Can I program managed DirectsX in x64

[Allan Michaels]

Hello Newsgroup,

Just checking in to see the state of directx on x64.

I'm wondering if Managed DirectX is supported on x64 applications. I mean a
.NET app built for "Any CPU". And yes, we do need to run it as an x64 app
(and not a 32-bit app using WOW to run on x64).


Also,
Why isn't there a managed newsgroup for either managed or unmanaged DirectX
on x64?
And where is the correct place to post DirectX x64 questions?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

[Allan Michaels]

I thought of some more info related to my situation:

We must run Windows XP Professional x64.
So as I understand things, we cannot use DirectX 10,
and as such we would use DirectX 9.
--
Allan Michaels
Ann Arbor, MI

Post by Allan Michaels
Hello Newsgroup,
Just checking in to see the state of directx on x64.
I'm wondering if Managed DirectX is supported on x64 applications. I mean a
.NET app built for "Any CPU". And yes, we do need to run it as an x64 app
(and not a 32-bit app using WOW to run on x64).
Also,
Why isn't there a managed newsgroup for either managed or unmanaged DirectX
on x64?
And where is the correct place to post DirectX x64 questions?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
--
Allan Michaels
Ann Arbor, MI

[legalize+ (Richard [Microsoft Direct3D MVP])]

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

Post by Allan Michaels
We must run Windows XP Professional x64.

Good luck with that. You're unlikely to get any good driver support for
the display driver on XP x64.

[Allan Michaels]

I agree in general that driver support on x64 is a challenge.

However, I have already implemented the unmanaged DirectX solution on
Windows XP Professional x64. And it works great, that is there is no problem
with the display drivers.

So it seems that I don't need any display driver support. It seems that I
just need a implementation of managed DirectX on x64.

(The consensus I found as I surfed the net is that managed DirectX is dead
and XNA is the managed solution...but only a solution for Vista.)

Thanks again for your help.
--
Allan Michaels
Ann Arbor, MI

Post by legalize+ (Richard [Microsoft Direct3D MVP])
[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

Post by Allan Michaels
We must run Windows XP Professional x64.

Good luck with that. You're unlikely to get any good driver support for
the display driver on XP x64.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

[legalize+ (Richard [Microsoft Direct3D MVP])]

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

Post by Allan Michaels
So it seems that I don't need any display driver support. It seems that I
just need a implementation of managed DirectX on x64.

DirectX is implemented on top of a display driver. So of course you
need display driver support. There are many pieces of display hardware
out there; are you saying you've tested on all of them under XP x64 and
found the drivers are OK? I doubt it.

Post by Allan Michaels
(The consensus I found as I surfed the net is that managed DirectX is dead
and XNA is the managed solution...but only a solution for Vista.)

Then the consensus you got from the net is wrong; XNA works just fine on
Windows XP (and probably Windows 2000 as well, but I'm not sure).

[Allan Michaels]

Thank you very much for your response.

1. Turns out that in the case of our x64 OS offering, we sell the whole
system: software and computer. So we choose the graphics card. And the one
we chose works great with x64.
(This might be confusing because in a related post you and I are
contributing to I say that I can't specify the graphics card. For one
product we sell the whole system; another we sell only the software and do
not have full control of the system. It is assumed that these software only
sales will be installed on 32-bit systems, because that is what are customer
base has.)

2. Thank you, thank you, thank you on your revelation that XNA works on
Windows XP.

[legalize+ (Richard [Microsoft Direct3D MVP])]

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

Post by Allan Michaels
1. Turns out that in the case of our x64 OS offering, we sell the whole
system: software and computer. So we choose the graphics card. And the one
we chose works great with x64.

Oh, if you're doing a turnkey system, then that's different. Yeah, in
that case you can control everything and you can find a suitable
hardware/driver combination.

Post by Allan Michaels
2. Thank you, thank you, thank you on your revelation that XNA works on
Windows XP.

Honestly, I don't know why you thought otherwise. The supported OS
versions are listed on Microsoft's web site:
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/xna/aa937796.aspx>

[Chuck Walbourn [MSFT]]

XNA Game Studio assemblies and the deprecated Managed DirectX 1.1 are both
managed layers for Direct3D 9, but are only provided for 32-bit
applications. As such on all Windows x64 editions you have to use
"/platform:x86" not "/platform:AnyCPU" and you are stuck with a 32-bit 2 GB
max process.

Managed applications with "AnyCPU" will automatically run as x64 native
applications on Windows x64. Pure managed applications run perfectly fine
this way. The problem comes with interop with native components. If you use
native interop in any way, those component DLLs must exist in both 32-bit
and 64-bit native versions. If you need the memory access on 64-bit versions
and want to use managed with "AnyCPU" you will have to directly use the
DirectX APIs rather than the XNA Game Studio assemblies or MDX.

Direct3D 9, Direct3D 10/10.1, DirectSound 8, DirectInput 8, DirectDraw 7,
and DirectShow are available for use by x64 native applications. DirectPlay,
DirectMusic, Direct Animation, and older versions of DirectX components are
only available to 32-bit applications for backwards compatibility.

See "64-bit Programming for Game Developers"
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb147385.aspx