No DirectMusic on Vista / Server 2003 SP1

Well, I know DirectMusic doesn't appear in dxdiag with Vista RC1 either. But, DirectMusic based programs still work, I think.

Edit: Nope, they don't appear to work. Just tried running an old project I made that used it, and it failed to work.

Thank you! I haven't tried Vista. That's very interesting. And disturbing. DirectMusic has been MS's main promoted API for producing musical sounds for years. Are they just dropping it without warning (rhetorical question)?

Quote:

Original post by DrawMusic Are they just dropping it without warning (rhetorical question)?

DirectMusic hasn't been updated since DX8 and the more recent audio/music tool has been XACT. It would seem they are focussing their efforts towards new tools rather than creating an updated version of DM.

That said, it does sound strange that these applications would stop working on a released OS as well as a soon-to-be-released OS [oh] Even if only via the 'application compatability' technology existing and older technologies should still work...

Jack

Thanks. Yeah, I don't care if they *improve* DirectMusic, I just want my app's DirectMusic-based music engine to continue to work on Vista. Now it looks like I'll have to rewrite my audio code, and maybe distribute two versions of my app, for old & new Windows.

Update: Now I'm told (on an MSDN forum) that the final RTM Vista does indeed have DirectMusic.

I don't have Vista. Does someone with Vista (final RTM) want to check dxdiag and see if it has a Music tab?

The DirectMusic tab was removed from dxdiag for Vista (I personally made the change in fact), but DirectMusic is still alive and kicking in the RTM build of Vista.

However, I will say that if you’re a game developer working on a new game, please don't use DirectMusic. We're trying to move everyone away from DirectMusic -- preferably to XACT.

Jason

Well I develop music composition software, and from what I can see XACT is just for manipulating wave content. No access to the DLS synth (loading DLS instruments, playing notes, running the synth output through effects). So for me, I don't see how XACT is any sort of replacement for DirectMusic.