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To: Francis Chow who wrote (5282)	3/26/1998 9:40:00 AM
From: Scot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6843

Here is some news on DirectX 6. The release date is July. <<<<<<<<<<<<begin quote>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dear DirectX Partner: Based on overwhelming feedback at Meltdown, we understand the need to commit to a hard delivery date for DirectX 6 in order to maximize the confidence of developers who are eager to use new DirectX 6 functionality. In order to alleviate any uncertainty, we have taken a hard look at our development schedule and feature set over the past month in an effort to set a target date which we could stand behind unequivocally, without compromising the quality of the final deliverable. As a result of this analysis, along with the significant development progress we've had since Meltdown, we are now at a point where we feel comfortable committing to a firm delivery schedule. Furthermore, we have taken steps to mitigate the risks in our development process in order to meet that schedule. Based on these projections, DirectX 6.0 for Windows 95 and Windows 98 will be released in July, 1998. Furthermore, we expect to release the general beta of DirectX 6.0 at Microsoft's Seminar Day at CGDC, on May 9, 1998, within a one week margin of error. Clearly, this deliverable will depend on our ability to converge on a very high-quality release, as this will be our only general beta. Between beta and release, we will work aggressively with our beta sites to resolve bugs and ensure the quality of the final release. We are also working aggressively with our hardware partners to ensure availability of the broadest possible coverage of full-featured DirectX 6 drivers in a timely fashion. This schedule does not in any way change our commitment to deliver DirectX 6 as part of Windows NT 5.0, beginning with a beta release in Windows NT 5.0 Beta 2. DirectX 6.0 Feature Set As previously stated, the enhancements in DirectX 6.0 will be constrained to Direct3D and DirectDraw. The astonishing pace of innovation in the area of 3D hardware acceleration, coupled with the infrastructure we're building in DirectSound (integration with WDM) and DirectInput (support for USB) demands no less. We remain committed to deliver, at a minimum, the following features for Direct3D 6.0: * Multiple Textures * New Rasterizers * Geometry Pipeline Features * DrawPrimitives2 DDI * Texture Memory Manager * Flexible Vertex Format * Vertex Buffers * Bump Mapping * Standard Fixed-Rate Texture Compression * Opaque Texture Surfaces * Alpha in Texture Palettes * Luminance * Stencil Planes * W-Buffering * Z-Buffer Clearing However, in order to minimize risk to the DirectX 6.0 schedule we have limited enhancements to DirectDraw to those that support new Direct3D features, plus the following: * Full Screen-Only Per-Channel Gamma Control * Motion Compensation DDI * Hardware De-Interlacing Support We currently plan to defer the following previously announced DirectDraw features to the next release of DirectX: Alpha BLT, SetSpriteDisplayList, Lightweight Surface Resizing, Create/LoadSurfaceFromFile, Persistent Content and Stereo Support. While it's always disappointing to postpone compelling new features, we think you'll agree that the benefits of a commitment to timely delivery outweigh the potential risks of trying to implement those few features. Our current plan shows us completing the promised updates to DirectPlay and Direct3D Retained Mode in time for inclusion with DirectX 6. However, we will let you know if that plan changes. Also, as stated at Meltdown, we are also continuing to evaluate progress on DirectMusic. We currently believethat we will ship DirectMusic in a 6.x release later this year but we should have a more definite release strategy for that technology by CGDC. In any case, you should start planning to use DirectMusic in your 1999 titles regardless. Again, we strongly encourage you to send your comments on DirectMusic to directx@microsoft.com. We cannot overstate how much we appreciate your patience as we've sorted through these issues. Rest assured we have taken every possible step to ensure that we can achieve this plan. The DirectX team is committed to timely delivery of quality components in order to enable your Christmas titles. Please contact us as soon as possible at directx@microsoft.com if you have any questions. Jay Torborg Director of Graphics and Multimedia Microsoft Corporation Mark Kenworthy Group Program Manager, DirectX Microsoft Corporation Kevin Bachus Product Manager, DirectX Microsoft Corporation