Neowin.net

Release Candidate 2 (October 6)
Build (0710)

For the RC2 release, we have provided you with the DirectX 8.1 Runtime and SDK downloads. Your assistance in quickly evaluating the quality of this RC is appreciated! We ask that you install the Release Candidate as soon as possible and provide us with your immediate feedback. Bug reports must be received by October 12th to have any chance of affecting the final release.

The only change between RC1 and RC2 is one fix in D3D8.dll relating to alpha in texture palettes. If you have not encountered this issues, you do not need to download RC2.

A big THANK YOU! goes to The C-A-D for hosting the files :)

NOTE: These files are not for WinXP! The version of DX in XP is already final.

News source: Beta Place Password Required
Download: DX8 RC2 W9x /ME
Download: DX8 RC2 NT4/ W2K

This is BETA software!, please use caution when installing it on your system

``We're big supporters of the creative concept on a console and that people can have a broad range of content, but we also believe that parents should have the right tools to be able to keep track of and manage what their kids are playing,'' Bach said.

Xbox developers have been working on the control for months, and it was not adopted because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said, although he and others in the gaming industry have made slight modifications to their combat-oriented games following the attacks.

Neither of Microsoft's chief competitors, Sony and Nintendo (news - web sites), offer parental controls on their game consoles, although Sony's PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) has a password-controlled parental block on the DVD player add-on.

Microsoft initially is marketing its system at 15- to 25-year-old ``hard-core gamers'' - those who will be wowed by realistic graphics and are old enough to deal with violent content. Bach said some of Xbox's games will be violent enough to warrant a ``mature'' rating.

But P.J. McNealy, an analyst with Gartner G2, said the parental control may help Microsoft compete with Nintendo when it tries to appeal to a younger audience.

``Nintendo has traditional been the family friendly console,'' McNealy said. ``They used to be the safe choice: no matter what kids bought for Nintendo, parents didn't have to worry. And this helps (Microsoft) set up to battle for that space.''

Microsoft may also be trying to reassure parents concerned about Xbox's realistic graphics, McNealy said.

``Given the fact that graphics around these games are getting much more realistic and things like the violence levels could be much more graphically portrayed, it's not a huge surprise that they're doing this,'' he said.