Direct3D D3DX DLLs

Windows XP users who keep their machines up to date should all have DirectX 9.0c installed and likewise Vista uses will have DirectX 10 and Windows 7 users DirectX 11. However the D3DX dlls (and sometimes others like XAudio) get updated every few months (when a new SDK is released) and so many users get errors about missing d3dx9_xx.dll. The best solution is to distribute the DirectX runtime with your app. however if you are providing your app. as a download this will increase the download size significantly. You could also of course just include the dll. although this is against the agreement (EULA) and make cause problems. Another solution is to forward users to the Microsoft DirectX end user runtime download via the Microsoft Web Installer.

Download the missing DLLs

Note: these installers will not install DirectX 9.0c, they will only install the missing dlls from the SDK updates. Most people should have DirectX 9.0c as part of Windows XP SP2 but if you do not you can get it via the online Microsoft update page here: Microsoft Web Installer

Name	Installs DLL	Download sites
February 2005 Update	d3dx9_24.dll	gamedev ,threelights
April 2005 Update	d3dx9_25.dll	gamedev ,threelights
June 2005 Update	d3dx9_26.dll	gamedev ,threelights
August 2005 Update	d3dx9_27.dll	gamedev ,threelights
October 2005 Update	No change
December 2005 Update	d3dx9_28.dll	threelights
February 2006 Update	d3dx9_29.dll x3daudio1_0.dll	threelights
April 2006 Update	d3dx9_30.dll xinput1_1.dll	threelights
June 2006 Update	No change	threelights
August 2006 Update	xinput1_2.dll	threelights
October 2006 Update	d3dx9_31.dll xinput1_3.dll x3daudio1_1.dll	threelights
December 2006 Update	d3dx9_32.dll	threelights
February 2007 Update	No change	threelights
April 2007 Update	d3dx9_33.dl d3dx10_33.dlll	Microsoft Web Installer
June 2007 Update	d3dx9_34.dll d3dx10_34.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
August 2007 Update	d3dx9_35.dll d3dx10_35.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
November 2007 Update	d3dx9_36.dll d3dx10_36.dll X3DAudio1_2.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
March 2008 Update	d3dx9_37.dll d3dx10_37.dll X3DAudio1_3.dll XAudio2_0.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
June 2008 Update	d3dx9_38.dll d3dx10_38.dll X3DAudio1_4.dll XAudio2_1.dll xactengine3_1.dll XAPO_FX1_0.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
August 2008 Update	d3dx9_39.dll d3dx10_39.dll XAudio2_2.dll xactengine3_2.dll XAPO_FX1_1.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
November 2008 Update	d3dx9_40.dll d3dx10_40.dll X3DAudio1_5.dll XAudio2_3.dll xactengine3_3.dll XAPO_FX1_2.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
March 2009 Update	d3dx9_41.dll d3dx10_41.dll X3DAudio1_6.dll XAudio2_4.dll XactEngine3_4.dll XAPOFX1_3.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
August 2009 Update	d3dx9_42.dll d3dx10_43.dll d3dx11_42.dll XAudio2_5.dll XactEngine3_5.dll d3dcsx_42.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
February 2010 Update	d3dx9_43.dll XAudio2_6.dll XactEngine3_6.dll X3DAudio1_7.dll XAPOFX1_4.dll	Microsoft Web Installer
June 2010 Update	XAudio2_7.dll XactEngine3_7.dll XAPOFX1_5.dll	Microsoft Web Installer

Note: if you are missing d3dx9d_xx.dll files e.g. d3dx9d_43.dll these files are debug versions of the libraries for development purposes only. Nobody should be distributing these in an application. To use these you need the full developers DirectX SDK.

What the files are

The d3dx9_?.dll files are for the Direct3D Extensions (D3DX) for Direct3D 9. These provide helper functions for graphic code.

The d3dx10 dlls are Vista dlls for Direct3D 11.
The d3dx11 dlls are Windows 7 dlls for Direct3D 11

The xinput dlls are for the Microsoft common controller library and are used for things like the Xbox 360 common controller.
XAudio2 is the low level audio API for Windows and Xbox 360
XACT (XactEngine) is the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool. This is the high level tool for sound designers.
X3DAudio is an API that works with XAudio2 and XACT to position sounds in 3D space
XAPO provides digital signal processing operations on audio streams (working with XAudio2 and XACT) e.g. adding reverb

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