DX11.1 for Windows 7

[kemical]

Portions of DX11.1 are being made available to Windows 7 users via the new IE10 Preview for Windows 7. If you don't wish to use the browser but do want the extensions then a standalone is available here:

Windows 8 includes an updated “DirectX 11.1 Runtime” that supports Direct3D 11.1, updates Direct2D andDirectWrite, DXGI 1.2, and a revision of the Windows Imaging Component (WIC).
Portions of the “DirectX 11.1 Runtime” are being made available on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 via the Platform Update for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB 2670838) included with theInternet Explorer 10 Release Preview for Windows 7. This includes the updated components above, but is limited to WDDM 1.1 drivers on Windows 7.
KB 2670838 is installed as part of the IE10 Release Preview for Windows 7 download. It is also available as aLink Removed - Invalid URL.
Full technical details are in the process of being published to MSDN.
Here is a quick summary of what KB 2670838 adds to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 / Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1:

• ID3D11Device1, ID2D1Factory1, IDWriteFactory1, IDXGIFactory2, IWICImagingFactory2,ID3DUserDefinedAnnotation and related APIs are available. Methods that depend on WDDM 1.2 drivers or new Windows Store app APIs are not supported.
• Improved Direct3D 11 device interoperability via ID3DDeviceContextState, including the improved interop with Direct2D/DirectWrite
• D3D11_FEATURE_DATA_D3D9_OPTIONS feature detection
• In addition to the new Windows 8 WIC features, this update also fixes decoding of 96bpp floating-point TIFF images.

All other features of DirectX 11.1 are Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 only.

Download:

DirectX 11.1 and Windows 7 - Games for Windows and the DirectX SDK - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

[Pauli]

I downloaded and installed the DirectX 11 upgrade for Windows 7. Seems to work fine, I noticed it probably gave a bit of extra spice to my beloved one, the game Freelancer, Freelancer (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the game originally being DirectX 8, or 9.

And HI ALL INFLUENTIAL FRIENDS HERE, going off topic: Came to think that the Freelancer community has hungered for the source code for this MICROSOFT game for years. No sequel is apparent, by Microsoft, but there's a heck of a lot of people willing to work on the project. And the game is well worth to be worked with. Being in good stand with Microsoft, you might be able to give a helping hand? It's really a win-win situation.