Quote: " I got 21 'External Exception' faults on my first launch of the 5.8 update. I'm not impressed in any way."
I've had 0 errors and all works fine... Are you using '98 ?
Quote: "why do we really, really need to have the absolute latest version of directx anyway"
Because it fixes bugs in DirectX and adds features, ready for DirectX 10 next year (assuming Longhorn is released then).
D3DX Updates
The following new features were added to D3DX:
UVAtlas API - These new API's (see UVAtlas Functions) automatically generate a unique UV texture mapping for an arbitrary mesh, maximizing texture space usage and minimizing texture undersampling (stretch). See Using UVAtlas.
Reduced effects memory footprint - A new flag (D3DXFX_NOT_CLONEABLE) has been added to allow users to specify that an effect will never need to be cloned by the effect system. Using this flag can notably reduce the memory footprint for an effect.
Precomputed Radiance Transfer (PRT)
Passing in a NULL parameter for sample locations in the ComputeVolumeSamples API's (see ID3DXPRTEngine) will result in transfer matrices being computed at each vertex in the mesh.
Improvements have been made to increase the physical accuracy of radiance transfer simulations.
Documentation Updates
Setup documentation - The DXSetup documentation has been updated to explain the redist naming scheme and how you can customize the redist to reduce your installation size. See Installing DirectX with DirectSetup.
DXUT Updates
Based on customer feedback, the following is a list of major differences and improvements to the DXUT framework:
Callback functions now pass a void* pUserContext that allows the callback functions to receive context from the application.
The framework's GUI is now separate and optional from the core framework.
The framework now allows applications to reject device changes via LPDXUTCALLBACKMODIFYDEVICESETTINGS which returns a bool.
Passing 0 as the width and height to DXUTCreateDevice now creates a backbuffer of the same size as the client window.
DXUTGetExitCode now returns 11 if the last device was a D3DDEVTYPE_REF device type.
For more information about all of these features, see DXUT Improvements in the DirectX 9.0 April 2005 SDK.
Technical Article Updates
The DirectX developer Frequenty Asked Questions (FAQs) page has been added to the documentation. See DirectX 9.0 Frequently Asked Questions.
A new technical article about the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 has been added. See Introduction to the 10-Foot Experience for Windows Game Developers.
Tool Updates
Enhancements to the PIX performance analysis tool include:
You can now open full-stream capture PIXRun files, and render frames from them within PIX, the same way you can with single-frame capture PIXRun files (see Analyzing PIX Data).
You can save rendered frames to an image file from within PIX.
You can adjust the scaling of the Y-axis of the event timeline to see data graphed more clearly (see TimeLine Scaling).
Enhancements to the DirectX Extensions for DCC applications include:
The DirectX Extensions for Discreet 3ds max plug-in has been added to support exporting data to the DirectX X-File format (.x).
DirectX Component Status
Microsoft DirectPlay is deprecated, and Microsoft strongly recommends against using it to develop new applications. Game developers should instead use enhanced core Microsoft Windows networking technologies.
Microsoft DirectInput, Microsoft DirectMusic, Microsoft DirectShow, and Microsoft DirectSound will maintain their current status until new technology in these areas is made available.
Note When the Microsoft DirectX SDK has been installed, the DirectMusic and DirectPlay documentation can be found at the following location:
(SDK Root)DocumentationDirectX9
Documentation for these DirectX components is also available on the MSDN Library:
DirectMusic
DirectPlay
DirectShow
Use of Microsoft DirectDraw is no longer recommended. With the release of DirectX 9.0, all two-dimensional (2-D) functionality is contained within Microsoft Direct3D and its associated helper functions in D3DX. However, the DirectDraw documentation is still available and can be viewed at the MSDN Library Archive at DirectDraw .
Quote: " the receiving users also have to have the latest directx bits"
Which should be no real problem, especially if they play modern games.
Apparently future SDK will change the version number - so next time it'll be d3dx9_26.dll - from Gamedev :
Quote: "welcome to the fun and games of Microsoft's new system for D3DX....
With the February update they moved D3DX from a static .LIB to a dynamic .DLL - February was d3dx9_24.dll, April was d3dx9_25.dll, June will be d3dx9_26.dll (presumably).
I've stuck with December update, and watching the discussions on DXDev - looks like a complete and utter mess handed down by top level Microsoft management .
I think you can get the file by re-running the DX9 installer, failing that, you might need to get an older version of the SDK installed. There are various legal issues about people distributing the file on its own, so you probably won't find it easily"
So, TGC have a choice - stick with one SDK until the next version of DX and have people moan about lacking all the latest goodies, or use the very latest SDK and have people moaning 'cos they dont want to update their DX files...
