DX11 revealed - fully compatible with DX10 hardware!

By Kushan
in PC Gaming

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

Kushan

Posted
Posted
GAMEFEST 08: New version adds compute shaders for GPGPU; completely compatible with DirectX 10 hardware

Microsoft has revealed the first details on the latest version of its DirectX SDK at the Gamefest event in Seattle.

Chief new features in version 11 are the new Compute Shader technology, which allows GPUs to be used for general purpose computing; support for tesselation, allowing models to be refined and smoother up-close; and multi-threaded resource handling to help games utilise multi-processor set-ups more effectively.

Rather than require new hardware as DirectX 10 did, DirectX 11 will be completely compatible with DirectX 10 and 10.1 cards - but will, like its predecessor, only support Windows Vista.

Source: http://www.developmag.com/news/30218/Micro...eils-DirectX-11

Not entirely clear if it means it'll be software compatible (I.e. if you install DX11, it wont break anything, but you wont get the features of it - like previous versions of DX), or if it's actually fully compatible with current DX10 hardware.

If it's the latter, I'll be a very happy bunny =D

Grand Master

Ricardo Gil

Posted
Posted
erm, hasn't every previous iteration of DX been compatible with older hardware? the real question is, like previous iterations, will dx11 feature only be available to dx11 cards?

Read the bold part. They only upgraded features software wise, no new hardware revision is needed.

Grand Master

The_Decryptor Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

They probably mean it'll work with current hardware.

Tessellation and GPGPU (think of Stream for ATI and Cuda for Nvidia, among other tools) are already possible on current hardware, and the multi-threading is in software.

Edit: And of course it'll require Vista, did people think it wouldn't?

Grand Master

Robbie Khan Reviews

Posted
  • Reviews
Posted

This looks more like DX11 working on DX10 cards to add new features like GPGPU processing, physics, tessellation etc and more optimisations - not a bad thing at all. Also It is said DX11 is much more developer friendly.

Grand Master

Robbie Khan Reviews

Posted
  • Reviews
Posted
Sorry to be a spoil sport but is anyone else starting to think DX11 is just a rebranding of DX10 to try and make it successful?

No because it's not the same API otherwise it would not have had the new features and optimisations...

.. more bad news for nVidia then as the current cards are not DX10 compliant this could mean no compliance with DX11 either..

Who told you this? this is completely wrong.... and you didn't read either because the nv cards are DX10 but not DX10.1 and DX11 works on both DX10 and 10.1 cards.

Grand Master

EduardValencia

Posted
Posted
Is it me or it look like they are working on this way just because Dx10 failed?

Nahhh,where did you get that idea,DX 11 is the result of the constant evolution Microsoft is giving to their products,the idea is to stay way ahead the competition.

Grand Master

ObiWanToby

Posted
Posted
Nahhh,where did you get that idea,DX 11 is the result of the constant evolution Microsoft is giving to their products,the idea is to stay way ahead the competition.

DX10 failed because Vista "failed".

I would say neither is true.

Veteran

Leddy

Posted
Posted
Nahhh,where did you get that idea,DX 11 is the result of the constant evolution Microsoft is giving to their products,the idea is to stay way ahead the competition.

What competition? OpenGL? I think most games use DirectX these days, haven't played a game in OpenGL mode for... at least 8 years or so

DX10 failed because Vista "failed".

I would say neither is true.

Hardware features usually take a while to absorb by the development industry. The typical development cycle for a game is longer than the time between Vista's release and now, which means that DX10 would've been an afterthought for the developers as they wouldn't have had a finalised SDK to play with.

Veteran

+Chsoriano Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted
My DXDiag show DX10 . .

I hope mine does too, I mean it should. My laptop does not, but it has an old Radeon 9600 which only supported DX9 so I'm assuming that's why. But I haven't checked the dxdiag for my new desktop so it better show DX 10.1 there when I check.

Grand Master

NienorGT

Posted
Posted
What competition? OpenGL? I think most games use DirectX these days, haven't played a game in OpenGL mode for... at least 8 years or so
You never played any Doom3 based games? (Prey, ET: Quake Wars, Quake 4)

Sure OpenGL isn't popular on Windows, but I'm sure you played a OpenGL game in that 8 year lol...

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.