D3DX9.DLL is legal?

Much peoples say me when isnt legal to put this file in my game foulde without some others programs - although that come together with publishing! Or that is true when taht is illegal or this is normal?

Since version 9.0c it is legal to distribute the D3DX9_xx Dlls, however you should use the latest DirectX9 installer from the Microsoft website for distributing it with your game. This is the proper way. The d3dx9_30.dll only helps users who have DX9 already installed, and should normally not be distributed with the final product.

This means we should delete this dll from the .cd folder before releasing our games?

Good to know...

We don't delete it from our uploaded demos because including the DX9 installer there would be overkill. But when really distributing a game, I recommend to delete it and include the installer instead.

OHOOO! This isnt nice! But ok how can include that installer - i think where i can find it.

wow.. so this means if a lawyer pleases he can cut our asses off?

If d3dx9_30.dll is part of the dx9 install enviroment,
why must ist be included in the gamefolder, even when dx9 is installed?

Cant acknex load it then from the dx9 install-directory?

It blows up the game-file by 2,3MB

with each new directx sdk (which gets released every few months) comes a new d3dx9_xx.dll.

d3dx9_30.dll (april 2006 sdk)
d3dx9_31.dll
d3dx9_32.dll
...

so it can happen that the directx installation of the user is too old to contain the dll.

There are two important reasons why it's better to distribute a full DirectX installer:

- The end user might still have DirectX 8, in which case the project with the included d3dx9_30.dll will probably just crash. This is the case on Win98, Win ME, Win 2000, and very early XP systems.
- The DirectX installer copies the d3dx9_30.dll into a Windows system folder, where it can be patched by a Microsoft security update if necessary - for instance when a severe bug in that DLL was discovered. If the DLL is in the project folder, Microsoft can't patch it.

could we in future be able to have a copy of the installer put into the project folder when we publish something? (or perhaps the option of?)

not that things get published regularly enough that it's much of a hassle, but it would be very easy to just not think of that.

julz