Managed DirectX

Managed DirectX
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Development status	Discontinued
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
License	Freeware

Managed DirectX (MDX) is Microsoft's deprecated API for DirectX programming on .NET Framework. MDX can be used from any language on .NET Framework (via the CLR). MDX can be used to develop multimedia and interactive applications (e.g. games, compiled only to x86), enabling high performance graphical representation and enabling the programmer to make use of modern graphical hardware while working inside the .NET framework.

Managed DirectX was first released in 2002 to allow less complicated access to the DirectX API through the .NET framework. The Managed DirectX SDK allows developers access to numerous classes which allow the rendering of 3D graphics (Direct3D) and the other DirectX API's in a much easier, object-oriented manner. MDX, however, does not support the newer APIs such as Direct3D 10, XInput, and XAudio 2.

MDX is deprecated in favor of XNA Game Studio Express. It is, however, possible to use some other, more direct APIs to the DirectX framework such as the open-source SlimDX and SharpDX project.

Versions

MDX 1.1

This was the first version available and still is the current stable version.
Can be used under .NET Framework versions 1.1 and 2.0.
Provides an object-oriented API that implements functionality very similar to DirectX 9.

MDX 2.0 beta

Was canceled while still in beta. Is no longer available.
MDX 2.0 was replaced by Microsoft XNA (DirectX New Architecture).
The API differed from MDX 1.1 in a number of places.

External links

Microsoft APIs and frameworks

Graphics	Desktop Window Manager Direct2D Direct3D D3D (extensions) GDI / GDI+ WPF Silverlight WinRT XAML Windows Color System Windows Image Acquisition Windows Imaging Component DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI) Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform WinG

Audio	DirectMusic DirectSound DirectX plugin XACT Speech API XAudio2

Multimedia	DirectX Media Objects Video Acceleration Xinput DirectInput DirectShow Image Mastering API Managed DirectX Media Foundation XNA Windows Media Video for Windows

Web	MSHTML RSS Platform JScript VBScript BHO XDR SideBar Gadgets TypeScript

Data access	Data Access Components (MDAC) ADO ADO.NET ODBC OLE DB Extensible Storage Engine Entity Framework Sync Framework Jet Engine MSXML OPC

Networking	Winsock LSP Winsock Kernel Filtering Platform NDIS Windows Rally BITS P2P API MSMQ MS MPI DirectPlay

Communication	Messaging API Telephony API WCF

Administration and management	Win32 console Windows Script Host WMI (extensions) PowerShell Task Scheduler Offline Files Shadow Copy Windows Installer Error Reporting Event Log Common Log File System

Component model	COM COM+ ActiveX Distributed Component Object Model .NET Framework

Libraries	Framework Class Library Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) Active Template Library (ATL) Windows Template Library (WTL)

Device drivers	WDM WDF KMDF UMDF WDDM NDIS UAA BDA VxD

Security	Crypto API CAPICOM Windows CardSpace Data Protection API Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI)

.NET	ASP.NET ADO.NET Remoting Silverlight TPL WCF WCS WPF WF

Software factories	EFx Factory Enterprise Library Composite UI CCF CSF

IPC	MSRPC Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) Remoting WCF

Accessibility	Active Accessibility UI Automation

Text and multilingual support	DirectWrite Text Services Framework Text Object Model Input method editor Language Interface Pack Multilingual User Interface Uniscribe

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