April 23rd, 2007
DirectX 10 for Windows XP?
Microsoft has always claimed that DirectX 10 is an integral part of Windows Vista and cannot be implemented into other operating systems. However 19 year old Cody Brocious, a software reverse-engineer from San Diego, California, claims to have create a wrapper for Windows executables that make use of DirectX 10, allowing them to be used on operating systems other than Windows Vista.
Writing on the Alky Project blog, Brocious says:
As a fitting start to this blog, I'm proud to release a preview of our DirectX 10 compatibility libraries. These libraries allow the use of DirectX 10 games on platforms other than Microsoft Vista, and increase hardware compatibility even on Vista, by compiling Geometry Shaders down to native machine code for execution where hardware isn't capable of running it. No longer will you have to upgrade your OS and video card(s) to play the latest games.
The current preview allows you to run a number of examples from the DirectX SDK on Windows XP. They're not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but we want to whet your appetite. We hope to release builds in the coming months progressing from demos to fully functional games. We also plan to post on this blog from time to time with screenshots and videos of what's to come.
Is this for real or just a hoax? I can't say yet. I've downloaded the preview build and I've got the DirectX SDK coming in so that I can try out a few of the examples. When that's downloaded I'll get back to you. Personally, I'm skeptical at present. Even if some of the examples work, getting all of DirectX running on a non-Vista platform will be tricky, if not impossible.
I'll keep you posted.
[Updated: Apr 23, 2007 @ 10.25 am] OK, I've tried running the DirectX 10 examples from the Microsoft DirectX SDK on two systems and so far all I've seen are crashes. Not promising.
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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