There is managed DirectX 1.1 and for a while a beta of 2.0, but it was never officially released. It became XNA which is now at version 2.0 and finally allows you to use all the VS 2005 SKUs, not just C# Express Edition . I only briefly looked at XNA. The main problem for me is that to use all it's goodness, you have to use c#. I understand Dom is doing some stuff with XNA to make it work with Chrome of which I will be keeping an eye on. SlimDX was created to fill that gap left by MDX 2.0. For me though I would most likely try and keep things tight and simple and pack everything in the one interop DLL

I now have pricing information for Pyrogine2D on the website. I set things up so after purchase I will then upgrade your account and you will have access to the registered developer files. There you can download the latest source snapshots and builds at your convenience.