hooters,
Upgrading from one version of DirectX to another is rarely about features. DirectX is a 2D, 3D, and audio framework for writing software with good performance without writing directly to the hardware (as developers used to do in the PC days). The developers used to have to write their program and then come out with their own drivers for each and every video card, sound card, etc. on the market. It got to be impossible to write for every card because each card manufacturer was doing it differently, and there were so many cards.
The only reason one switches to a newer version of DirectX is when a favorite game or piece of software has used the new library elements introduced in a newer version of DirectX and thus requires its installation.
It just so happens that the next version of the Aquarium beyond the next 2 fish will probably require DirectX 8. Jim wants to take advantage of many of the things added in DirectX 7 and 8 to improve the Aquarium and fix a few bugs.
I don't want to jump the gun, but one of the most popular requests on the Forum is for the Aquarium to natively run in 24 bit and 32 bit. And as a fallback from this, for the Aquarium to always switch the hardware to 16-bit, especially on those systems that don't automatically do it themselves. (probably 80% of people's setups out there, most nVidia cards, most 3dfx cards switch automatically)
A few of the other features people are requesting, such as multiple monitor support probably require DirectX 7 or 8.
I hope this has cleared up some things and helped others decide one way or another to switch to DirectX 8 or not. It should be a relatively painless operation provided you have the most updated drivers for your video/3d card and sound card.
