Direct X 9.0c variations

[Offler]

I was quite amazed when i found out how many versions of DX9c actually exists.

Two days ago i tryed the "bimonthly updates" redistributable package from microsoft page. That version was not most newest - from february 2007, but of course Windows 9x was not mentioned in the list of supported systems.

Installation was without any trouble, system seemed fine after next reboot. In DXdiag was certain that some modules have been updated, so i am sure that those packages are working.

Then i tried some common apps to test it. Most of them worked fine except one - that god damned teletext filter...

First i want to say that i am sure that this seems to be a problem of the txt filter itself, but the question is how can an application be incompatible with different versions of same DX9c...

I dont know if the bimonthly updates are sent throught automatic updates to Windows XP users, but to me it seemes that these small differences in versions can cause amount of unspecified and hardly identificable issues if they are installed on win9x system.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX

what are your opinions about "standard" dx9.0c packages distributed with games and video drivers and about the newest packages which are no longer supporting win9x?

[rainyd]

Offler, one strange thing: on the page with the newest DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer (from the June) Win98 and Win98SE are listed as the supported systems (not Windows Me): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

But on the page with redistributable version, Win9x family like Windows 2000 isn't mentioned:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

[Offler]

yeah thats right.

I tried the newest version from July. No trouble at all and this version seems to run little bit better that older versions, but its just feeling.

But in the file list (in dxdiag) is certain that there were not used some newest files. in version from february was wsock.dll from year 2007, now i dont see the file here...

[MDGx]

All mandatory system files installed by all DX 9.0c releases [up to the last 1 comaptible with 98/ME OSes from December 2006] are the same.

The only differences are the MDX [Managed DirectX] files which have been added with each release between February 2005 [1st] and December 2006 [last for 9x OSes].

To my knowledge there are very few apps/games that require those extra files:

D3DX9_24.DLL

D3DX9_25.DLL

D3DX9_26.DLL

D3DX9_27.DLL

D3DX9_28.DLL

D3DX9_29.DLL

D3DX9_30.DLL

D3DX9_31.DLL

D3DX9_32.DLL

These are all recompilations of D3DX9D.DLL from DX 9.0c SDK.

Another file I believe might be needed by some/few apps/games [?] is D3DREF9.DLL [must also reside in %windir%\SYSTEM], and the last version/build is 9.16.857.0000 [322,328 Bytes], installed by the December 2006 edition of DX 9.0c SDK.

HTH

[celtish]

All mandatory system files installed by all DX 9.0c releases [up to the last one compatible with 98/ME OSes from December 2006] are the same

As far as I'm aware the dx9.0c version I've installed is June 2007. Did I do wrong - and is this why I get prompted to re-install .net framework* - and if so how can I roll it back to the December 2006 version?

(* I did once install .net framework but I thought I'd got rid of it yonks ago)

[erpdude8]

All mandatory system files installed by all DX 9.0c releases [up to the last one compatible with 98/ME OSes from December 2006] are the same

As far as I'm aware the dx9.0c version I've installed is June 2007. Did I do wrong - and is this why I get prompted to re-install .net framework* - and if so how can I roll it back to the December 2006 version?

(* I did once install .net framework but I thought I'd got rid of it yonks ago)

you DONT need to "roll back" to the Dec. 2006 release of DX9.0c, plonkeroo. .NET Framework is only required if you are installing the "DirectX for Managed Code" files. these files such as MDGx mentioned "D3DX9_24.DLL, D3DX9_25.DLL, D3DX9_26.DLL, etc" require .NET Framework. Download and install .NET Framework 2.0 if you need to use those D3DX files. I have NFR 2.0 and DX 9.0c installed on my WinME computer

Other kinds of hardware that require DirectX 9.0c are camcorders like the Sony Digital8 Handycam DCR-TRV460 camcorder I have. This camcorder also came with the Picture Package CD that also bundled the DirectX 9.0c redistributable files. Good thing this camcorder can be used under Win98/ME as well as Win2000/XP.

Offler, one strange thing: on the page with the newest DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer (from the June) Win98 and Win98SE are listed as the supported systems (not Windows Me): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

But on the page with redistributable version, Win9x family like Windows 2000 isn't mentioned:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

The DX end-user runtime web installer should work under Win98 AND WinME, rainyd. It's just that MS forgot to mention ME in the supported systems list (perhaps MS ran out of room). Same thing with the latest DX redist release. It should run under Win98/2000/ME/XP/2003/Vista. the latest DX redist runtimes no longer include the DX files for Win98/ME but you can still use the ones from the Dec. 2006 release.

I dont know if the bimonthly updates are sent throught automatic updates to Windows XP users, but to me it seemes that these small differences in versions can cause amount of unspecified and hardly identificable issues if they are installed on win9x system.

No, they are not offered thru automatic updates, Offler. I also have a WinXP computer to verify that.

Edited January 2, 2008 by Tarun

[celtish]

... you DONT need to "roll back" to the Dec. 2006 release of DX9.0c, plonkeroo

Many thanks for the info

[Offler]

so here are my suggestions:

i tried the DX bimonthly update from february. the newest file there was Wsock.dll from february 2007. most of systems were working correctly but the teletext did not. that was the only measurable error.

so i retested the actual version from juny and it seems that there are no issues. i see some performance and quality improvement while playing videos and watching tv tuner.

Edited July 7, 2007 by Offler

[soporific]

Hi there,

The ever reliable MDGx has the December 2006 as the latest version of DirectX for Win98 se users, but i just tried to install August 2007 and it installed fine, and lots of new files were added to the system. But is there any point? And i wish MS would stop playing silly buggers with the 'Supported OSes' info ... no mention of Windows 98, but others sites are advertising it as a Win9x installation.

Can anyone shed some light?

[galahs]

August_2007 installed fine on my Win98SE system.

[soporific]

August_2007 installed fine on my Win98SE system.

ah, but did you try to install August 2007 on a clean system? You can't ... i'll post a link to my version of August 2007 for Win98se systems. just a sec ...

[Offler]

I installed also the newest version from august 2007. It was not installed on clear system, just because Windows 98SE already contains one version of DX, but i am not sure if it is DX 6 or DX 7.

[galahs]

No I installed mine on an existing DirectX version.

So does the August 2007 release fail to work on a fresh system?

If so, can you extract it first and install it that way?

[soporific]

So does the August 2007 release fail to work on a fresh system?

The reason August 2007 doesn't install on a clean Win98se system is because the redistributable doesn't contain the DirectX core installation files for Win9x/Me systems, it only contains the NT and XP versions and also the monthly update files.

I cut and pasted the following from my "Win98se list of Updates" thread ...

Here's an unofficial installer for DirectX 9.0c August 2007, it was designed to be used with the UBCD project. You cannot use the standard redistributable file from MS to install DirectX 9.0c from scratch, you can only use it after installing any of the previous versions of DirectX 9.0c (ie December 2006 or before) ... this installer is in effect the regular DirectX 9.0c with the August 2007 files installed as an add-on and as such is 39 MB in size. I will also (hopefully) be releasing an update from December 2006 to August 2007 which will be much smaller in size, so wait for that if you already have December 2006 (and you can also just use the standard redistributable file from MS).

So just repeating, this is useful for people wanting to include it on a UBCD or something similar.

http://soporific.dsleague.com/downloads/DirectX9-Aug2007.exe

it should work for all Windows 98se/Me systems although i haven't tested on a Me system.

[eidenk]

I just grabbed the new D3D9 and D3D10 dlls from the official pack and copied them to the system dir in case I download a recent app needing one of them.

Can anyone confirm that DirectX 9.0c in general breaks DirectMusic by removing the reference to the gm.dls sounfont in the registry ?

Test Direct Music with the DXDiag tool to see if it is broken.

I did download MS DirectMusic Producer and could not get it to run because it could not find the gm.dls soundfont in the registry.

After a bit of googling I read that DirectMusic had been deprecated by MS and that DX 9.0c was breaking it on purpose.

In case it is broken, the following reg file should fix it :

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectMusic]
"GMFilePath"="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32\\DRIVERS\\GM.DLS"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectMusic\SoftwareSynths]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectMusic\SoftwareSynths\{58C2B4D0-46E7-11D1-89AC-00A0C9054129}]
"Description"="Microsoft Software Synthesizer"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectMusic\SoftwareSynths\{B37D67DC-9823-2300-D67D-0000320A608C}]
@=hex:d7,07,02,00,00,00,12,00,03,00,30,00,08,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectMusic\Defaults]
"DefaultOutputport"="{58C2B4D0-46E7-11D1-89AC-00A0C9054129}"

I copied the entire DirectMusic key but I think I only found the GMFilePath missing.

PS : On Windows ME, DX9.0c does not install if SFC.DLL, SFPDLL.DLL and SMGR.DLL are missing, which happens if System File Protection and/or System Restore is removed from the OS (not sure anymore which of them those files actually belong to).

Edited September 8, 2007 by eidenk