from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
DirectX
<programming, hardware> A {Microsoft} programming interface
{standard}, first included with {Windows 95}. DirectX gives
(games) programmers a standard way to gain direct access to
enhanced hardware features under Windows 95 instead of going
via the Windows 95 {GDI}. Some DirectX code runs faster than
the equivalent under {MS DOS}.
DirectX promises performance improvements for graphics, sound,
video, 3D, and network capabilites of games, but only where
both hardware and software support DirectX.
DirectX 2 introduced the Direct3D interface. Version 5 was
current at 1998-02-01. Version 8.1 is included in {Windows
XP}.
Latest version: 8.1 (as of 2001-12-31).
(http://microsoft.com/directx/).
(2001-12-31)