DirectX 9 available

[WarpStorm]

But Warpstorm, what does this have to do with PTW? Maybe nothing, but this snippet from Microsoft's website leads me to believe it has a bit.

Q. Are there any immediate benefits to installing DirectX 9.0?

A. Improvements to DirectPlay let computers within a Windows Me or Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing network connect with each other, as well as with players elsewhere on the Internet. Users with modern UPnP network routers no longer need to configure them for DirectPlay, because DirectPlay will open and close the multiplayer gaming ports as needed.


Q. Are there any known issues with regard to DirectX 9.0?

A. Due to enhancements in the way DirectPlay functions, it is strongly recommended that all users who want to join or host multiplayer games upgrade to DirectX 9.0. A user with earlier versions of DirectX may have trouble joining or hosting games, or my see a significant performance reduction when playing with users who have 9.0 installed.

Hmmm...

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads/drx90.asp

[BRC]

Have you been able to try a game out yet?? I'm downloading it now.

[Inverse Icarus]

thanks for the heads up, in any case.

[Nikolai]

Very interesting, indeed! I was wondering if I should update or not, this has made me decide!

[Crousto]

Well, anyone enjoying a better PtW with DirectX9? I've installed it but I still have lots of trouble hosting or joining games with more than 3 players.

[Crousto]

Update : since I installed DirectX9, it seems that I can't host a PtW game at all anymore
Maybe it would work better if other players used DirectX9 too

[alva]

Say, Crousto, dou you use Telenet, or Chello, other?

I've been having problems connecting and hosting direct-IP games (IE: they don't work at all)
(use telenet myself)

[Adagio]

I'll wait a little before installing it (To hear if too many people have trouble with it...)

[Crousto]

Originally posted by alva
Say, Crousto, dou you use Telenet, or Chello, other?

I'm on ADSL through Skynet. Maybe it's part of the problem, and maybe the next patch will make things better...

[larssi]

I also lost my abilitity to host games after installing directx9.

After launching the game, players can't connect to me. I have checked from my firewall that directplay server is listening on all interfaces on all directplay ports.

[larssi]

hosting works on my other machine (LAN) if I route tcp 6703 and udp 2302 to it. (it has dx81)

HOSTS BEWARE! Do not install dx9! (it cannot be uninstalled / changed back to dx81!)

[Crousto]

I've rolled back to DirectX8 (with the system restore from WinXP... worked like a charm), and now I can host games again

[larssi]

I found the way to return back to dx8 with other operating systems also.

DirectX Eradicator at address http://www.freewebs.com/firecat/

You just run it and boot your machine.
After boot, few errormessages come up (ddraw.dll missing). Then just install the directx version you want.

(I rolled back to dx81 from dx9 with windows 2000)

[sun_tzu_159]

Hi all,
Remember that DirectX9 is still officially Public Beta version. Microsoft are not supporting it in this form so if you get any problems you are on your own. Also the download currently available will expire at the end of March 2003, there is a warning about this in the official stuff. Do not be caught out.

I have tried loading it into XP and I could not play anything through internet. There was a conflict between the direct play and something else not registering modules correclty. Also there is some conflicts between my hardware accelerator/driver/directX9 (Nvidia GForce 4, 440 with 4109 drivers).

I rolled back the system (worked perfectly) to 8.1b and everything is fine.

I would not use this until Microsoft officially release it unless you are fairly advanced user.

Regards
Sun_Tzu

[sun_tzu_159]

Dear all,
Forgot to mention that it also completely disabled the MAC bridge minport for my LAN on the ICS machine. I think it interfered with the packet scheduling while sharing.

Regards
Sun_Tzu