Why should I upgrade to latest DirectX?

[pcalvert]

Hi,

I looked around the web for info on DirectX and couldn't find a clear explanation of what it is and what it's used for. All I got was a general sense that it's video-related. I noticed lots of people recommending that people upgrade to the latest version, but without giving a reason why. If I am using Windows 2000 and apply all security patches and critical updates, why should I bother updating DirectX to 9.0c (or whatever the latest version is)? What would I gain by updating?

Phil

[I_Broke_My_MHZ]

DirectX is a graphics engine for Windows. Updating it provides more graphical functionality and includes fixes from previous versions. If you have no games that require a new version of DirectX then updating is pointless.

[pcalvert]

Thanks for quick reply. Is DirectX mainly just used for games? I never play games on my computer, so it seems like I probably don't need to bother updating DirectX.

I just discovered that I have DirectX 9b on a CD I got from Microsoft about two years ago. Does anyone know if there's a small patch available to update DirectX 9b to DirectX 9c? I'd rather not download the full DirectX 9c if I don't have to (it's about 49 MB) since I am on a slow dialup connection.

Phil

[Scubar]

If you dont play games u dont need directX at all. i dont thing there is anyway to get a patch, you will have to download the full 49mb of it if you want to upgrade.

Edited March 29, 2006 by ScubaSteve

[nmX.Memnoch]

If you dont play games u dont need directX at all.

That's not entirely true. There are some appliciations (Windows Media Player comes to mind) that make use of some DirectX features.

Yes, you should install the latest version. It'll give you the latest security and performance updates for DirectX.

[pcalvert]

It seems that an alternative to updating DirectX is to just remove it completely. Although I'm sure gamers wouldn't want to do that, removing DirectX probably wouldn't pose any problems for many people. I just checked www.litepc.com, and the pro versions of XPlite and 2000lite (and 98lite) can remove DirectX. And, of course, there's also the free nLite.

Phil

[spazmire11]

some desktop applicatsions like windowsblinds use driectx i belive, in most cases its fine just to leave it nonupdated, due to the fact that graphics card drivers will take care of most bugs, also for clarifactation updateing only directx does not pose a graphical inprovement, your games/app have to support it first and then normaly it is required for them to run at all.

[M_win]

Direct x was written along side with the win32 code i think... to help with game programming. back then it wasnt as important and therefore wasn't included with windows 95. but since so many things use it now (such as media player) it has been integrated into windows.

i think you should upgrade because the new updates contain new api codes and can increase performance and reliability.

just reading wiki you can find out so much like directshow was the sucessor to video for windows

[teqguy]

Actually, there are four proponents of the DirectX API:

• video
  
• audio
  
• input
  
• networking
  

In addition, each of these components contains sub-components.

For example, the video portion alone has three: DirectDraw(2D graphics, primarily used in areas where GDI is just too slow for rendering), Direct3D(3D graphics, obviously), and DirectShow(video for Windows; used by codecs such as DivX/Xvid, WMV, and MPEG).

I'm also aware of the fact that most audio players, such as Windows Media Player and Winamp, are mapped through DirectSound by default, which would indicate that MP3 support will also be unavailable unless your player is appropriately configured.

So, while updating or even posessing DirectX might not appear to have any tangible benefits, the implications that it won't are simply undeterminable... unless of course your computer is used strictly for Office and/or light web browsing(any and all multimedia will be unavailable).

Furthermore, like many hotfixes and service packs released for Windows, most of the new files are simply overwriting pre-existing files, so the space consumed is fairly negligible.

Edited April 1, 2006 by teqguy