The APIs you get when you download DirectX However, DirectX is still the benchmark on personal computers, since Windows has a greater presence here than Linux or OS X. Currently, the latest available version of OpenGL, Vulkan, is its direct competitor.

Inclusion in the Windows operating systems and the Xbox Ecosystem has allowed it to gain a monopoly in PC gaming. It works as a programming library that is used as an abstraction layer by other software.

This is a series of subroutines, methods, and functions for developers of games and other content. When you download DirectX, you get a collection of APIs that have been developed to facilitate multimedia tasks related to computer and video game programming on Microsoft Windows.Īn API is an application programming interface. This is in addition to other uses, such as the Xbox One. This is because Windows remains the most popular operating system on computer desktops. With its pros and cons, downloading DirectX has since become the most common option. The advantages of its interface were a more efficient use of hardware, a standard multi-platform royalty-free API and no restriction to a single operating system, as was the case with DirectX and Windows. However, there were competitors such as OpenGL, which earned a good reputation. Although it got off to a slow start, the popularity of downloading DirectX began increasing. Thus, in June 1996 the first version of DirectX was born, available for Windows 95 and NT 4.0.

But always quick to detect the needs of the user, Microsoft found a way to offer game developers a tool for direct access to hardware resources in Windows.

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