After all, who would bother writing games for a machine when they had to reinvent the wheel every time they began work on a new game? Microsoft’s idea was simple: stop programmers talking directly to the hardware, and build a common toolkit which they could use instead. When Microsoft introduced Windows, it was imperative for the stability and success of the PC platform that things were made easier for both the developer and the player. Specific routines were needed even to display the simplest of images on the screen or play a simple sound.Įssentially, the game programmers were talking directly to your PC’s hardware at a fundamental level. Each programmer needed to develop their own way of reading the keyboard or detecting whether a joystick was even attached, let alone being used to play the game. Imagine how incredibly complex this was for programmers developing on the early pre-Windows PC architecture, then. That’s pretty much any game at the most simplistic level. It needs to watch for your input from mouse, joystick or keyboard, and it needs to be able to display screen images and play sounds or music. DirectX historyĪny game needs to perform certain tasks again and again. Before we can explain what DirectX is and how it works though, we need a little history lesson. This common interface is DirectX, something which can be the source of much confusion.ĭirectX is an interface designed to make certain programming tasks much easier, for both the game developer and the rest of us who just want to sit down and play the latest blockbuster. To alleviate as much of the pain as possible, Microsoft needed to introduce a common standard which all games and multimedia applications could follow – a common interface between the OS and whatever hardware is installed in the PC, if you like. While games consoles all contain the same hardware, PCs don’t: the massive range of difference can make gaming a headache.

Second, the wide-ranging nature of the PC means that one person’s machine can be different from another. First, the PC architecture was never designed as a gaming platform. Gaming and multimedia applications are some of the most satisfying programs you can get for your PC, but getting them to run properly isn’t always as easy as it could be.

Ever wondered just what that enigmatic name means?

Directx 9.0 windows 8