The Microsoft® DirectX™ Software Development Kit (SDK) provides a finely tuned set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide you with the resources you need to design high-performance, real-time applications. DirectX technology will help build the next generation of computer games and multimedia applications.
Microsoft developed DirectX because it wanted the performance of applications running in the Microsoft Windows® operating system to rival or exceed the performance of applications running in the MS-DOS® operating system or on game consoles. This SDK was developed to promote game development for Windows by providing you with a robust, standardized, and well-documented operating environment for which to write games.
This section discusses two important benefits of using DirectX: providing hardware independence for software developers and setting guidelines for hardware developers.