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DirectX 10(.1)


Timotheus

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A little discussion!

 

DirectX 10

For the list of games that (will) support DirectX 10, see List of games with DirectX 10 support.

Windows Vista ships with DirectX 10 and is the only version of Windows for which it is offered, and it has a large number of changes: DirectInput will be deprecated in favor of XInput, from the Xbox team. Likewise, DirectSound will also be deprecated in favor of XACT. DirectX 10 has also dropped support for hardware accelerated audio, opting instead to render sound in software on the CPU.

 

In order to achieve backwards compatibility with previous versions of Direct3D, DirectX 10 contains three versions of Direct3D:[1]

 

Direct3D 9: emulates Direct3D 9 behavior as it was on Windows XP. Details and advantages of Vista's Windows Display Driver Model are hidden from the application if WDDM drivers are installed. This is the only API available if there are only XP graphic drivers (XPDM) installed, after an upgrade to Vista for example.

Direct3D 9Ex (known internally during Windows Vista development as 9.0L or 9.L, the L referring to Longhorn, the codename for Windows Vista): allows full access to the new capabilities of WDDM (if WDDM drivers are installed) while maintaining compatibility for existing Direct3D applications. The Windows Aero user interface relies on D3D 9Ex.

Direct3D 10: Designed around the new driver model in Windows Vista and featuring a number of improvements to rendering capabilities and flexibility, including Shader Model 4.

 

DirectX 10.1

DirectX 10.1 is an incremental update to DirectX 10.0 which will be shipped with, and require, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 in January 2008.[2] DirectX 10.1 will be backwards compatible with DirectX 10.0 hardware, but the new features will not be available until 10.1 compliant hardware is released. The release mainly sets a few more image quality standards for graphics vendors, while giving developers more control over image quality.[3] Features scheduled for DirectX 10.1 include:

 

Mandatory 32-bit floating point filtering

Mandatory 4x anti-aliasing

Shader model 4.1

 

What are your feelings and thoughts regarding Dx10 at the present time, and are you (or are you not) considering an upgrade to Vista and a new graphics card because of it, and explain why.

 

I personally see it as a feature and definetly not a must have. Sure everything looks pretty and all, but graphics isn't everything a game has to offer. I'm seeing the prices of quality Dx10 cards now, and am re-thinking my upgrade plans. Sure I can buy a new 8800 or 2900 card, but it's going to cost me a lot of money and still, performance in dx10 at the present is decent at best. However, some of the cards really are killers in dx9. But they're supposed to do Dx10, and with 10.1 coming up, I'm still thinking whether an upgrade at this time is worth the money when technology and software development is going this fast at the moment.

 

Anyone care to join in? :hugs:

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  • 5 weeks later...

If you're "happy" (ie blissfully ignorant, etc) to upgrade to vista, then you should get DX10. If you don't want to defile your machine with Vista, then you could get a (relatively) cheap DX10 card (you don't have to go for this, you could go for something like this instead if you want a really cheap DX10 card. I've got a 320Meg 8800GT, which is kinda in the middle, though I think it's been replaced with the 256Meg & 512Meg versions).

Personally I wouldn't touch Vista with a barge pole for a while yet.

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Or maybe we might simply install DirectX 10 on our Xps. :dance:

 

I did a bit of digging and discovered that DirectX 10 alpha has been released to the public for use on "non-Vista" systems. Very nice! Among the many results I found this one very interesting. TechMixer. The two image samples on that page are pretty impressive in showing the difference in rendering of DX9 and DX10.... *some time later...*

And now I've read a couple pages saying that DX10 on XP is just a rumor, sheesh! I guess... *after more searching in google...*

 

Ok, I give up. lol. Alright. Here's the Alky Project. A project aimed at bringing DX10 features to "non-Vista" systems.

 

And here's a link to a topic about hacking the game Crysis so that DX10 features "appear" to work on an XP system. Crysis high graphics

 

It's looking like there is a HUGE push to get DX10 on XP and by the looks of things... I don't know. What I really do know is that I will fend off Vista to the death, haha.

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I personally wouldn't touch Vista with a ten foot pole ever. As for Dx10 I am happy with Dx9 there won't be that much of a difference in the quality of graphics this soon. I would wait and see if it came to non-Vista systems and hold off until then.

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IMO, if those features they unlocked in Crysis (the pics I've seen from the demo) are all you get in DX10, I'm not impressed as it runs on dx9 mode as well. So there's no need for dx10(.1), whether it will come to XP or not.

Whether you should get a dx10 card, however, is a totally different question. 1950PRO cards still perform decent in dx9, but if you have some more money, you shouldn't do anything else but purchase either a 3850 256MB or a 8800GT when they get out. Their performance in dx9 is worth your money, and they can do dx10 at medium settings with a bit fiddling maybe.

 

And llama8, you have a 8800GTS 320MB :dance: the 8800GT (256MB and 512MB) will fair better than yours, even better as it's 640MB cousin. The 8800GTS series will be replaced by a 512 MB 8800GTS which will have more shaders enabled, thus increasing it's power. It then should be marginally stronger than a 8800GT 512 if the messages are correct. But with that being said, I still envy thee! :cha (18):

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  • 2 weeks later...
And llama8, you have a 8800GTS 320MB :lol: the 8800GT (256MB and 512MB) will fair better than yours, even better as it's 640MB cousin. The 8800GTS series will be replaced by a 512 MB 8800GTS which will have more shaders enabled, thus increasing it's power. It then should be marginally stronger than a 8800GT 512 if the messages are correct. But with that being said, I still envy thee! :P

 

*checks*

 

Yup, it's a GTS...

And the irony is that I don't play those games that would give it a good run for it's money...

:P

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  • 1 month later...

Hehe the difference between directx 9 and 10 is pretty noticable in this picture, I wish that the alky project would get finished soon!

:devil:

~Doom

 

EDIT: Awwwwwwwww man alky failed..... theres an alpha version... but... oh well lets hope that MicroSoft releases DX10 with XP SP3

Edited by TimOfDoom
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