Apparently, the DirectX team has had a blog since late April of this year it’s just not very popular I guess.
They’ve posted a shipload of information over the last couple of months, so if you’re like me and had no idea this existed, you’ll have quite some reading to catch up to. It’s mostly about Windows 7 and the new graphics APIs (Direct2D, DirectWrite, etc.) but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Yeah, I don’t have the DX11 logo yet…Today the August 2009 DirectX SDK was released on MSDN, strangely enough the August SDK was released in September.
This release contains the first official release of Direct3D 11 (RTM), which was previously only a technical preview. According to the release notes, this version of Direct3D 11 will only work on the RTM version of Windows 7, not on the RC and Beta versions. So I guess only vendors and MSDN subscribers will be able to develop software until Windows 7 hits the retail market.
There’s also the issue of pure Direct3D 11 hardware not being sold yet but that should be right around the corner if the SDK is here.
So today marks the first week of Windows 7 RTM usage and I have to say that I like it. As I said before, Vista’s gaming performance was sub par but it looks like Windows 7 has picked up the slack.
It simply seems like the same system performs better with Windows 7, it’s definitely not simply a Vista update/Service Pack. And I’m happy to report that Fallout 3 (for the players) works OK on Windows 7 although there is the occasional crash and Alt-Tabbing is out of the question it seems.
Another very good thing thing I’ve noticed is the lack of UAC pop-ups, the only ones I’ve seen are when I try to run downloaded software – which is the same as in Windows XP.
Maybe in the long run some quirks will show up but for now I’m a happy camper indeed.
Windows 7 RTM was released for MSDN subscribers today so I’m taking this chance to upgrade to Windows 7 early on. I’ve been using Vista fulltime a bit over a year now and have been a bit disappointed in the long run with its performance when it comes to gaming and other intense apps.
Although I’ve been disappointed with Vista’s gaming performance, everything else has been smooth sailing. In fact a bunch of features that are apparently introduced in Windows 7 (Start Search), were already available in Vista.
Anyway, I’ll soon find out if the Windows 7 talk is all hype or if there’s some truth to the claims I’ve been hearing.
OK, so only one day after I publicly whined “where is the DX SDK?” Microsoft has released the March 2009 version. Go figure. Get it here at DirectX 2009 SDK @ MS Download.
Also, there seems to be some interesting stuff bundled with this version of the SDK, here’s my take on the important stuff:
Check out the details at the link posted above. Also, it doesn’t look like the online MSDN library docs have been updated yet but usually that happens pretty quickly.
I wonder what kind of development is going on at Microsoft as there hasn’t been an update for the DirectX SDK since November of 2008. This is quite out-of-sync with their regular release schedule of a new SDK every 3 months.
My guess would be that with the release date of Windows 7 inching closer, the development for DirectX 11 has to be completed soon. Of course this is 100% speculation.
If anyone has a clue, let me know.
Just released, get it while it’s hot.
It doesn’t look like there are any DirectX 11 previews in there. Is it my imagination or were those supposed to be in it? Thanks Aras for the confirmation that the DirectX 11 preview are actually in there.
EDIT2: The new DirectX redistributable was released today.
I’m not known as a person who particularly likes the .NET framework but I still have to use it. The .NET Framework is basically a massive library of general purpose functions, much like the Standard Library is to C or the Standard Template Library is to C++.
But what if it all would be discontinued?
It’s not an impossibility and rather likely considering Microsoft’s track-record. The millions of applications, libraries and websites created with .NET would be useless.
I’ve been *fortunate* enough to be part of a VB6 (CGI) to ASP.NET (VB) conversion team and, trust me when I say this, you don’t want to be part of such an effort. These conversions require truckloads of time and money, and if you work for a mid-sized to large corporation, this could easily lead into the millions of dollars.
Now imagine all of your code obsolete. Everything you’ve coded since .NET 1.0. What would you do? Let’s take FoxPro as an example. Microsoft bought FoxPro in 1992 and released a couple of versions under the “Visual”-family of products. The last version was released in 2007 and a statement of Microsoft suggests that this is the last version.
No migration tools to any other language are being provided.
Another product would be J#, which will be retired in 2015. Keep in mind that J# is a fairly recent product and was only released with Visual Studio.NET.
How far will .NET go before a turning point is reached? Consider that .NET was first released publicly in 2002 and will be a decade old in less than four years. Knowing Microsoft, the end is quite possibly much nearer than you think.