DirectX Question

[Larry]

A beginner question. I have not downloaded DirectX 9.0,
so I assume I have what ever version came with Win XP
Home version. I notice a lot of people have had problems
with DirectX 9 upgrade. What do you guys recommend?
Download or not to download? What does DirectX do anyway?

 

[Ian Merrithew]

A beginner question. I have not downloaded DirectX 9.0,
so I assume I have what ever version came with Win XP
Home version. I notice a lot of people have had problems
with DirectX 9 upgrade. What do you guys recommend?

Stay with the version that you need to run whatever games you are
playing. If you have no DX9 games, don't bother with DX9. No need to
upgrade what's working fine for you.

Typically you don't even need to download any version of DirectX. Most,
if not all games these days, will come with the appropriate version of DX
on their CDs, and will install it automatically if you need it. Note
that DX is fully backward-compatible; an old game that relies on DX5, for
instance, will run perfectly fine under DX7, DX8, or DX9. The various DX
installers won't overwrite newer versions with older ones, either, so no
need to worry that a game will try to install DX5 over a working DX8 and
muck everything up, for instance. In my experience, anyway.

 

[Plato]

A beginner question. I have not downloaded DirectX 9.0,
so I assume I have what ever version came with Win XP
Home version. I notice a lot of people have had problems
with DirectX 9 upgrade. What do you guys recommend?
Download or not to download? What does DirectX do anyway?

Please state what EXACT problems you are having currently that you
belive the upgrade will fix.

 

[Larry]

Thanks Ian, that told me what I needed to know.

-----Original Message-----


Stay with the version that you need to run whatever games you are
playing. If you have no DX9 games, don't bother with DX9. No need to
upgrade what's working fine for you.

Typically you don't even need to download any version of DirectX. Most,
if not all games these days, will come with the appropriate version of DX
on their CDs, and will install it automatically if you need it. Note
that DX is fully backward-compatible; an old game that relies on DX5, for
instance, will run perfectly fine under DX7, DX8, or DX9. The various DX
installers won't overwrite newer versions with older ones, either, so no
need to worry that a game will try to install DX5 over a working DX8 and
muck everything up, for instance. In my experience, anyway.