But as mentioned before, it's kept receiving additions. Microsoft has continually updated this massive library over the past 25 years, and the latest version called DirectX 12, was released to the public in late July 2015, with the launch of Windows 10.

The drivers for the devices that generate or use these multimedia functions will translate the instructions from the API, turning them into sequences of code that the hardware understands. Think of these as an enormous collection of books, in which all kinds of rules and structures are set out about how about to issue instructions and what data types to use, as well as offering simplified commands that can be used in place of long sequences of code.Ī small selection of the mountain of files that make up DirectXĭirectX provides APIs for graphics, sound, video, music, and input devices – pretty much everything you're going to need to play a game on a PC. So to make the process of making a game easier, Microsoft created a set of low-level APIs back in 1995. All of the graphics, sound, gameplay mechanics are in the thousands or million of lines of instructions – take this data, multiply it with that data, put the result here, and so on.īut much of this work will be common, no matter what the game is or what platform it gets played on. Take any modern game, be it one of the latest blockbusters or a tiny indie offering, and you'll find that it's been coded in a general purpose language, such as C++. Let's start with a quick explanation of what is DirectX.

So what exactly are they? What can these enhancements do and how will they make games better for us all?Īll good questions and we've got you covered: read on to find out! What exactly is DirectX 12? The latest version, DX12 was released in 2015 but in the past couple of years, Microsoft have been expanding the software library to cover ray tracing and machine learning, and eventually, data management.īig next-gen titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6 and Watch Dogs: Legion are using some of these DirectX 12 extras. DirectX has been with us for 25 years, providing developers with the tools to make incredible games.

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