Could someone send me DX7 docs, please?

[Kai Backman]

Same story again. I tought I had them backed up but lost them in my workstation crash some while ago. Could someone put up either the DirectX 7 docs or the whole SDK for download from somewhere?

Thank you! :D

[digriz]

I can do it tonight when i get home if you're still looking for them.
Unfortunately, i don't keep the docs for dx7 at work.

[Ska Software]

While we're on the subject of old SDKs, does anyone have any shader tools for DX8? I want to play around with pixel shaders, but there's only DX9 (HLSL) tools available.

And what's up with old SDKs just disappearing into thin air? I'm lucky I found the DX8 one off some .edu site or something.

[Bad Sector]

Simply everyone is linking to the microsoft site for download instead of mirroring them. But ms removes their :-)

[Kai Backman]

@digriz: Thank You! I still haven't found a good source for them on the net .. Sometimes I wonder if a public archive of the docs would be a good thing .. :)

[digriz]

Would microsoft allow that? I don't see why not, i'm just wondering why they aren't more freely available.

Did you want just the docs or the full sdk?

[digriz]

ok Kai,

I've PM'd you the link to the dx7 documents.

Let me know when you have them.


Oh and Happy Birthday BTW....it's showing up at the bottom of the forum page ;)
Cheers

[digriz]

How rude of me.

If anyone else wants the dx7 doc's, pm me and i'll send you the link.

[SquareDanceSteve]

ska checkout rendermonkey, it can compile shaders into asm (dx8)

[Kai Backman]

Thanks Digriz!

The whole issue of the old SDK's being offline is pretty strange in the first place. I see why MS would like retail game developers to push the runtimes at end users, but for downloadable authors that's plain madness.

Anyway, I managed to find the following SDK's on the net (expanded and with original installer filename so that future searches might find this thread):
DirectX 6.0 SDK dxsdk6.exe (partial, just the headers, libs and docs)
DirectX 6.1 SDK dx61sdkimage.exe
DirectX 7.0 SDK dx7libhdr.exe dx7docs.exe (partial, just the headers, libs and docs)
DirectX 8.0 SDK dx8sdk.exe
DirectX 8.1 SDK dx81sdk_full.exe
DirectX 9.0 SDK dx9sdk.exe (Found on MS site using old link)

All the SDK's are from the first release in the series. This means that the 9.0 versions should get around the annoying issue of 9.0 being internally incompatible. And probably the same for the rest. I've separated out a set of only the headers, libs and docs, to use for actual development.

I was able to find most of the files on the net using the following strategy:

1. Here (http://www.zoneprog.com/directx/dxsdk.php) is a page with a long list of different DirectX SDK's. Most of the links go to Microsofts page so downloads older than 9.0 don't work. 9.0 and up seems to be ok (until they get pulled).

2. For the rest of the SDK's I did a search on Google using the original installer file, like: "dx8sdk.exe -download.microsoft.com" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dx8sdk.exe+-download.microsoft.com&btnG=Google+Search). This turns up all non-official mirrors people have set up. Some of the files are pretty difficult to find even with the hit (some came from webalizer summary pages ..), but that's usually your best bet.

I assembled a zip file (600MB) with all the official SDK installers (self executing zip files actually) and I'll upload it to my old dedicated server. It's up until the 9th of September and has plenty of spare bandwidth so until then I can provide the download link by PM. This just to play it safe.

Thanks for everyone who contributed! :D

[DGuy]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/ddraw7/directdraw7/ddover_7dx3.asp

Look at the above link for the DX7 docs

[wazoo]

I've got the DX3 and (I believe) DX5 SDK's at home on backup as well should anyone need it.