DirectX check timeout waaay too long

[TextureGlitch]

I 'accidentally' clicked quickly through the default installation because I'm a windows user and thus trained to click 'next' as fast as I can to get through the extensive amount of obligatory install prompts every single time I want to install something.

Unfortunately I had no internet connection at the time and the install just froze. If I hadn't been logging on to the forum here (from another computer) and started writing about it, I never even would have discovered that there actually was a timeout. It must've been 10 minutes or something.

I think 10 seconds is more than enough for the installer to figure out whether it can get online or not

[Seg]

Sadly there isn't much I can do to fix that specific problem. The DirectX web installer isn't very good with detecting internet access and there isn't anything I can do about it once the DX installer starts. Outside of asking to do the install or not.

You can also get the offline installer to update your computer with DirectX.

If you're interested in the details, here's what's going on.

Starting with the Strong Bad series, I include the DirectX web installer with the installers. The games require at least the Aug '07 update, but all versions of windows ship with the original 9.0c and Windows Update doesn't update DirectX. I rant on my personal blog about this...

Our installer runs the installer Microsoft provides on silent mode. Once it's fired, I can't do anything to further detect if the computer can connect to the server where the DirectX components are installed. I have to wait for it to finish, but there's no way I can detect if it's hanging. While I could check for an internet connection, it's about the specific address for getting all the DirectX components, rather than any URL.

For the record, when a disc based distribution happens, including Strong Bad and eventually the Wallace & Gromit disc, we'll be including the 'offline' version of DirectX.

[Fooey]

I'm running on Steam, and have the latest version of DirectX installed. But each time I've installed the episodes, Wallace and Gromitt has gone through a seemingly endless process of attempting to reinstall it before the game will launch. Which makes me nervous, since if it's actually installing anything, it's messing my computer up, since I already have the latest version installed.

[Seg]

On Steam it's a bit different. They put in place a routine where the Steam client is updating DirectX before it launches the game for the first time. I'd like to think we initated this move on their part since all games benifit from updated DirectX.

What I do need to make clear is that running the DirectX runtime doesn't replace working files, it only adds new files. It will replace broken/missing files, but not overwrite. In my years of working with electronic entertainment, I've only seen DirectX imporve or make no change in performance of games. Never have I seen a DirectX update hinder a computer in any way.