DirectX
10 is the latest version of the DirectX suite of multimedia application
programming interfaces that Microsoft has built exclusively into its
latest operating system, Windows Vista. Gaming enthusiasts will only be
able to access DirectX 10 via a combination of one of the latest video
cards and one of the editions of Windows Vista. These libraries allow
the use of DirectX 10 games on platforms other than Microsoft Vista,
and increase hardware compatibility even on Vista, by compiling
Geometry Shaders down to native machine code for execution where
hardware isn't capable of running it. No longer will you have to
upgrade your OS and video card(s) to play the latest games," revealed
Cody Brocious, Lead Engineer on the Alky Project.
With Windows
Vista, Microsoft has also overhauled the DirectX driver architecture in
the operating system. However, Microsoft does not offer backward
compatibility with previous Windows platforms for the new Windows
Display Driver Model in Vista. These libraries allow the use of DirectX 10 games on platforms other than Microsoft Vista and increase hardware compatibility..
The
current preview allows you to run a number of examples from the DirectX
SDK on Windows XP. They're not the greatest thing since sliced bread,
but we want to whet your appetite. We hope to release builds in the
coming months progressing from demos to fully functional games.
How to Install?
Inside
this zip is a README.TXT file with complete instructions on where to
install the files (don't worry, we'll have an installer in the near
future) and how to get and run the examples from the SDK.
