AgateMDX.dll contains a complete set of drivers, video, audio and input using Managed DirectX. Obviously, this is a Windows specific implementation. All drawing calls are done through Direct3D, so hardware acceleration is available for rotations, coloring, alpha blending and lighting. Performance with this driver is quite good, especially compared to AgateDrawing.dll.

Audio support is provided through Managed DirectSound and the DirectX.AudioVideoPlayback class. These to not provide very fine-grained control over how sounds play, so the AgateFMOD.dll driver is preferred.

Managed DirectInput provides Joystick support. There is currently no support for force feedback, either through the driver or the AgateLib interface, mainly because I do not have a force feedback joystick to test it with.

AgateMDX requires an up-to-date installation of DirectX on whatever target machines an Agate application is being run on, as well as an installation of the appropriate Managed DirectX assemblies. These are not included with a typical DirectX install that most end-users would have performed when they installed their video drivers. An installation for the DirectX runtime files is included in the Agate download. So, if you use AgateMDX.dll then you will require an extra installation step for most anyone who uses your program.

AgateMDX may perform slightly better than AgateOTK.dll as it's more mature. In what tests I have done, I have not seen a significant difference in performance between the two except under specific circumstances.