APRIL 2006 SDK DX ..

[INSTINCT]

DIRECT X UPDATED THIS APRIL, WITH UPGRADES TO FUNCTIOALITY ECT ECT.

BELOW IS THE LINK

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7AB978B5-5F1A-4F6A-88EB-FC646138BECA&displaylang=en

[THEKATZ*{MEOW}*]

Thank you!

Guys, if you are not familure with Direct X, most of us gamers are, it is the heart of graphic/audio for Windows. To see what version you have now and run any diagnostics on your graphics capability go to your 'Start' / 'RUN' and type in DXDIAG.  Say yes or no to the prompt if one shows.  The current version is 10.  Last version was 9c.  You really want to update this if your Windows updater hasn't done it for you.  After your update, you WILL need to update the graphic drivers for your card as well.  I can almost bet there is one out there for them.  Update your audio as well.

Direct X is the actual behind the scenes controller for game audio and graphics, periphials such as sound, joy sticks and the such.  It detects 3D graphics as well as intergrate that with the 3D sound.

"DirectX is Microsoft's API for doing nearly anything a game would want to do with the hardware in a PC. The idea behind DX is that it's a consistent, documented API for accessing hardware of any kind (from video, sound, joysticks and even the network) without having to know anything technical about that hardware. The downside is Microsoft has changed the DX API significantly over the many revisions, and many of those earlier versions were very buggy and difficult to program. While DirectX has garnered much of the game programming market, OpenGL has quite a few companies at its side, including id software and many others." (source - Google What is DIrectX)

[INSTINCT]

tons of read throughs and prep sessions for windows vista, many updated features.....excellent update!.

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[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Any benefit to updating it now or should I just wait until I come across a game that requires this version?

[INSTINCT]

actually if you have missed this update..you should get it , i patches some dirctx functions at the dll level , you want the top performance out of your investments ?..for certain this patch addresses HDR and other graphical power uses. hl2 heavily relies on HDR. as well as GRAW!.

this is a 390mb update to the core structure of windows xp as it pertains to handling all your multimedia requests. i would rather self patch directx this way then letting a new game install do it for you. see the above post by TK.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Rgr.  I like HDR, in certain applications of it.  Looks great in HL2/CSS and GRAW, but in some other games I prefer bloom lighting to it.