DX9c reformat

I just reformatted my XP. Will I have to get the updated version of DX9, DX9c?

 

Yes, you do.

 

Some games will automatically install DX for you. I don't know if it is part of Windows Update.

 

You only don't get new directx's if...

arrr matey, your a pirate.

 

DirectX9.0c comes automatically with XP's SP2. (I believe the original version of XP ships with 9.0 straight)

So as long as you have SP2, you don't need to upgrade DirectX itself.

But (there's always a but), games usually use D3DX as well, a small utility library that Microsoft updates every two months. If you download DX now, I believe you'll get the current version of it. But unlike DirectX itself, D3DX is *not* backwards compatible. That means if you install a game that needs the August 2006 version of D3DX, it has to be installed, even if you have the December 2006 version.

Now, you *could* look every single version of it up, and download and install them all, and then you'd be truly up to date. Or you can just let games install it when needed.

In other words, your DirectX is *probably* up to date already, but you still need to let every game you install update it separately, because they probably use different versions of D3DX. No one said it had to be simple...
But the one positive side to this, is that games are usually good at updating this themselves. Just remember not to uncheck the "update DirectX" checkboxes in game installers, and you should be fine.

 

Ok, thanks guys!