What happened to DirectX 4?

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Mike Dimmick — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 15:12:00 GMT

I always thought DirectX 4 was the bit-more-than-3 but not quite 5 version that came with Windows NT 4.0 (and couldn't be upgraded).

Remarkably, in all the confusion, some games actually worked on NT 4.0 (I'm thinking particularly of Blizzard's Diablo and StarCraft).

Whatever happened to Directx 4

Neil's Smaller World — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 19:58:00 GMT

Raymond Cheng sheds some light on what happened to DirectX 4. And no, they didn't use NullSoft versioning logic.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

anon — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:24:00 GMT

Not to mention the name of interfaces. DirectX6 introduced IDirectDraw4. DirectShow introduced IDirectDraw3 (with a separate direct draw factory object), and so on... What a mess!!

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Raymond Chen — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:27:00 GMT

That's because COM interface conventions use sequential numbers for versions. So IDirectDraw4 is the fourth version of IDirectDraw. If a version of DirectX doesn't change an interface, then the number doesn't go up.

This is what happens when multiple groups have different version numbering schemes - they don't line up.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

denny — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:29:00 GMT

:-) Sh*t happens, version numbering can be that way.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

MilesArcher — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:47:00 GMT

This is why projects in development should use code names and not version numbers. Then when the marketing dweebs decide on a completely new version numbering system, no one is confused. This has saved us numerous times when marketing has decided to change the number from 15 to 3.0 to 2002 all for the same project

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Jack Mathews — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:44:00 GMT

Actually, with DirectX when there's a new interface added, it's numbered with the DirectX version number. Finally. Which is why there's an IDirectDrawSurface8 now. I think they fixed that with DX6.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

quanta — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 22:07:00 GMT

Curiously, if you go into dxdiag, all DirectX versions are version 4 - DirectX 8 is called 4.08something, DirectX 9 is 4.09something, and so forth. I wonder why.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Shane King — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 00:05:00 GMT

You should stop with the numbers and start with the codenames, me thinks. ;)

Especially stop numbering things after years. That gets really embarassing when the schedule slips.

Apple has it right I think: Panther, Jaguar, etc is the naming scheme to use. No matter how many versions get cancelled or how late it eventually slips, you're never left with a gap in your numbering scheme or having to rename a product.

And Panther is a much cooler name than 2003. Why oh why didn't windows stick with Chicago, Memphis, etc?

(PS: Yes, I know that Apple also calls their versions 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 etc).

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Scott — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 01:18:00 GMT

Shane,

Where will Apple go next? OS 10.20 - calico?

Would you buy a future version of windows named after Intercourse, PA?

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Darren Winsper — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:33:00 GMT

Non-numbered versioning schemes can be confusing to, well, anyone. After all, assume Microsoft end up calling Longhorn Windows FX. Now, how does XP relate to FX, in the eyes of a user? In the same vein, short of memorising the sequence, how would you know whether Panther is before or after Jaguar?

Numbered versioning schemes have their problems too, unfortunately. If you go with year-based versioning, what do you do if you're in a new software field and want to make a second release in a year?

Just using straight numbers is nice in theory, but can ultimately have problems. One major problem is there are so many ways to number something. Another is that users think "the bigger the number, the better", leading to version inflation. Then there's no easy way of comparing version numbers. IE6 vs. Mozilla 1.4, say. There's differences, but they're both competing in the same field, user-oriented browsers.

Versioning's a tricky thing, which is probably why MS keep changing their versioning scheme:)

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Norman Diamond — Mon, 26 Jan 2004 01:48:00 GMT

Two questions:

1. Why are DirectX and Direct Draw coupled?

In Windows 2000, the Trident 9385 video adapter has a driver built into the Windows 2000 CD, and it used to be listed as compatible. (Please do not confuse this actual chip with the Trident 9385 reference design which never was listed as compatible. Please also for the moment ignore the fact that Microsoft changed this listing after around 3 years.)

In order to prevent this Microsoft-provided driver from causing Windows 2000 to blue screen, it is necessary to disable both DirectX and Direct Draw.

Windows 2000 wasn't supposed to be a gaming platform so no one should care about disabling DirectX. But why should we have to disable Direct Draw at the same time?

(By the way the Trident 9385 video adapter has a working driver built into the Windows XP CD, a mostly working one built into the Windows NT4 CD, and a working one in the Windows 98 CD. Whatever the bug is, it looks likely to be fixable.)

2. On the other hand, why are DirectX defaults and DirectX recommendations NOT coupled?

In Windows Server 2003, the first time you open display properties and look at acceleration, you get to see the initial setting. This is the amount of acceleration that Microsoft sets by default.

If you experiment with moving the slider back and forth, eventually you'll get to see the recommended setting. This is the amount of acceleration that Microsoft says is recommended.

Windows Server 2003 isn't supposed to be a gaming platform, but nonetheless, why did Microsoft not default to its own recommendations?

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Raymond Chen — Mon, 26 Jan 2004 02:39:00 GMT

Sorry I didn't work on that part of DirectX. I don't know the answer either. (Indeed I don't really understand the questions!)

But DirectDraw is part of DirectX, isn't it?

I think the slider recommendations are just leftovers from XP. I'll check on that part at least.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Raymond Chen — Mon, 26 Jan 2004 18:40:00 GMT

Yup, the slider recommendation is a leftover from the days when everything was turned on full blast in Server. The recommendation text has been fixed for Longhorn, if that's any consolation. Another example of "That's an easy change" coming back to bite you.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Brian Marshall — Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:52:00 GMT

To answer quanta's question (note the apostrophe, so I'm not talking about the Australian airline....)

The 4 is for the OS version. DX Files build as part of the core OS for new OS releases, and so the DX files that shipped with XP had a version that matched the shipped version of XP. All of those had a version of 5.X.X.X. DirectX builds are therefore kept in sync with the OS versions for the major version.

I'm guessing you're not running XP. I think the 4 major version was for Windows 2000.

re: What happened to DirectX 4?

Norman Diamond — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 00:16:00 GMT

1/25/2004 6:39 PM Raymond Chen:

> But DirectDraw is part of DirectX, isn't it?

Sorry I keep forgetting to check. In Windows 95 days, I thought that DirectDraw existed before DirectX did. So I thought there was a chance that disabling either DirectDraw or DirectX by itself might provide a workaround for a blue screening driver, I thought it shouldn't be necessary to disable both together. Of course the slider doesn't allow disabling either one by itself. Anyway, sorry I keep forgetting to check if DirectDraw is part of DirectX now.

1/26/2004 10:40 AM Raymond Chen:

> Yup, the slider recommendation is a leftover

Actually I've just noticed that the recommendation might even be reasonable. I installed English language Windows Server 2003 from my personal MSDN subscription on one computer. Ever since I obeyed this slider recommendation, Windows Explorer has not been getting shut down for access violations and unhandled exceptions.

Commenting on this entry is closed.

Raymond Chen — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 15:17:00 GMT

Comments close after two weeks. http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/archive/2004/02/21/77681.aspx

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