ED#83 : Installing DirectX 9 Can & Will Kill DirectX 10

[Dashken]

Recently, I reinstalled the software on our testbed for another long run of benchmarks. Amongst those software were some DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games. After installing them, I realized that one of the games, BioShock did not work. Whenever I tried loading BioShock, it would just hang with a black screen.

At first, I thought it was the new version 1.1 patch or a driver, but at the end of the day, it was DirectX 9 that killed DirectX 10 and caused BioShock to hang on loading.

Here's a quote from the editorial :-

"At first, I thought it was the new version 1.1 patch because the other DirectX 10 games I installed worked. So I reinstalled BioShock without applying the patch. Still no go. It still hung when I ran it. Once again, I did an intense search online that didn't really reveal much."

Link : ED#83 : Installing DirectX 9 Can & Will Kill DirectX 10

[MrVelocicraptor]

I don't doubt that you may be having some configuration issues, though considering the facts that:
a) the redist you're referring to has no DX10 core components
b) You cannot overwrite DX10 core components in Vista as the OS will replace them with the originals straight away
I can't but help believe that something else here is the cause.
The most likely candidate is it that the version of D3DX or the compiler is being inadvertently being overwritten by a poorly written installer. The redist file you refer to ensures that all the optional DX components are installed correctly and will fix the situation where an installer copies the raw dlls into the directory and then removes them on uninstall...

What would be helpful, though admittedly time-consuming, is to find the sequence of events which caused this and actually let MS know. I've found that if you let MS know about an issue and provide a good repro case then they often address it. However the flip-side is also true: If you don't let MS know and use a damning statement backed by a vague, nebulous, statement then it's pretty darn hard for them to fix the "issue" and they spend more time trying to deal with the FUD and increases the time to fix the actual issue

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by MrVelocicraptor

I don't doubt that you may be having some configuration issues, though considering the facts that:
a) the redist you're referring to has no DX10 core components
b) You cannot overwrite DX10 core components in Vista as the OS will replace them with the originals straight away
I can't but help believe that something else here is the cause.
The most likely candidate is it that the version of D3DX or the compiler is being inadvertently being overwritten by a poorly written installer. The redist file you refer to ensures that all the optional DX components are installed correctly and will fix the situation where an installer copies the raw dlls into the directory and then removes them on uninstall...

What would be helpful, though admittedly time-consuming, is to find the sequence of events which caused this and actually let MS know. I've found that if you let MS know about an issue and provide a good repro case then they often address it. However the flip-side is also true: If you don't let MS know and use a damning statement backed by a vague, nebulous, statement then it's pretty darn hard for them to fix the "issue" and they spend more time trying to deal with the FUD and increases the time to fix the actual issue

That could be true. But it's pretty interesting to note that games that force the installation of DX9 could "break" DX10, or probably just Direct3D.

Frankly, there's nothing really nebulous about the whole issue. I could summarize the sequence of events very simply as such....

1. Installed Windows Vista 32-bit on a clean PC.

2. Installed DX10 games, followed by some DX9 games.

3. BioShock hangs at a blank screen.

4. Reinstalled the DX10 redistributable.

5. BioShock works.

From the T2 support site, it appears that both Microsoft and T2 are aware of the problem. Hence, T2 is recommending the reinstallation of DX10 redistributable to fix the blank screen problem.

This article really isn't to blame Microsoft or even T2 but to point out that installing DX9 games could cause problems for your DX10 games... and the fix could be a simple installation of the DX10 redistributable.

[Dashken]

The editorial has just been updated!

Recently, I reinstalled the software on our testbed for another long run of benchmarks. Amongst those software were some DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games. After installing them, I realized that one of the games, BioShock did not work. Whenever I tried loading BioShock, it would just hang with a black screen.

At first, I thought it was the new version 1.1 patch or a driver, but at the end of the day, it was DirectX 9 that killed DirectX 10 and caused BioShock to hang on loading.

Here's a quote from the editorial :-

"At first, I thought it was the new version 1.1 patch because the other DirectX 10 games I installed worked. So I reinstalled BioShock without applying the patch. Still no go. It still hung when I ran it. Once again, I did an intense search online that didn't really reveal much."

Link : ED#83 : Installing DirectX 9 Can & Will Kill DirectX 10 Rev. 2.0