Managed DirectX (MDX) is

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

's deprecated API for

DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", ...

programming on

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

. MDX can be used from any language on .NET Framework (via the

Common Language Runtime The Common Language Runtime (CLR), the virtual machine component of Microsoft .NET Framework, manages the execution of .NET programs. Just-in-time compilation converts the managed code (compiled intermediate language code) into machine instructio ...

). MDX can be used to develop multimedia and interactive applications (e.g. games, compiled only to

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

), enabling high performance graphical representation and enabling the programmer to make use of modern graphical hardware while working inside the .NET Framework.

Overview

Managed DirectX was first released in 2002 to allow less complicated access to the DirectX API through the .NET framework. The Managed DirectX SDK allows developers access to numerous classes which allow the rendering of 3D graphics (

Direct3D Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware a ...

) and the other DirectX API's in a much easier, object-oriented manner. MDX, however, does not support the newer APIs such as Direct3D 10, XInput, and

XAudio 2 XAudio2 is a lower-level audio API for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 8, the successor to DirectSound on Windows and a supplement to the original XAudio on the Xbox 360. XAudio2 operates through the XAudio API on the Xbox 360, thr ...

. MDX is deprecated in favor of

XNA Game Studio Express Microsoft XNA Game Studio is a discontinued integrated development environment (IDE) for building video games on the Microsoft XNA platform. Such video games can run on Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone and the Zune. XNA Game Studio is t ...

. It is, however, possible to use some other, more direct APIs to the DirectX framework such as the open-source SlimDX and SharpDX project.

Versions

MDX 1.1

* This was the first version available and still is the current stable version. * Can be used under .NET Framework versions 1.1 and 2.0. * Provides an object-oriented API that implements functionality very similar to DirectX 9.

MDX 2.0 beta

* Was canceled while still in beta. Is no longer available. * MDX 2.0 was replaced by

Microsoft XNA Microsoft XNA (a recursive acronym for XNA's not acronymed) is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Win ...

(DirectX New Architecture). * The API differed from MDX 1.1 in a number of places.

External links

Microsoft Development Centre DirectXMDX info
{{Microsoft APIs Video game development software DirectX Microsoft development tools 2002 software