thread groups for efficient SIMD execution, making it suitable for simulations, physics calculations, and in applications like scientific computing and game engines. Building on this foundation, DirectML, released in 2018, extends DirectX's compute capabilities to acceleration across DirectX 12-compatible GPUs, as well as CPUs and other hardware. As a low-level layer, DirectML exposes operators for common ML operations like convolutions and matrix multiplications, integrated with frameworks such as ONNX Runtime for seamless model deployment. In DirectX 12 environments, DirectML leverages asynchronous compute queues to overlap ML inference with graphics workloads, enhancing performance in real-time applications. By 2025, DirectML has gained prominence in AI-driven features like neural upscaling, akin to DLSS, by accelerating tensor operations on diverse hardware without vendor-specific dependencies. For multimedia processing, serves as a legacy architecture for video and audio streaming, capture, and playback, utilizing a filter graph model to chain components for decoding and rendering. Introduced in the late 1990s, it supports high-quality media handling but has been superseded by more modern alternatives due to its COM-based design and limited extensibility for contemporary formats. , debuted with , replaces as the primary framework for digital media pipelines, offering enhanced support for streaming, codec integration, and protected content playback through a modular transform model. It enables developers to build robust applications for video encoding, decoding, and multi-format support, with built-in protections for . Complementing these, provides a hardware-accelerated for 2D , focusing on high-performance rendering of shapes, text, and bitmaps without delving into 3D pipelines. It uses for backend acceleration, supporting antialiasing, gradients, and opacity effects for UI elements and visualizations. In networking, , once used for multiplayer connectivity in games, was deprecated after DirectX 9.0 and is no longer recommended, with developers directed to use platform-agnostic libraries like Winsock for socket-based communication.

Versions and Releases

DirectX 9.0 Series

The DirectX 9.0 series was initially released on December 12, 2002, as a set of APIs designed to enhance multimedia experiences on Windows platforms, including , , , and through runtime updates. This version introduced significant advancements in graphics programming, particularly through the integration of programmable shaders under Shader Model 2.0 (SM 2.0), which allowed developers to create custom vertex and shaders for more sophisticated visual effects. A major update, DirectX 9.0c, arrived in August 2004, adding support for Shader Model 3.0 (SM 3.0) and extending shader instruction lengths and capabilities, enabling even more complex rendering techniques while maintaining with earlier hardware via a fixed-function fallback. Key innovations in the DirectX 9.0 series centered on programmable shaders, which revolutionized game development by permitting effects like to simulate surface details without additional , thus improving realism and performance on compatible GPUs. Technical enhancements included improved multitexturing for applying multiple textures to surfaces in a single pass and to reduce texture distortion at oblique angles, both managed through the 9 API. Additionally, Direct3D 9 supported resource sharing, such as textures and surfaces, between multiple rendering devices via the D3D9Ex runtime, optimizing usage in multi-monitor or advanced applications. As of 2025, the DirectX 9.0 series remains relevant for legacy compatibility, particularly in older games that rely on its APIs for rendering, with community-developed wrappers like DXVK translating 9 calls to for modern hardware support. Although ended active development and support for DirectX 9 years ago, the runtime libraries continue to be available for download and installation on contemporary Windows versions to ensure these applications function without issues. This enduring availability underscores DirectX 9's foundational role in the evolution of shader-based graphics, as detailed further in the core components section.

DirectX 10 and 11

DirectX 10 was released in November 2006 alongside , marking a significant evolution in Microsoft's graphics by mandating hardware support for Shader Model 4.0, which required GPUs capable of fully programmable pipelines without reliance on legacy fixed-function stages. This version eliminated the fixed-function pipeline entirely, compelling developers to implement all rendering stages through shaders for greater flexibility and efficiency in handling complex geometry and effects. Key innovations included geometry shaders, which allowed of primitives directly on the GPU, enabling techniques like fur rendering or particle systems without excessive vertex data transmission. Additionally, DirectX 10 introduced unified state objects to streamline state management, grouping rendering states into immutable objects that reduced overhead and minimized driver-level validation during scene rendering. In 2008, DirectX 10.1 arrived as a minor update via Service Pack 1, primarily enhancing precision in and resource management to better align with hardware capabilities from ATI (now ) GPUs, such as the Radeon HD 3000 series, which were the first to fully support these refinements. DirectX 11, launched in October 2009 with , built on this foundation by introducing Shader Model 5.0, which added shaders—comprising hull and domain shaders—for efficient subdivision of coarse geometry into detailed surfaces, improving performance in rendering complex models like terrain or characters. It also incorporated compute shaders to enable general-purpose GPU computing within the , allowing parallel processing for tasks beyond traditional rendering, such as physics simulations. To address CPU bottlenecks in complex scenes, DirectX 11 implemented multithreaded command lists, permitting multiple CPU threads to record draw calls and resource bindings concurrently before submission to the GPU, thereby enhancing overall application scalability on multicore systems. Both versions advanced resource handling through shader resource views (SRVs) for read-only access and unordered access views (UAVs) for read-write operations on buffers and textures, facilitating more dynamic data manipulation in shaders without frequent API roundtrips. They also refined hardware instancing, allowing efficient rendering of multiple instances of the same geometry via geometry shader outputs—up to 1024 vertices per invocation—reducing draw call overhead for scenes with repeated elements like foliage or crowds. As of 2025, DirectX 11 continues to serve as a baseline for numerous applications and games, with full support in , where it integrates seamlessly with modern hardware while maintaining compatibility for legacy titles.

DirectX 12 and Ultimate

DirectX 12, released on July 29, 2015, alongside , represents a shift to a low-level graphics API that grants developers explicit control over GPU resources to minimize overhead and maximize performance. This architecture emphasizes manual , where applications handle memory allocation and state transitions directly, supported by descriptor heaps for efficient binding of resources like textures and buffers to shaders. Command queues enable asynchronous submission of graphics, compute, and copy operations from multiple threads, reducing CPU bottlenecks by allowing the GPU to process workloads more independently. Central to DirectX 12's optimizations are features like asynchronous compute, which permits concurrent execution of compute shaders alongside graphics pipelines to better utilize GPU hardware. Resource barriers, including tied variants that synchronize state changes across engines, ensure safe transitions between resource usages such as rendering and sampling. The defines feature levels—ranging from 12_0 for baseline support to 12_2 for advanced capabilities—to accommodate varying hardware tiers, enabling without breaking compatibility. DirectX 12 Ultimate, announced on March 19, 2020, builds on this foundation by standardizing cutting-edge hardware features into a unified specification for next-generation graphics. It introduces DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.1, which enhances ray tracing efficiency through GPU-initiated work and inline acceleration structures for more realistic lighting and reflections. Variable Rate Shading (VRS) allows developers to apply different shading rates across the screen, optimizing performance in less critical areas like distant scenery. Mesh Shaders provide flexible, compute-style geometry processing to handle complex scenes with reduced draw calls, while Sampler Feedback delivers data on texture sampling patterns to inform asset streaming and mipmapping decisions. A key extension under DirectX 12 Ultimate is DirectStorage, which became publicly available on March 14, 2022, enabling direct data transfer from NVMe SSDs to GPU memory with hardware-accelerated decompression of compressed assets. This feature drastically cuts load times in open-world games by supporting thousands of simultaneous I/O requests, bypassing CPU involvement for up to gigabytes per second throughput. Ray tracing integration in DirectX 12 Ultimate, as seen in titles like , which utilize VRS and mesh shaders for optimized ray-traced visuals. As of 2025, DirectX 12 Ultimate continues to evolve through Windows 11 version 24H2 and the Agility SDK, with notable advancements like DXR 1.2 introducing opacity micromaps for up to 2.3x faster ray traversal and shader execution reordering for improved denoising efficiency. DirectML, integrated for machine learning acceleration, receives ongoing enhancements for AI-driven upscaling and neural rendering, supporting features like cooperative vectors in Shader Model 6.9. No DirectX 13 has been announced, with Microsoft prioritizing broader adoption of Ultimate capabilities in modern titles.

Compatibility and Integration

System Requirements and Platform Support

DirectX 10 and later implementations require a compatible (GPU) that supports the (WDDM), with version 1.0 or higher as the baseline for core functionality. For advanced features in DirectX 12, WDDM 2.0 or later is mandatory, ensuring efficient GPU scheduling and resource management on modern hardware. GPU compatibility is handled through feature levels, which provide tiered support for shaders, textures, and rendering pipelines, allowing older GPUs to execute newer DirectX workloads via software emulation where hardware limits exist. System memory requirements scale with the version and host OS; DirectX 12 typically demands at least 4 GB of RAM to align with and 11 minimums, though higher amounts (8 GB or more) are advised for performance-intensive applications. DirectX enjoys native platform support across Windows operating systems, beginning with for initial releases and extending fully to contemporary versions like . DirectX 12 Ultimate, encompassing ray tracing and variable rate shading, is fully realized on Windows 10 (version 2004 or later) and , leveraging hardware-accelerated features on compatible GPUs. On ARM-based devices, DirectX operates with partial native support for ARM64 applications, supplemented by x86 emulation layers for legacy x86 code, enabling broader compatibility despite performance overheads from translation. Integration with Xbox platforms occurs through the Game Development Kit (GDK), which extends DirectX APIs for cross-play and unified development between Windows PCs and consoles. Specific DirectX versions impose distinct OS thresholds: DirectX 9 is compatible with and later, with runtime components installable via the End-User Runtime package supporting SP3 and subsequent releases for older hardware. In contrast, DirectX 12 mandates build 10240 (version 1507) or newer, prohibiting operation on prior Windows iterations without emulation. Official support remains confined to Windows ecosystems, excluding native availability on or macOS; however, compatibility layers like Proton—developed by —translate DirectX 9 through 12 calls to , facilitating Steam games on distributions. As of 2025, Windows 11 enforces DirectX 12 compatibility as a core hardware prerequisite, impacting (UWP) applications that rely on modern graphics pipelines for optimal rendering. Legacy DirectX versions persist through ongoing runtime installers, ensuring backward compatibility for applications on supported Windows editions without necessitating full OS upgrades.

Backward Compatibility Mechanisms

DirectX maintains backward compatibility through feature levels introduced in Direct3D 10 and extended in subsequent versions, enabling runtime detection of hardware capabilities and graceful fallback to lower-level functionality. Applications can query the available feature levels during device creation, such as using D3D11CreateDevice to specify levels from 9_1 to 11_1, allowing a modern application to operate with reduced features on older GPUs without requiring version-specific binaries. For instance, a DirectX 12 application can request feature level 11_0, effectively running a DirectX 11 pipeline on hardware lacking full DirectX 12 support, thus preserving performance and functionality across hardware tiers. The DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer facilitates compatibility by providing legacy components not included in modern Windows installations, with its most recent update on July 15, 2024. This installer deploys essential DLLs such as D3DX9, D3DX10, D3DX11 for graphics utilities, and XAudio 2.7 for audio processing, ensuring older applications function without manual intervention. Updates to these components are delivered automatically through , integrating seamlessly with the system's DirectX 12 runtime while avoiding conflicts with native Windows DirectX files. Integration with .NET frameworks has evolved to support DirectX usage in managed code, though early efforts faced deprecation. Managed DirectX (MDX), introduced for .NET in DirectX 9.0, provided high-level wrappers but was deprecated in 2006, rendering its components obsolete and recommending their removal from new and existing applications. Community-driven alternatives like SharpDX emerged as low-level wrappers around the DirectX API, enabling C# access to Direct3D, DirectSound, and other components until its archival in 2019. For modern development in .NET 8 and later, developers use Platform Invoke (P/Invoke) for interop with DirectX 12, often via libraries like Vanara, which expose P/Invoke signatures for d3d12.dll and related APIs to bridge managed and unmanaged code without deprecated wrappers. Backward compatibility faces challenges from deprecated elements, such as DirectPlay, a networking API for multiplayer applications that was marked obsolete in DirectX 9.0 and remains supported only for legacy purposes, prompting developers to migrate to alternatives like XInput or modern networking stacks. In non-Windows environments, particularly for Linux via Wine or Proton in 2025, solutions like DXVK address these gaps by translating Direct3D 8 through 11 calls to Vulkan at runtime, improving compatibility and performance for legacy DirectX titles without native support.

Alternatives and Comparisons

Cross-Platform Graphics APIs

, developed by the and first released in 1992, is a cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D . It provides a high-level abstraction similar to early versions of , allowing developers to specify rendering operations without direct hardware management. However, OpenGL's evolution has been marked by fragmented extensions managed by hardware vendors, leading to inconsistencies across implementations. This API remains widely used on and macOS systems for graphics applications, but its adoption on Windows has declined since the introduction of DirectX 10 in 2006, as shifted focus to its proprietary APIs and reduced promotion of OpenGL. Vulkan, also from the and released in 2016, represents a shift to a low-level, explicit graphics and compute designed for high-performance applications across multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Android. Like DirectX 12, Vulkan emphasizes direct control over GPU resources, enabling developers to minimize driver overhead and optimize multi-threaded command submission for better efficiency. This approach reduces CPU bottlenecks compared to higher-level APIs, allowing for more scalable performance in demanding scenarios such as real-time rendering. Vulkan has seen strong adoption outside Windows-dominated ecosystems, particularly in Linux-based gaming devices like the , where it serves as the primary backend through layers in tools like Proton. To facilitate DirectX 12 compatibility on Vulkan-supporting platforms, the VKD3D-Proton library provides a layer that maps DirectX 12 calls to equivalents, with ongoing updates, including version 3.0 released on November 16, 2025, enhancing support for features like ray tracing and FSR4. While DirectX offers deep optimization for Windows and Xbox hardware through tight integration with the operating system, Vulkan prioritizes portability across diverse environments at the cost of increased developer complexity in managing low-level details. DirectX lacks native support on Apple platforms, where Metal serves as the proprietary graphics , underscoring Vulkan's broader cross-platform appeal despite platform-specific trade-offs. WebGPU, developed by the W3C and with the initial specification released in 2023, is a cross-platform for web-based 3D graphics and compute shaders, enabling high-performance rendering directly in browsers without plugins. It draws inspiration from Vulkan and Metal, providing low-overhead access suitable for web games and applications, and supports platforms including Windows, macOS, , and mobile browsers as of 2025.

Audio and Input Alternatives

In development, particularly for games and interactive applications, several cross-platform alternatives to DirectX's audio components, such as , provide flexible options for handling sound mixing, spatial audio, and effects without platform-specific dependencies. (Open Audio Library) serves as a prominent open-source API for 3D positional audio, enabling developers to position sound sources in a virtual 3D space relative to a listener, much like the older DirectSound interface in DirectX but with broader portability across Windows, macOS, , and other systems. Its software-based implementation, often via OpenAL Soft, supports multichannel output and effects like reverb and Doppler shift, making it suitable for immersive audio in games without requiring tied to one OS. For simpler audio needs, SDL_mixer extends the (SDL) by offering a lightweight mixer for playing multiple sound samples and music tracks simultaneously, supporting formats like , OGG, and through backends that ensure cross-platform compatibility. This is particularly favored in development for its ease of integration, allowing basic channel management and volume control with minimal overhead, contrasting with XAudio2's more complex voice-based architecture optimized for Windows performance. Middleware solutions like provide advanced audio management as a commercial yet accessible option, emphasizing low-latency playback and dynamic mixing for complex scenarios, including adaptive music and event-driven . Widely integrated into engines like Unity, abstracts platform differences, supporting real-time parameter tweaks and 3D spatialization while delivering sub-10ms latency on supported hardware, which helps developers avoid direct reliance on OS-specific APIs like XAudio2. Comparatively, prioritizes portability by virtualizing audio output and hiding hardware specifics, allowing seamless deployment across diverse platforms without the deep Windows ecosystem integration that offers through tight coupling with DirectSound remnants and Xbox audio features. Similarly, SDL_mixer's straightforward appeals to indie developers seeking quick prototyping, though it lacks the granular hardware access and vibration feedback depth provided by 's companion XInput for controllers. On the input side, SDL unifies handling of keyboard, mouse, and gamepad events across platforms, providing a consistent API that maps diverse hardware—like Xbox, PlayStation, and generic controllers—to a standardized layout, facilitating easier porting for multiplayer or cross-device games. This abstraction reduces boilerplate code compared to XInput's Windows-focused polling for Xbox-compatible devices, including force feedback and precise analog stick data. GLFW complements graphics-focused workflows by offering window management alongside basic input polling for keyboards, mice, and joysticks, tailored for OpenGL or Vulkan applications without the full multimedia scope of SDL. Its event-driven model supports cursor modes and key repeat handling, providing a lightweight alternative to XInput's deeper integration with Windows HID (Human Interface Device) drivers for advanced controller features like button remapping. As of 2025, trends in audio and input alternatives highlight the Web Audio API's growing role in browser-based games, enabling JavaScript-driven spatial audio and real-time effects directly in web environments without plugins, supporting immersive experiences on diverse devices. Additionally, middleware like and Wwise is increasingly adopted to abstract DirectX dependencies, allowing developers to maintain cross-platform codebases while leveraging platform-optimized backends for performance.

References

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