DirectX

DirectX is a Microsoft collection of application programming interfaces for multimedia on Windows, especially real-time graphics and sound. It gives software a standardized way to use hardware features.

Direct3D: A DirectX API for rendering two- and three-dimensional graphics using graphics hardware. It is DirectX’s central graphics API and the foundation of most Windows games.
Graphics pipeline: A sequence of processing stages that transforms geometry and other data into pixels. Direct3D organizes rendering work through configurable stages of this pipeline.
Video game: An interactive digital activity in which players influence events through rules and input. Windows games are the most visible applications built on DirectX.
Vulkan: A cross-platform, low-overhead graphics and compute API maintained by the Khronos Group. Vulkan offers explicit graphics control on platforms where DirectX is unavailable or not preferred.
Windows 95: A Microsoft operating system released in 1995 with a graphical interface and broad consumer adoption. DirectX emerged as Microsoft sought to improve Windows support for games during this era.
DirectSound: A DirectX API for playing and mixing audio, historically including hardware-accelerated sound. It handled game audio alongside DirectX’s graphics and input systems.
GPU: A processor designed to accelerate graphics, parallel computation, and related workloads. DirectX sends graphics work to the GPU through driver-supported APIs.
Real-time rendering: The generation of images quickly enough to respond interactively to changing input or scenes. Direct3D is widely used to render interactive scenes at playable frame rates.
OpenGL: A cross-platform API for rendering two- and three-dimensional graphics. OpenGL is a long-standing alternative to Direct3D, especially outside Windows.
Game Developers Conference: An annual industry conference focused on the development of video games. Microsoft introduced DirectX to developers at the 1995 conference.

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