DirectX

Pros

• Works with many games
• Easily installs
• Doesn't require any input to work
• Once you have it installed it works with every app that needs it

Cons

• Often unnecessary
• New games seldom rely on it
• No UI

DirectX is an application interface layer that allows high-level software to communicate with physical hardware. While you might never need to directly talk to a piece of hardware, there are countless high-resolution computer games on the market that need DirectX to run. Once you've installed it, you'll never have to think about it ever again.

Even if you've never looked at a piece of code you'll still be able to install DirectX. Microsoft designed it to seamlessly install with many game packages, so you might not realize that you already have it. Those who don't simply need to load one single bundle and click next a couple of times.

Installation really is that simple. It might take a few moments to get loaded, but once DirectX is installed it doesn't have a user interface worth bringing up or any other widgets that need to be worked with. There are a few command line utilities you could theoretically configure, but you'll probably never have to even give them the time of day.

Part of the reason for this is the fact that almost every game on the market has a configuration screen of its own. If you want to chance the resolution or adjust the number of colors, then you'd probably just do it by pushing escape in the game you're playing and setting some sliders

The same goes for keyboard setup and everything else you'd want to change about your gaming environment.

Programmers might appreciate some of these advanced features, but technically they shouldn't be necessary for modern games anyway. You'd probably be better off using a different type of API, so even power users will probably just want to install DirectX once and then leave it alone for good.

That being said, the driver pack opens up a huge number of games to the average player. You'll be able to install countless retro titles as well as some more recent games that were developed right up to the point where Microsoft attempted to migrate people to more recent APIs.

If you enjoy playing RTS or FPS games, then DirectX is more than likely a must for you. It's become extremely popular among those who collect PC games on physical media. These games often required DirectX since they were published during an era where games were transitioning from MS-DOS to the Windows platform and needed a way to directly write to a graphics terminal.

That means that games that deploy DirectX are going to look great, especially for the time that they were developed in. The platform doesn't just include graphics routines, though. DirectSound, for instance, allows games and other full-screen musical applications to access your sound card in a way that enables them to put together some really great audio. That's important for those who have a stereo sound system plugged into their computer or are working on a laptop that has high-quality built-in speakers.

Occasionally, you'll find that some game spits out an error message when you try to run it on modern hardware. You might be able to use the included utilities to fix this, though they won't appear on any application lists. Fortunately, a lot of developers of the era included little bits of code in the so-called late breaking news files they put on CD-ROMs. All you have to do is copy this into the run box and go.

Keep in mind that almost nobody will have to do that, because things work perfectly out of the box in probably 99 percent of situations. Those who are setting up dedicated virtual machines to run their favorite games in will even be able to install it inside of it.

Those who run a virtualized instance of Windows can use the same exact DirectX pack to get their system working with any game that requires the API. Some games even slipstream DirectX with their install wizard, so you might end up with it even if you didn't realize you needed it.

Once you've installed the package, games that need it will stop asking. Those who plan on adding a bunch of DirectX-reliant apps might want to take a few moments to install it now to get the process out of the way for later.

Pros

• Works with many games
• Easily installs
• Doesn't require any input to work
• Once you have it installed it works with every app that needs it

Cons

• Often unnecessary
• New games seldom rely on it
• No UI