What components are included in DirectX?

Question

There are different ideas of what components belongs to DirectX, and what components are deprecated or belong to what versions.
I can't find any site where it stands explicit and Microsoft sites doesn't help much. The most accurate answer i found was that:

The DirectX version number, such as 9.0c, refers only to the version of the core components, such as Direct3D, DirectInput, or DirectSound. This number does not cover the versions of the various optional components that are released in the DirectX SDK, such as D3DX, XACT, XINPUT, and so on.

(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416805(v=vs.85).aspx)

But it seems they only name examples and DirectX SDK does not exist for newer DirectX.

So my question is: What components (including all optional/non-optional components) are included to what DirectX version? I'm especially interested in DirectX 11.0.

Answer 1

You may find this blog post informative...

Basically as of Windows XP SP2, parts of "DirectX" became fused with the OS and over time those components have been updated and/or deprecated or just carried forward "as is" for appcompat. Other things that people think of "DirectX" are actually just optional libraries or DLLs that were shipped in the legacy Direct SDK (see "Not So Direct Setup" as well).

"DirectX 11.0" is essentially the stuff that shipped in Windows 7, and most of it was also made available on Windows Vista as an update through Windows Update.

UPDATE: "DirectX 11.0" is Direct3D 11.0, Direct2D/DirectWrite 1.0, and DXGI 1.1.

DirectSound7 and below, DirectInput7 and below, DirectPlay, DirectDraw, Direct3D 8 and below, Managed DirectX 1.1, DirectAnimation, and DirectMusic performance layer are deprecated. DirectPlay is an optional feature in Windows 8.1 and is disabled by default. Direct3D retained mode, DirectPlay Voice, and DirectX VB 6.0 support were removed from the OS starting with Windows Vista and are not available at all. DirectMusic "core" APIs are still supported for professional audio developers (mostly for MIDI) writing Win32 desktop applications. DirectShow is supported for video editing Win32 desktop applications, but use of Media Foundation is recommended otherwise.

For Windows Store apps and Windows Phone apps, DirectInput, DirectSound, XINPUT 1.3 and below, Direct3D 10 and below, D3DX, XACT, and DirectMusic "Core" are not supported. Direct3D 11.1, DXGI 1.2, and Direct2D 1.1 or later, XInput 1.4, and XAudio 2.8 are supported for these applications.

Answer 2

From wikipedia

Microsoft encourages the use of these DirectX components:

• Direct3D (D3D): for drawing 3D graphics. DXGI: for enumerating adapters and monitors and managing swap chains for Direct3D 10 and up.
• Direct2D: for 2D graphics.
• DirectWrite: for fonts.
• DirectCompute: for GPU Computing.
• DirectSound3D (DS3D): for the playback of 3D sounds.
• DirectX Media: comprising DirectAnimation for 2D/3D[39] web animation, DirectShow for multimedia playback and streaming media, DirectX Transform for web interactivity, and - Direct3D Retained Mode for higher level 3D graphics. DirectShow contains DirectX plugins for audio signal processing and DirectX Video Acceleration for accelerated video playback. DirectX Diagnostics (DxDiag): a tool for diagnosing and generating reports on components related to DirectX, such as audio, video, and input drivers.
• DirectX Media Objects: support for streaming objects such as encoders, decoders, and effects.
• DirectSetup: for the installation of DirectX components, and the detection of the current DirectX version.

Microsoft has deprecated, but still supports, these DirectX components:

• DirectDraw: for drawing 2D Graphics (raster graphics). Deprecated in favor of Direct2D, though still in use by a number of games and as a video renderer in media applications.
• DirectInput: for interfacing with input devices including keyboards, mice, joysticks, or other game controllers. Deprecated after version 8 in favor of XInput for Xbox 360 controllers or standard WM_INPUT window message processing for keyboard and mouse input.
• DirectPlay: for communication over a local-area or wide-area network. Deprecated after version 8 in favor of Games for Windows Live and Xbox Live.
• DirectSound: for the playback and recording of waveform sounds. Deprecated in favor of the current audio libraries, including XAudio2 (a low-level audio library) and XACT3 (a higher-level audio API).
• DirectMusic: for playback of soundtracks authored in DirectMusic Producer. Deprecated since DirectX 8 in favor of XAudio2 and XACT3. DirectX functionality is provided in the form of COM-style objects and interfaces. Additionally, while not DirectX components themselves, managed objects have been built on top of some parts of DirectX, such as Managed Direct3D[40] and the XNA graphics library[41] on top of Direct3D 9.