14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft offered official confirmation that DirectX 10.1 in Windows Vista SP1 can be expected in the immediate future. The SIGGRAPH 2007 conference is the stage where Microsoft is presenting an introduction to Direct3D 10, but also the future of this application programming interface. Direct3D 10 is an integer part of the DirectX 10 API available exclusively through Microsoft's latest operating system Windows Vista, in combination with the underlying graphics hardware. The Redmond company has repeatedly denied the possibility of backporting DirectX to Windows XP, arguing that it would have to also change the core of the operating system.
Such a scenario is also supported by the fact that Microsoft is actually moving forward with the development of DirectX. The company has released a preview of DirectX 10.1, the API that will be made available with Windows Vista Service Pack 1. And while Sinofsky's Windows Omerta will only leak the detail that Vista SP1 beta is planned by the end of 2007, Sam Glassenberg, Lead Program Manager for the Microsoft Direct3D Team revealed that version 10.1 of Direct3D is "coming soon."(Steven Sinofsky - Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering GroupWindows)
Now, taking into consideration that Direct3D 10.1 is intimately connected with DirectX 10.1, which in its turn is an integer part of Windows Vista SP1, this means that a public beta of the operating system's first service pack could be just around the corner. Maybe just a month, or a couple of months away. Essentially Direct3D 10.1 is "a series of extensions to Direct3D 10 supported on upcoming hardware and in Windows Vista SP1," coming in "5 new APIs" and is designed as an "incremental update to D3D 10," according to Glassenberg. Just go on and download the DirectX August SDK, and wait for Windows Vista SP1 beta.