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 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. 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, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360 and some Sega Dreamcast games. 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. 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.
Direct3D 9Ex, Direct3D 10, and Direct3D 11 are only available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 because each of these new versions was built to depend upon the new Windows Display Driver Model
that was introduced for Windows Vista. The new Vista/WDDM graphics
architecture includes a new video memory manager supporting
virtualization of graphics hardware for various applications and services like the Desktop Window Manager.
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