Microsoft KB Archive/191829

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DirectX: List of New Features Included in Microsoft DirectX 6.0

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Q191829

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The information in this article applies to:


 * the operating system: Microsoft Windows 95
 * the operating system: Microsoft Windows 98

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SUMMARY
This article describes the new features that are included in Microsoft DirectX 6.0.

MORE INFORMATION
DirectX 6.0 is composed of the following five components:


 * Direct3D is used for 3-dimensional rendering.
 * DirectPlay is used for multi-player gaming.
 * DirectDraw is used for onscreen graphics.
 * DirectSound is used for audio playback.
 * DirectInput is used for input device support.

Direct3D
The new features in Direct3D include:


 * Significantly faster performance due to overall improvements in the run-time components of Direct3D.
 * A completely rewritten geometry engine, which is responsible for transforming and lighting operations and includes processor-specific performance optimizations that take advantage of features in the latest generation of processors.
 * All-new software rasterizers, which enable developers to compare the visual quality of output on 3-D hardware accelerators to a reference standard.
 * Support for many new hardware features, including single-pass multitexturing, bump mapping, texture compression, stencil buffers, w-buffers and much more.

DirectPlay
The new features in DirectPlay include:


 * New lobbying services.
 * Support for firewalls.

DirectDraw
The new features in DirectDraw include:


 * Performance optimizations.

DirectSound
The new features in DirectSound include:


 * Performance optimizations for MMX technology in Microsoft Windows 95.

NOTE: These performance optimizations are already included in Microsoft Windows 98.

DirectInput
There are no new DirectInput features in DirectX 6.0.