re: explaining the issues
@foxposting it's weird to think of directx 9 being old
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re: explaining the issues
@foxposting also knowing very little about graphics stuff: why is directx 9 not a subset of directx 12? why do they need to support them both separately?
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probably a massive oversimplification, re: explaining the issues
DirectX is a collection of APIs like Xinput and Direct3D. Usually the numbering scheme of DirectX matches the current release of Direct3D.
Older verisons of DirectX use older versions of these component APIs, while newer versions often have to drop support for them to make room for new features.
Most GPUs can support DX9 APIs just fine as a separate install. Arc appears to be de-emphasizing that backwards compatibility.
re: probably a massive oversimplification, re: explaining the issues
@foxposting okay, but why are the old versions of the APIs not subsets of the newv ersions?
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re: explaining the issues
I honestly have no idea.
From what I can tell, game devs "have to" target a specific version of DirectX, and there's no cross-compatibility between versions, as well as no way to check which versions are already installed. This is why every game installs its own version of DirectX, even if you already have it on your system.
I suspect Microsoft is at fault here, but I'm too low on spoons to find any proof at the moment.
re: explaining the issues
@Felthry
Wikipedia says it came out in 2002, but yeah.
Feels weird to think that the graphics API that's directly responsible for some of our earliest core memories with gaming is 20 years old at this point.