The Microsoft DirectX foundation provides low-latency interfaces to media hardware. Previously, the primary market focus for these technologies was entertainment titles, but these APIs also provide a solid foundation for the media services required for Internet applications. They also provide the media foundation for a broad range of productivity applications, enabling high-performance media with hardware acceleration.
Microsoft DirectDraw® is the Windows system component that allows direct manipulation of video display memory, hardware block transfers (bit-blters), hardware overlays, and page flipping. DirectDraw performs the common functions required by both hardware and software emulation implementations while maintaining compatibility with the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI). This provides compatibility with existing Windows applications and device drivers. The user will experience the highest quality performance when using new hardware that provides built-in DirectDraw acceleration and rendering capabilities.
Direct3D® is a DirectX technology that provides access to hardware acceleration for 3-D rendering. Some basic and general 3-D capabilities will become pervasive in entertainment software by the end of 1998. These capabilities should be provided in all graphic cards to improve the performance of 3-D games, business graphics, Internet 3-D file viewing (virtual reality modeling language, or VRML), and professional 3-D applications.
DirectShow™ (formerly known as ActiveMovie™) provides access to hardware acceleration for MPEG-1 playback, which will become increasingly important for high-performance video in the context of games, Internet content viewing, computer-based training, and desktop video conferencing. Some PC 98 hardware requirements ensure support for video playback on all PCs running Windows operating systems.
DirectSound® provides a low-level and high-performance audio API, including 3-D sound spacialization (DirectSound3D) and MIDI (DirectMusic™) APIs.
DirectInput® provides a low-level and high-performance input device API to support keyboards, mouse devices, joysticks, and so on. DirectPlay® provides a collaborative communications layer.
For PC 98, all related drivers must support relevant DirectX capabilities, including DirectDraw Video Port Extensions (VPE) for graphics device drivers.