DirectX 9, hows it run in UV?

PeckingFury · Post by **PeckingFury** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 4:03 am

Just upgraded to fight another issue with a different game but am wondering if anyone has had any type of weird problems with it with UV. If DirectX 9.0 has major issue with this game its gone otherwise, this lazy bastard is going to leave well enough alone and leave it on. Thanks in advance

Mr.Frag · Post by **Mr.Frag** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 4:35 am

#1 Rule: NEVER UPGRADE DIRECTX BEYOND THAT WHICH IS REQUIRED BY YOUR NEWEST GAME

As it is one of those wonderful things that can cause problems with your sound drivers, your video drivers, your mouse/joystick drivers and many other little things, sit back until you have to

Asking about UV is the wrong way to look at it, you should be asking about your sound card and your video card. UV writes to the front end of the abstraction layer. Your hardware drivers hook at the back end, where all the problems actually occur. The whole idea behind DirectX is to isolate the people who write software from hardware dependancies so they do not have to re-write everything once a new version ships. If UV likes and uses features in DX 7, it will use the exact same calls in DX 8, and DX9, and DX10 etc. It is up to your hardware vendor to write drivers that translate the DX calls into valid sets of results based on whether the feature is supported in hardware or needs to be emulated in software.

Leave well enough alone as DirectX is one of those things that cannot be uninstalled (although there are hacks out there to do it for people who make this mistake).

PeckingFury · Post by **PeckingFury** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 5:43 am

Thanks for the reply, I can uninstall it if I run into some snags. Just dont like kicking the sleeping dog

Veldor · Post by **Veldor** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 11:46 pm

Originally posted by Mr.Frag
#1 Rule: NEVER UPGRADE DIRECTX BEYOND THAT WHICH IS REQUIRED BY YOUR NEWEST GAME

As it is one of those wonderful things that can cause problems with your sound drivers, your video drivers, your mouse/joystick drivers and many other little things, sit back until you have to

Asking about UV is the wrong way to look at it, you should be asking about your sound card and your video card. UV writes to the front end of the abstraction layer. Your hardware drivers hook at the back end, where all the problems actually occur. The whole idea behind DirectX is to isolate the people who write software from hardware dependancies so they do not have to re-write everything once a new version ships. If UV likes and uses features in DX 7, it will use the exact same calls in DX 8, and DX9, and DX10 etc. It is up to your hardware vendor to write drivers that translate the DX calls into valid sets of results based on whether the feature is supported in hardware or needs to be emulated in software.

Leave well enough alone as DirectX is one of those things that cannot be uninstalled (although there are hacks out there to do it for people who make this mistake).

Well unless you play only 1 or 2 games or never buy any new ones, you really have no choice. I rather disagree with your advice, though in a seperate way agree. I fully advocate ALWAYS updating to the latest DirectX... just update your video and sound drivers first. If you buy decent hardware brands, acceptable drivers should ALWAYS be available within the same timeframe the new DirectX is out. If you have no name stuff or whatever it is is hidden behind some brandname compaq, dell etc logo requriing you to wait an extra year for them to actually put it up on their website then you probably don't know how to upgrade directx anyway by yourself. If you do try to find out what specific hardware is in your box and go direct to the individual vendors.

To answer the original question... I've been running 9.0 for some time now with UV and no problems whatsoever...

Grouchy · Post by **Grouchy** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 2:27 am

No problems running UV with DX 9 and don't see any threads in this forum that are called "UV won't run after installing DX9".

So I think it's safe to install DX 9...

Mr.Frag · Post by **Mr.Frag** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 7:51 am

Saying it's safe to upgrade to directX 9 without asking what video card & sound card he has is like pulling the pin on a hand grenade and tossing the pin

Yes, if you have fairly current hardware, you'll be fine. If you have very current hardware, odds are you already have problems anyways (ati drivers are generally 6 months late, nvidia proper support 4 months after the fact, smaller guys, god only knows). Having older hardware, make sure you go and upgrade all your drivers BEFORE you mess with it.

DX9 works fine for me, on my hardware, but I like reloading my machine every few months, just for fun, and built it myself and hand spec'd the parts after serious research.

The average person who walks into Gateway or Dell etc and buys the $999 or $699 special which comes preloaded with everything under the sun might not be quite so lucky. Having two buildings that function as call centers with over 3000 staff taking calls from confused people, I've seen them all ... take all advice with a grain of salt, and find out exactly what YOU have in your machine before you mess yourself up. Knowledge is power. Nothing stopping you from being powerful