Time flies when you are having fun, and DirectX 9 has certainly given us plenty of that. We have been playing games on the DirectX 9 application programming interface (API) since December of 2002 - almost four years now. While many use the term "DirectX" when talking about graphics, the DirectX standard is actually a group of APIs for various aspects of the gaming experience, of which graphics is one. Big titles such as Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R., Battlefield 2, and Oblivion use the current version, which is 9.0c.

There are three core areas in DirectX: input devices, audio and video. The table below shows a list of the APIs in the current build.

For the remainder of this article we will be talking about what most people are most interested in: Direct3D. There are a lot of changes coming in DirectX 10. Direct3D 10 adds new features to deal with existing graphical problems, and tools to take on new rendering challenges. It also simplifies the 3D pipeline, which will help move bigger and better game titles out of the developers' studios and onto your PC.

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