DirectX is a series of extensions to the basic functionality of Windows that allows improved performance for moving graphics, animation and sound. Opus and publications it creates use DirectX to improve performance but the publication will run without it.
Opus uses facilities provided in DirectX v3 and higher and the editor requires DirectX to operate.
However, Opus publications will run without DirectX, so you can distribute your publication confidently to people who may or may not have DirectX installed. However, to avoid compatibility problems we have provided the option to switch off the requirement for DirectX.
Opus also uses DirectX separately to allow mixing of multiple sound files.
DirectX is now widely available but can occasionally cause compatibility problems on some machines, particularly laptops running Windows 95 or 98 and graphics card with old drivers. It may even cause the publication to crash.
Therefore, to allow you to distribute your publication confidently we have included a special feature in the published version, which will allow the user to run the publication without DirectX support if it crashed previously. It also asks the user to check that they have the latest drivers for their graphics card.
You can also create a DirectX Exclusive publication as well – see Types tab in Publication Properties dialog for more information.