Hello,
I was wondering why my application requires this .dll ? All my users can not run my program because this dll is missing on their PC's.. Cant I build my program so this dll is not required? Since only persons who have DirectX SDK installed can run my program otherwise...
My program includes d3d9.dll too but that doesnt give an error.. so its not like they dont have DirectX9 installed.
Thanks
d3dx9_42.dll
Your program requires a more recent DirectX Version than what your users have installed. There often new revisions of DirectX 9 (and 10,11) so people need to keep their DirectX up to date. The solution is the bundle your software with a recent DirectX redistributable (or DirectX web redistributable).
While you CAN bundle d3dx9_42.dll (search for it on your System, if you use 64-bit, use the one in your SysWow64 directory) into your executable directory, this is a violation of the DirectX license agreement, which requires you to use the DirectX redistributable. Did you never notice Games bundling DirectX with their installers? That's what you need to do.
While you CAN bundle d3dx9_42.dll (search for it on your System, if you use 64-bit, use the one in your SysWow64 directory) into your executable directory, this is a violation of the DirectX license agreement, which requires you to use the DirectX redistributable. Did you never notice Games bundling DirectX with their installers? That's what you need to do.
You must redistribute the DLL for the Direct3D version you're using.
This DLL is usually installed into the end-user's C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. Include the DLL with your application's installer if you currently have one, else just provide instructions for your end-users to put the DLL into the system32 directory.
You can find the DLL in the similarly named CAB file in the "Redist" subdirectory of your SDK directory (that one should start with Aug2009 if I'm not mistaken).
EDIT: @vectrexx: Thanks, I didn't actually know that little licensing bit. That's probably a good thing to know.
This DLL is usually installed into the end-user's C:\WINDOWS\System32 directory. Include the DLL with your application's installer if you currently have one, else just provide instructions for your end-users to put the DLL into the system32 directory.
You can find the DLL in the similarly named CAB file in the "Redist" subdirectory of your SDK directory (that one should start with Aug2009 if I'm not mistaken).
EDIT: @vectrexx: Thanks, I didn't actually know that little licensing bit. That's probably a good thing to know.
On the flip side, many programs DO bundle only the required DLLs and especially for a small program it's ridiculous to pack the whole 100MB DirectX redistributable, and using the Web redist can also annoy users. I haven't heard of anybody getting into trouble yet, so that's probably something to research.
I wouldn't say "most" programs do that. According to the license agreement, you're supposed to use the redistributable.
EDIT: I have looked into and it seems you can strip unnessecary files from the redistributable package:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee416805%28VS.85%29.aspx
So that's what you should do.
EDIT: I have looked into and it seems you can strip unnessecary files from the redistributable package:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee416805%28VS.85%29.aspx
So that's what you should do.
Original post by vectrexx
it's ridiculous to pack the whole 100MB DirectX redistributable,/quote]
You can strip down DirectX installation to only required parts (dll's). This way you can get down to few MB's: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee416805.aspx#ID4EYF
Alternatively you can either dynamically link to D3DX (using LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress) or compile your program against an earlier version of the SDK (versions from as far back as 2004 are still available on the MS website). Both options should work fine and will avoid the downsides of having to deal with licensing doubts and of requiring users to update their DirectX.
Author
What's the best (freeware) tools you use to make an installation that also isntalls the directx9 package?
Quote:Original post by ProgrammerDXNo - not only is it a violation of the EULA, it's also a security concern.
Can't I just add d3dx9_42.dll to my installation like most programs do?
The reason the D3DX library was moved into a DLL was so that it can be patched via Windows Update, in case a security problem is found. If you always overwrite the version on the user's machine with your version, then you might be overwriting a newer, patched version of the DLL with a broken version. Like wise, if you put the DLL in your application's working directory, then the OS will load that one instead of the potentially patched one.
Quote:Original post by mhagainThe fact that the OP gets an error about the DLL missing implies that they're using D3DX functions - so loading the DLL at runtime wouldn't really help - it'd just allow him to display a "nicer" message to users. However, delay loading is a better solution, since it means you don't need to manually call GetProcAddress() for every function used, and still lets you display a user friendly error.
Alternatively you can either dynamically link to D3DX (using LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress)
Quote:Original post by mhagainI'd recommend against this; newer versions of the D3DX library have several performance and security improvements over older versions.
...or compile your program against an earlier version of the SDK (versions from as far back as 2004 are still available on the MS website)
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