DirectX 10

DirectX 10

The version of DirectX introduced in Windows Vista in late 2006. DirectX 10 combines all the DirectX APIs (DirectDraw, Direct3D, etc.) under one umbrella. In order to enhance its speed, DirectX 10 is not backward compatible, which means that DirectX 10 games cannot run in systems with DirectX 9 and earlier graphics cards. However, using an emulation layer, DirectX 10 cards can run DirectX 9 and earlier applications. Formerly known as "Windows Graphics Foundation" (WGF), DirectX 10 includes support for shaders. See DirectX 11, DirectX and vertex shader.