Beyond Microsoft DirectX® 9.0c

[Big.Wayne]

Hello,

I'm interested to know what the key selling points of Microsoft DirectX® 10/11 are please? . . .

I'm currently using Windows XP 32-bit & Microsoft DirectX® 9.0c so am interested to know of any good reasons from a gaming perspective that can "Justify" spending £80-£100 on a new O/S?

Thanks in advance for feedback!

 

[Big.Wayne]

New DirectX revisions are not be the selling point of Win 7

Thanks uv . . . I'm aware of what other "selling points" the newer O/S offers although none of this "icing" works for me personally so wanted to concentrate specifically on DirectX® as a few people had told me one can't enjoy computer games if one doesn't use later versions . . .

Very little atm really... the vast majority of DX10/11 games either use it for slightly smoother shadows (not really noticeable outside of screenshots), tessellation, or 7-8% performance gains. Theres only a very small number of games using extensive DX10/11 features and most of them are naff (IMO)

Hmmm . . . considering your a game coder that's a pretty big thumbs down for DirectX®10/11 at this time . . . Having looked at how much extra vRam some games use when running under the newer DirectX® I got the impression they did something better? . . . why else would it eat more vRam if it didn't improve things in some way?

It does have a lot of potential benefits tho

Potential benefits are nice to know about . . . don't see anything really compelling today though?

I would say the main benefits to gaming in windows 7 is just how stable the operating system is

Never had that problem myself? . . . Games have always run fine for me under DirectX® 9.0c . . .

Dx10 gains you very little from dx9 but i think dx11 if used propely will take games forward from dx9.

Good to know . . .

But windows 7 as a whole is a great upgrade from xp.

Thanks HAz . . . as I said to uv I'm aware of the other bits n bobs but its no benefit for me at this time . . . really wanted to examine exactly what the new DirectX® versions offered and how it makes games better etc

 

[Big.Wayne]

Thanks jorzeh . . . sadly this doesn't address the topic!

Rroff has concentrated on the topic quite well and given me some decent info . . .

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hello Freddie1980

To put it simply games do look better when run in DirectX 11 end of

What do you mean "end of"? . . . that's not really a two way discussion is it!

if you want you're games to look their best then upgrade to Windows 7

Why though? . . . can you be more specific? . . . as well as how they look do they run just as smooth etc?

to appreciate DX11 you have go back to DX9 to truly see what your missing out on

Really? . . . . have you got any examples? . . . you make it sound like the difference is amazing and huge? . . .

Dirt 2, AvP and STALKER CoP all look fantastic I could never dream of going back to playing games at DX9

But why? . . . what is it exactly you talking about?

There's also the old war houre Crysis which granted is DX10 but when all the settings are maxed out the game still looks fantastic and you can't replacate that on XP which is limited to DX9.

Is that true? . . . didn't some people find out a simple edit that allowed a user to enable the features that were meant to be DirectX® 10 only? . . . I think they did?

 

[Big.Wayne]

There are very few games out atm tho that are either worthwhile playing that need DX11 or are worthwhile in terms of DX10/11 features over the DX9 version of the game.

Can you chuck us some technology terms please so I can go off and do some more research? . . . you mentioned something called tessellation? . . . is there any other buzzwords I should know about?

Also, what whould you say is the main reason someone would buy a DirectX® 11 GPU at this time? . . . is it to run DirectX® 9.0/10 titles faster or is there something out now that requires a new bit of hardware?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hello arc@css

I would say Windows 7 is a nice step-up since it is tailored better for the user, resulting in more user friendly software

Sorry If I didn't make this abundantly clear but I beta tested Windows 7 for a year and am aware of 99% of what it offers . . . I didn't get to test out all the DirectX® stuff though as I was using a nVidia 8800GT at the time . . . I couldn't see any difference between DirectX® 9.0c and DirectX® 10.0 . . .

I'm just trying to dig down into the DirectX® side of things and check out the facts . . . I do agree with what uv said though about not apportioning all of the Windows 7 asking price soley on its "improved" DirectX® tech but still it is probably one of several main selling points so its good to examine . . .

Yes, some games look better in dx10 but in others there isn't a 'big' difference, though all in all I wouldn't want to 'go back' and lose dx10 since I can see the benefits in some of games I've played

What are these games please? . . . I'll have a nose and see what I can see . . .

I read that the benefit for dx11 is not yet greatly apparent, unsurprisingly since it's early days. I personally can't comment on this since my video card doesn't support it.

It's a buzz word isn't is? . . . DirectX® 11 oohhhhh

 

[Big.Wayne]

• Tessellation
• Contact hardening shadows
• advanced forms of Ambient Occlusion with much less of a performance hit compared to DX9/10.
• compute shaders - which can be used to accelerate effects that aren't supported in hardware and would normally have to be done slowly on the CPU
• There quite a lot you can do with geometry shaders/displacement mapping, etc. that isn't really possible with decent performance under DX9.

Cheers Rroff, thats a good bit of info!

For me tho buying a DX11 GPU has mostly been because they offer a good level of value for money for the performance

Yeah although the "value for money" is not strictly to do with DirectX® 11 . . . unless of course you are meaning in terms of a technological investment which it sounds like you are . .

while having some degree of future proofing potential.

Can't be argued really . . . I certainly have no insights into what the future brings . . . there could be some games in 6-12 months that really benefit from a specific piece of DirectX® 11 hardware . . . personally I would be of the mind of crossing that bridge when I come to it! . . .

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hey 'Wes

You get a performance boost and the fact the current cards can handle things like shaders a lot more effectively

That's interesting! . . . I've not heard that games can actually run faster using a more modern DirectX® version? . . . intuitively I would have thought the opposite to be true . . . although going by what Rroff has said when combining a more modern card with improved feature set alongside a more modern DirectX® version I suppose its possible? . . .

also the fact the cards require less power to run becomes a factor as well for some people.

Yeah, again I would say thats not strictly to do with DirectX® 10/11 and just more to do with updated design/manufacturing technology . . . unless there is some part of the newer DirectX® 10/11 API that is responsible for power saving functions?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Rroff, is there something in DirectX® 10/11 hardware technology that when combined with an updated O/S would improve the quality/framerate of a DirectX® 9.0c title? (or a title played using the older API?) . . .

i.e is there something about the newer stuff that handles the older stuff more efficiently?