Microsoft uses the name DirectX to refer to a proprietary collection of many different application programming interfaces (abbreviated as APIs) that are used for handling processes related to multimedia operations, including webwatcher software and especially video and computer game programming and rendering of video, on Microsoft-branded platforms. DirectX 8.1 was released for Windows XP, along with Windows Server 2003 on October 25, 2001.
DirectX 8.1 was also used as the exclusive API for the first generation of the Xbox video game console. The API for DirectX 8.1 was a joint development between industry giant Microsoft and video card developer and manufacturer Nvidia. Nvidia was also responsible for developing the custom graphics hardware and chipset that was used by the original Xbox. The Xbox version of the DirectX 81. API is similar to the version of the DirectX 8.1 API used in PCs, but does not have built-in patching or updating capabilities like other video game console technologies. In celebration of its DirectX 8.1 underpinnings, the Xbox was code named the DirectXbox when in development at Microsoft, but this name was shortened to just “Xbox” for its commercial release.
DirectX version 8.01.0881, Release Candidate 7 was a version of DirectX that was released for what Microsoft had called down level OS (operating system) markets such as Windows 98, along with Windows Me and Windows 2000. It was released on November 8, 2001.
It was followed by an updated and patched release titled “DirectX 8.1a”, though its official release number was actually 4.08.01.0901. The most significant part of this patch included an update to the Direct3D Dynamic Link Library, specifically the D3d8.dll file. It was released on May 13, 2002.
DirectX 8.1a was followed soon thereafter by the release Microsoft titled “DirectX 8.1 B”. The actual release number remained 8.01.0901, Release Candidate 7. This update to the DirectX 8.1 APIs included a bugfix to the DirectShow Dynamic Link Library that was a part of Windows 2000 under the Quartz.dll file. It was released on June 25, 2002
.DirectX 8.1 has one final version release which Microsoft titled “DirectX 8.1 C”, although the official release number was actually 8.02.0134, Release Candidate 0. It was functionally the same as the previously released DirectX 8.1b, but also included the module called DirectPlay 8.2.
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