It is difficult to describe DirectX in non-technical terms. DirectX is a set of software libraries that allow RCFS to gain high-performance access to your hardware, such as your graphics card, sound card and game port. DirectX helps standardize game programming for Windows. Several games and simulations are written to run on DirectX today. DirectX is written, maintained and provided by Microsoft.

Our testing seems to indicate that DirectX 6 is the minimum required. The best way to find out if Cuboingo™ will work with your version is to simply try it! If Cuboingo™ complains about DirectX, you can download the latest version of DirectX from Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/directx. Please note that installing DirectX, like installing drivers, can be risky. Make sure you back up all of your important data before attempting this.

There are improvements over DirectX 8.1, but most users will do fine with running 8.1. Future games and hardware will obviously take better advantage of DirectX 9.

Ladybug Mixer supports the latest DirectX 9.0c (2004 Summer Upgrade, 7/26/2004). To use Shader Model 3.0 or 2.0x, the DX9.0c is required. Although DX9.0b is supported, we suggest that you upgrade to DX9.0c for better performance and video quality. DX9.0c is pre-installed on Windows XP SP2 and Vista.

Right click on the Virtual city that is playing in Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator and under preferences - general preferences, please make sure the settings are as shown below: If your operating system is Windows 98, under Renderer, select DirectX Renderer as shown below. Select OpenGL Renderer in case DirectX Renderer is not present, R 98 Renderer, if both DirectX and OpenGL Renderer are not present in the settings.

DirectX (more specifically, the Direct3D subset) is needed only for drawing the images to the screen. Everything else is done in software mode, so the emulator is more CPU bound rather than GPU bound.

A compiler and linker such as Microsoft's Visual C++ (if you have VC++ 6, read "I'm having major problems building my DirectX programs. , , Borland's C++ Builder, or Dev-C++. One thing you ought to check - the SDK usually sets it up for you, but just to be safe - make sure that the most recent include/library paths are at the top of their lists in the search paths.

Normally the DirectX installer will refuse to install if it detects that you already have the latest version of DirectX installed. This makes it a pain in the ass to fix a broken DirectX installation. Luckily, there is a small workaround to trick the DirectX installer into a full re-installation. Run the Codec Tweak Tool. It has a fix for broken audio (Midi, WaveOut). It will restore some missing registry keys.

If you already have a previous version of DirectX 9 installed, installing the latest update is probably not necessary unless a game specifically calls for it.

The current version of DirectX that's provided to download from Microsoft does not support Windows 95. Older versions of Direct X are no longer available to download from Microsoft. Please choose a different game that supports the DirectX version currently installed on your PC.

Yes you can - go to http://www.microsoft.com/directx and follow the links to the DirectX Core Components as these are the only ones you can install on Windows 98, or just load up Windows Updated and download it from there. No, but Microsoft Plus! 98-a separate package of enhancements and extras for Windows 98-includes McAfee antivirus software and six months of updates.

Microsoft® DirectX® is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements, such as full-color graphics, video, 3-D animation, and surround sound. The latest released version is currently DirectX 9.0b for users of Microsoft Windows 98, 98Se, Me, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. The latest version of DirectX for Windows 95 users is 8.0a.

The Microsoft® DirectX® 9 Software Development Kit (SDK) contains the tools needed to build cutting-edge, media-rich, interactive applications. It includes the run-time, headers and libs, sample executables, sample source, documentation, DirectX utilities, and support for both C++ and Visual Basic® development.