REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 9, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. today announced continued industry support for DirectX® 8.0, the latest version of the Microsoft® multimedia API built into the Windows® operating system.
DirectX delivers a common set of instructions and components that gives software developers quick, transparent access to a broad range of hardware peripherals without requiring them to write hardware-specific code. Through DirectX, programs are able to take full advantage of the power of a Windows-based personal computer to give the best multimedia experience possible.
“Today’s release of DirectX 8.0 reiterates Microsoft’s strong support for Windows as the innovating platform for gaming applications,”
said Ted Hase, director of Windows Third-Party Gaming at Microsoft.
“The release of DirectX 8.0 and the continuing support and investment by leading ISVs and IHVs clearly demonstrate that Windows is still a premier platform for delivering entertainment content that appeals to the broadest cross section of consumer users.”
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, DirectX, Windows and Direct3D are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
DirectX 8.0 Quote Sheet
“DirectX 8.0 continues the DirectX team’s drive for quality in ease of use, performance and feature set. The new pixel and vertex shaders, for example, should lead to a wave of individualism on the graphics front.”
— Tim Clarke
Head of R & D
Elixir Studios Ltd.
http://www.elixirstudios.co.uk/
“The new DirectX 8.0 pixel shaders give us an unprecedented amount of control over the lowest levels of the graphics pipeline. Without the new programmable pixel shader architecture, we wouldn’t be able to reach the levels of visual quality that players have come to expect from our 2-D games as we move to full 3-D games.”
— Herb Marselas
Senior 3-D Programmer
Ensemble Studios
http://www.ensemblestudios.com/
“Programmable pixel shaders and vertex shaders are the keys to photo-realism. In the coming years, 3-D games will undergo a renaissance as developers take advantage of these new features. DirectX 8.0’s new functionality is probably the largest advancement in real-time computer graphics since the advent of consumer 3-D acceleration. DirectX 8.0 is awesome.”
— Tim Sweeney
Unreal Engine Programmer
Epic Games Inc.
http://www.epicgames.com/
“Microsoft has done it again with the latest incarnation of DirectX. Every year the company continues to improve the API, exposing more power to developers and at the same time making it easier to use. Kaboom Studios, which incorporates developers Silicon Dreams, Attention To Detail and Pivotal Games, is excited by the results from using DirectX 8.0 components. DirectX 8.0 has allowed Kaboom Studios to improve the speed and quality of the gaming experience while leveraging the opportunities offered by the Internet.”
— Fred Gill
Technical Director
Kaboom Studios Ltd.
http://www.kaboomstudios.com/
“DirectX 8.0 is a great improvement, and we are very excited about it. The Microsoft DirectX team did a fantastic job and implemented many features the developer community was waiting for. With DirectX 8.0, we got an extremely powerful tool to create games of yet-unthinkable quality and immersiveness. The DirectX 8.0 pixel shader technology is a killer feature and enables us to develop the coolest-looking games ever.”
— Alexander Jorias
Managing Director
Massive Development GmbH
http://www.massive.de/
“DirectX is, without doubt, the API of choice for Windows-based gaming — nothing else comes close to offering the same features. And DirectX 8.0 is a great step forward. It rocks.”
— Chris Kingsley
Chief Technical Officer
Rebellion Developments Ltd.
http://www.rebellion.co.uk/
“With this latest major release of the DirectX programming interface, software developers can realize a level of programmability and flexibility never before possible on consumer graphics platforms. This is indeed an exciting step toward real-time photo-realistic graphics on the PC. 3dfx and Microsoft have worked closely together in developing DirectX 8.0, and we are proud to fully support it.”
— Scott Sellers
Chief Technical Officer and Co-founder
3dfx Interactive Inc.
http://www.3dfx.com/dx8/
“With DirectX 8.0, Microsoft has made substantial enhancements to functionality, performance and robustness. 3Dlabs and Microsoft have worked closely over the past 18 months to develop the only Direct3D® driver source code reference implementation included in DirectX 8.0 because we believe a fully implemented reference driver significantly contributes to many of the improvements in DirectX 8.0.”
— Tim Lewis
Director of Corporate Marketing
3Dlabs
http://www.3dlabs.com/
“Microsoft has opened the doors to a greatly enhanced overall experience for gamers with DirectX 8.0. Direct3D 8.0 gives game developers direct access to many advanced 3-D hardware technologies such as volume texturing and keyframe interpolation found in ATI’s products.”
— Maurizio Arienzo
General Manager, Performance
Desktop Business Unit
ATI Technologies Inc.
http://www.ati.com/
“Microsoft’s release of DirectX 8.0 represents a major leap forward in the continuing evolution toward realistic 3-D graphics. Matrox was pleased to support Microsoft in the development of this specification and we believe it will play a pivotal role in enabling rich content on the Windows platform.”
— Jean-Jacques Ostiguy
Chief Architect
Matrox Graphics Inc.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/
“Microsoft DirectX 8.0 is critical in enabling software developers to utilize breakthrough rendering technologies such as advanced shading techniques, programmable geometry and volumetric texture compression. By working with Microsoft over the years, NVIDIA’s GPUs deliver outstanding graphics performance, 3-D quality and advanced features on DirectX 8.0.”
— David Kirk
Chief Scientist
NVIDIA Corp.
http://www.nvidia.com/
