DX10 Thread

[Blak_Phoenix]

Hey guys, now i know about the upcoming DX10 cards, but i wanted to know, what exactly is so much better about them? Also, will DX9 cards be able to play the new games that come out (is everything backward compatable)?

Im assunimg that they will all be PCI-e cards, and that they are not using a new type of slot or anything.

Ive also heard that June/July is the expected date for them to arrive, anyone got any different info or good pages to read up about it all?

Cheers,
Blak_Pheonix_MB.

[LoD]

Re: DX10 Thread

DX10 is a gaming API that will get released with Vista. In the past MS has made DX backwards compatible with older Operating systems, and I do not think that will change.

DX10 will have support for more shaders, additional eye candy and new technology that nvidia and ATI have been developing or will develope in the next 3+ years.

Older cards will be compatible, but will not support the latest shaders and eye candy.. same as how a Radeon 8500 supports BF2 in DX8.1 mode, and x1900 supports DX9 mode. Or with Half life 2 shipping with DirectX 7,8 and 9 modes that cover 90% of the half life userbase.

All the hype are fan boys, early adopters or seriously ill informed people spreading BS on forums and messageboards. When vista launches with DX10 its not as if our games will stop working, or be unsupported in the future.

Also as a side note, there are few AAA titles i am aware of that are DX10 compatible in develop at least openly. The unreal 3 engine will have many DX10 features (but of course be backwards compatible) but its not as if we will be seeing a flood of DX10 games upon launch. It will probably be late 2007-2008 until we see serious DX10 games, and even then... they will have backwards compatibility.

In conclusion waiting for Dx10 is appropriate if you happen to need an upgrade around the end of 2006, otherwise there is no need to panic. DX10 compatible cards may in fact stomp current cards, but that will be due to a new and impoved architecture, more than simply being compatible with a API that no current games use.

This happened with the R9700. Great card, that blew everything away in DX7 and DX8 games, and happened to also have DX9 support. History may repeat, but the ability to use DX10 will have no impact until DX10 games are released many months and possibly years after the API is finalized and ships with vista.

[Xicer]

Re: DX10 Thread

DX9 cards will definatley be able to play newer games, they just won't be able to support all the latest features that DX10 supports.

[Blak_Phoenix]

Re: DX10 Thread

Sweet

And thanks twsmit, thatwas a really good overview. :)

[Jofaba]

Re: DX10 Thread

The most anticipated game that will be based quite heavily on DX10, but will play fine (and look great) on DX9 is Crysis, which is Ubisoft's followup to Far Cry. Considering how well the Crytek engine runs, you can expect that Crysis is really going to be breathtaking. It boasts realtime shadows, interactive foliage, and truely interactive environments that are fully destructable. Sorry, it has a super long wait time, but this is the first link to the video I could find. It might not even be the right video. I just got home from work though and it took linger than a nanosecond to find the right stuff:

http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/gam...hires.wmv.html

Anyway, it's just a new level of gaming. It uses a completely different architech for how it handles graphics and coupled with Vista, it should really a huge jump forward in gaming. It all depends on how much eye candy you want. The first cards will cost over a thousand dollars and wont be worth it. But 6+ months into it, decent DX10 cards will be affordable and I think most people will want one after seeing what it can do in person. Simply playing with Vista computers at Best Buy that have a DX10 card will probably be enough to sell a lot of people.

[LoD]

Re: DX10 Thread

Yeah i forgot about the Farcry sequel, thats the other big game to support DX10.

Just to amend what i said in my post, here is a link that sums up DX10 right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_x

I did some reading off google, and then this wikipedia artcile basically has everything you will need to know. I myself was not 100% up to speed when i made my post... so i just want to clarify.

**********

It looks like the DX10 spec will only be supported on Vista, but that DX10 games will be backwards compatible (because it would be suicide for a game studio to release a 100% DX10 game without a DX9 or even DX8 fall back layers) on XP, or through an emulation layer/backwards compatibility build into Vista if you have Vista and only a DX9 card.

I think basically to sum it up.... if you buy a DX10 card and want to play DX10 games with DX10 eye candy you *need* vista. Otherwise people with DX9 cards, or on Windows XP/2k can just run games in DX9 mode like now.

Realistically it will be 2007-2008 until we even see games with support for Shader 4.0 and DX10, and probably late 2008/2009 until we see games that require Vista and DX10 to play.

Halo2 will be the exception, but thats only because MS will try and market the game as a reason to buy Vista... and frankly i dont give a **** because halo2 is a mediocre console game, and will be crap on the PC platform IMO.

[Death Merchant]

Re: DX10 Thread

so you will need vista to have direct x10?

how much will vista cost? (the basic version)

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: DX10 Thread

so you will need vista to have direct x10?

how much will vista cost? (the basic version)

1. Yes

2. Don't know, probably around 150 for the basic home version.

[Blak_Phoenix]

Re: DX10 Thread

Hrmm.. ok.. so if you want DX10, you need vista, but you can run vista with a DX9 card, you just dont get all the eye candy?

I just read this...

"However, Direct3D 10 will not be backward compatible with current versions of DirectX, so computer games made for Direct3D 10 will not function on any other model of DirectX."

NOOO!!!! damn.. that sucks..

[LoD]

Re: DX10 Thread

Hrmm.. ok.. so if you want DX10, you need vista, but you can run vista with a DX9 card, you just dont get all the eye candy?

I just read this...

"However, Direct3D 10 will not be backward compatible with current versions of DirectX, so computer games made for Direct3D 10 will not function on any other model of DirectX."

NOOO!!!! damn.. that sucks..

Yeah, but only if the game is 100% DX10 only and the game developer does not support DX9. Games like that wont come out for 2 or more years, they simply would not be successful with so few people having DX10 hardware.

Halo2 is the exception since its a Microsoft game and they want to be bastards about the marketing.

[Blak_Phoenix]

Re: DX10 Thread

ok, and the only thing that you will need to upgrade to be able to use the DX10 is a vid card? Like you dont need a new cpu/mobo/etc? (assuming you have PCI-e that is).

[Jofaba]

Re: DX10 Thread

There's no reason to doubt that any decent game coming out in DirectX 9 won't be recoded for DirectX10. It brings the game back into interest after it's been out for a while and it gives the comany a chance to showcase it's engine (which can be licensed out if it's any good), plus it opens up the possability to expansion packs. If a game can be recoded for 64 bit I'm sure they can mesh together a basic DirectX10 upgrade.