Microsoft Releases First DirectX 9 Beta

DirectX 9.0 Beta 1 made its long awaited debut this week, with Microsoft issuing the release to partners and beta testers. The Beta 1 SDK download was made available last weekend, with the end-user runtime appearing Friday via Web-based setup. DirectX is Microsoft's suite of application programming interfaces used by developers to take full advantage of Windows' multimedia capabilities.

Version 9.0 most notably adds a new high-level shader language -- based on C -- designed to simplify development.

"DirectX 9.0 offers unparalleled advances in graphics technology," said Microsoft's director of Windows Gaming and Entertainment, Ted Hase. "Microsoft always has been a pioneer in the development of best-of-breed technologies and tools that facilitate the development of great gaming content. Developers will discover that the new capabilities built into DirectX 9.0 make it significantly easier to create content that demonstrates richness, robustness and totally immersive depth."

Along with HLSL, DirectX 9.0 will feature a library that supports patch meshes and traditional polygonal meshes, as well as "improved real-time animation capabilities that allow separate animations on the same mesh to be blended." New vertex pixel shader instructions are included with full integration into Visual Studio .NET. DirectMusic additionally will be enhanced with low-latency playback and wizards to create DirectX Media Objects (DMOs) for audio effects and DirectMusic tools for MIDI processing.

The DirectX 9.0 beta was delayed early this year due to a massive security review that company executives ordered for February. Microsoft expects to ship the final release of version 9.0 this fall. Credentialed beta testers may download both the SDK and runtimes from BetaPlace.