Subject: Re: DirectX (was Re: server X)
From: [email-masked] (Alex P. Madarasz, Jr.)

26 Sep 1998 17:54:31 -0700
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Reply-To: Alex Madarasz <[email-masked]>
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Guy Gascoigne - Piggford wrote on 25 Sep 98, 12:20 :
>
> The problem comes with 3D, NT has no support
> for Direct 3D and won't until NT 5.0 is released.

Actually, if you read MS's docs you'll find that NT4 SP3 _does_ support the Direct3D 
API, _but_ there is no support for _hardware_ acceleration:

<http://support.microsoft.com/support/ntserver/Content/ServicePacks/Readme.asp>

> DirectX 3.0:
> 
> Service Pack 3 contains a complete software implementation of DirectX 3.0 as
> well as ongoing hardware support for the DirectDraw component of DirectX 3.0.
> This translates into the following major feature changes since the release of
> DirectX 2.0 as supported in Windows NT 4.0:
> 
> 
> DirectDraw 
> Access to all 256 entries in the palette when in exclusive mode.
> 
> DirectSound 
> Software-based 3-D localization of audio (Direct3DSound APIs.)
> 
> DirectInput 
> COM interface supporting mouse and keyboard data with documentation and sample
> programs.
> 
> DirectPlay 
> IDirectPlayLobby, an interface that allows an external application to launch a
> DirectPlay 3.0 application and provide it with all information necessary to
> connect to a session. Internet TCP/IP service provider for multi-player
> applications over the Internet.
> 
> Direct3D 
> Software emulation for the Direct3D 3.0 API. (In Windows NT 4.0, we provide a
> beta version of the software drivers for Direct3D 2.0.)

There are rumors that NT4 SP4 does / will have support for a higher version of 
DirectX, but again you'll have to check carefully to see if they consider "support" to 
mean merely the API or full acceleration.

-- 
Alex P. Madarasz, Jr.  --  [email-masked]
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