Support | DirectX
About DirectX
What Version Should I use?
How do I know if I have DirectX?
Where do I get it from?
About DirectX
Starscape
uses DirectX for sound and input device access. DirectX is a series of
software technologies developed by Microsoft.
Their purpose was to enable compelling games experiences on the PC. The
actual range of technologies is far reaching but the core ones are:
Without this technology the games cannot access the facilities, which may well mean that they are unable to run. For more details on DirectX go to the DirectX homepage on the Microsoft site. You can find Microsoft's description of DirectX here.
What version should I use?
Generally
you should use the latest version of DirectX. There have been a few major
releases of DirectX so far. Starscape should work on versions as old as
DX5.
Microsoft has developed this technology such that products using older versions of the system should work fine on newer versions of the system. For example a game requiring DirectX5 will work fine (or maybe even better) on DirectX6. This follows on with DirectX9. So generally you are safe to always have the latest version of DirectX on your machine.
How do I know if I have DirectX?
If you have
bought a new multimedia PC in the last 18 months then it will come preinstalled
with a version of DirectX. If you want to check if you have it installed,
and/or which version, then you should run 'dxdiag'. To do this;
Where do I get it from?
Warning!
Installing DirectX is usually a simple and painless experience - but be
warned it is not always this way, and sometimes it can badly configure
your machine. Therefore we recommend you only install a new version of
DirectX if you really have to or you have enough PC knowledge to know
how to fix things if it goes wrong. Generally it's a good idea to back
up any important work on your machine before attempting to install DirectX.
Go to the Microsoft
DirectX Download pages.