DirectX9.0a The saga continues...

Well the DX9 Beta News group has received some sort of explanation, because of the confusion over DX9.0a and the DX9 "March Preview" Beta

Hi all,

For those who haven't noticed there's a new end-user runtime (DirectX 9.0a) available via https://www.microsoft.com/directx

DirectX 9.0a is an updated version of DirectX 9.0 which includes bug fixes and improves performance in the graphics and networking components. There are no new or modified APIs in this release. Specifically, this update includes:

Performance enhancement to the runtime texture management in Direct3D.
General performance improvements to D3DX
Fix for a potential PSGP memory overwrite in Direct3D.
Support for anti-aliased render targets added
Update for DirectPlay to address some network connectivity issues using some UPnP routers.

The DirectX Managed Code layer has been removed from this download to minimize the potential download size. This component will continue to be offered as part of the DirectX redistributable for developers to redistribute as required. The DirectX 9.0a redistributable will be available soon.

Expected download sizes are now less than 8Mb for the end-user runtime on Windows XP and less than 9Mb for Windows 98 and Me. The developer redistributable is now less than 33Mb. The full SDK download remains the same at approximately 228Mb. We'll mail on here as soon as the developer SDK with the updated runtime redist and symbols is available. To reiterate the version posted currently on the consumer DirectX website is solely for retail runtime bits. Do *not* use this to replace developer debug bits.

Thanks, and hope this clarifies,

Microsoft DX Team

Download: DirectX 9.0a End-User Runtime