Hi all, I am doing my first directx game programing (used OpenGL a bit this summer). Anyway, I now have WinXP on my computer, and I am pretty sure that WinXP includes DirectX 8.1. My question is this... if I want to program with directx, don''t I have to download the directx developers API? If so, when I install it, how will that effect the directx installation that I already have? Thanks for any advice.

To program in DirectX, you need the DirectX SDK. This is available from MSDN.

AFAIK, the SDK will not change your current DirectX installation.

Good luck .

quote: Original post by DarkAvenger
AFAIK, the SDK will not change your current DirectX installation.

Actually, when you install it you can choose to use the distribution files (eh... i don''t know what it calls them for sure...) instead of the debug versions of the directx files.

The debug versions are the same as the others, except they give more debuging information to help you find errors easier.
MS says the debug are slightly slower, however I ran a benchmark to see if the extra info was worth the performance loss, and there was virtually no performance loss.

So from what I have seen.. the only difference with the sdk (besides being able to make games) install, is if you use the debug versions it gives you more information if you screw up

So install the debug, and be happy

thanks for both of your help. i am going to install the debug version, and hope all goes well.
regards