Stardock CEO, Brad Wardell, stated to Gamasutra that Windows users should make the switch to Windows 7 "as quickly as possible." The switch isn't due to the operating system's use of DirectX 10 and DirectX 11, it has more to do with the performance boost gamers will notice over performance in Vista.
Fellow users of Windows 7, what is your take on gaming performance in Windows 7 thus far? Share your opinion with us here in the comments!
In particular, he pointed to a feature called WARP -- Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform -- that will allow a system's CPU to perform DirectX acceleration when a video card doesn't support certain rendering features, or if a discrete card isn't included in the PC at all.
That ties into one of Stardock's fundamental principles: "We want the game to look incredible on high-end systems, but I want people to be able to play this on their three-year-old laptop on the airplane," Wardell said.
"One of the things that comes up often is, 'How has Stardock made so much money on these niche games?' Well, because our games run on millions of boxes."
And so, despite the enthusiasm for Windows 7, Stardock isn't rushing to start requiring users to support Direct X 10 or 11.
"We've taken the view that we're pretty much sticking with DirectX 9 until Windows Vista hits critical mass," Wardell explained.
"The developer can still build the same features into their game, and that's what we've been doing with our engine. You don't need DirectX 10 or 11 to do that lighting; [with them] you just don't have to write the code to actually make use of those features."
That ties into one of Stardock's fundamental principles: "We want the game to look incredible on high-end systems, but I want people to be able to play this on their three-year-old laptop on the airplane," Wardell said.
"One of the things that comes up often is, 'How has Stardock made so much money on these niche games?' Well, because our games run on millions of boxes."
And so, despite the enthusiasm for Windows 7, Stardock isn't rushing to start requiring users to support Direct X 10 or 11.
"We've taken the view that we're pretty much sticking with DirectX 9 until Windows Vista hits critical mass," Wardell explained.
"The developer can still build the same features into their game, and that's what we've been doing with our engine. You don't need DirectX 10 or 11 to do that lighting; [with them] you just don't have to write the code to actually make use of those features."
Fellow users of Windows 7, what is your take on gaming performance in Windows 7 thus far? Share your opinion with us here in the comments!
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