Some games are timeless; we have been playing them since high school when one might be in university or working full-time. They have a rich legacy, creating thousands of pleasant memories. The game exists at one point in time, but hardware and software have advanced tenfold in the same period, so there are bound to be compatibility issues, such as errors regarding d3dx9_43.dll missing.
It is natural for any software to break and exhibit errors occasionally. As the motif goes, “nothing is perfect”, the same holds for software. No software is perfect; bugs and errors pop up from time to time, and things break down. From the Apples and Googles of the world to the independent developer working late nights in his room, bugs and issues in any computer software genre are inevitable.
Popular Video games such as Counter-Strike and League of Legends have existed for almost 10 and 12 years, respectively, resulting from which they have accumulated a lot of technical debt. Technical debt refers to the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easier and limited option over a more thorough approach that would last longer.
As a result of being launched so long ago, they were initially developed for different hardware and software standards. Henceforth, they have prerequisites and dependencies that predate modern versions of Windows. If one has played these games for an extended period, you have likely run into some unwelcome error, such as d3dx9_43.dll missing or some other variant of it.
The current version of Microsoft Windows is Windows 10, which by default does not have support for DirectX9 or 9.0c, resulting in files that are critical to the proper functioning of the game like d3dx9_43.dll missing.
As mentioned above, the object is a core Dynamic Linked Library (DLL) of the DirectX 9.0 API for rendering visual graphics and conducting other similar functions. However, as complicated as it seems at first glance, don’t fret; the solution is simple and requires no advanced computer knowledge.
You can easily search the internet for the requisite DLL file you are looking for and find it on a relevant website. After obtaining the file, it just drags and drops it into the correct place. Now, the next step would differ depending on your type of Microsoft Windows. It can either be a 32-bit version or the 64-bit version.
The initial path would be similar for both versions, that is, “C:/Windows”; the sub-directory from hereon will differ, a version of 32-bit Windows and applications would ideally utilize the dependencies under “System32”, and similarly, a 64-bit Windows version and any relevant applications would use the dependencies under “SysWow64” to execute their code and run the software.
However, DirectX dependencies are also directly used by the concerned application, so another copy likely needs to be pasted into the application’s folder. This may be your default directory for League of Legends at “(your drive):/Program Files/<game name>”. For games installed via storefronts like Steam, as Counter-Strike does, the directory may differ to something like “(your drive):/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/<game name>”.
Now that you know how to redress this common issue, get back to your game and grind to be the best!
