If you play PC games, you have probably heard about something called DirectX. Upon completing installation of most new games, a dialogue box usually pops up that asks players if they’d like to upgrade to the latest version of DirectX. What this box doesn’t tell you is what DirectX is, why you need it, and what perks (if any) the latest version might offer.

In simple terms, DirectX is the means by which many multimedia applications (including video games) interact with Microsoft Windows operating systems. In more technical terms, it’s a set of low-level application programming interfaces—commonly called APIs—designed by Microsoft to facilitate activities related to the rendering of multimedia elements. The most well known of these APIs is Direct3D, which undertakes the formidable challenge of handling tasks related to the complex three-dimensional graphics found in modern games.

According to Microsoft’s Phil Taylor, program manager for the software giant’s in-house Aces game development studio, prior to DirectX developers “wrote directly to the metal,” tech jargon for developing software for specific pieces of hardware. “DirectX represented a major improvement because it presented a standardized interface for programmers,” he said.

It also meant that gamers would be able to install new components—such as video cards and sound cards—on their Windows computers secure in the knowledge that their games would still work under the new hardware configuration.

DirectX has become one of the major hubs around which the game industry revolves. NVIDIA public relations manager Ken Burns calls each major DirectX release a milestone for the industry. “It dictates what features will need to be supported in the graphics hardware, so that game developers can be assured that their newest features will be supported in the hardware,” he explained. “The vast majority of games are built using DirectX and every graphics processing unit has to support it.”

But DirectX is not alone. OpenGL, an API created by Silicon Graphics in 1992, was available four years before the first version of DirectX. OpenGL’s newest iterations still work on Windows PCs, but its popularity on Microsoft platforms has withered over time. It’s found a more receptive home on Macintosh computers and in the PlayStation3, leaving DirectX as the effective standard for the Windows PC gaming industry.

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