Direct3D WARP10: The backwards-compatible solution for DX10-only apps

[svnO.o]

What's funny is jjrambo uses Vista (see his sig) when he talks all this crap about MS.

[George P Global Moderator]

Why are people still posting in here about this having anything to do with Aero? I think that's even more funny. Even when it's been posted a few times in here already as to what role this bit of code is meant for.

Yet again, lots of people can't see the big picture.

[HawkMan]

Because if it's not about Aero, that jjrambo's argument doesn't exist, so he has to cling to that and claim that's all it's about, even if it's not about that at all :p

it's that or admit he was wrong....

[Denis W. Veteran]

Apparently you have no clue what i'm talking about, cause you're either stupid or ignorant. When you send email through outlook 2007 it gets sent in HTML format. HTML format MS creates has 1400+ let's' say lines of crap and same email in correct HTML format shouldn't have more then 60+ lines. If you still don't understand, go do something else for living...IT is not for you.

Here is the crap MS generates for simple text in color.

<a giant load of text>

Reason? It's so you can open up the HTML document in Word and still be able to preserve all its formatting.

[Athernar]

I think the real question that should be asked is...

What the hell does alleged over-generation of markup in an email application for Office have to do with a software-based D3D API that was coded by an entirely different team and group of Microsoft?

Oh wait, it has absolutely nothing to do with it. :rolleyes:

[Windows7even]

This is to fix their vista + aero lawsuit problems.

This is a lazy way to get around their problems.

Anybody who has a laptop with a 915 chipset in it that was sold as vista capable will now what I am talking about.

If you have a laptop with 915 chipset you cant run aero. Also on vista without aero you cant run programs liek Movie maker. On the same laptop with xp you can pretty decently also.

This is being done because they are too lazy to reprogram all their stuff right so they came up with some convoluted way to get around the problem.

So basically this will make aero and windows 7 have all its features running on any laptop.

this answer sounds the most reasonable...being as this feature is so no that we basically know nothing about it doesn't really help this argument..

[George P Global Moderator]

this answer sounds the most reasonable...being as this feature is so no that we basically know nothing about it doesn't really help this argument..

WARP isn't exactly new for D3D, They've always had a software version for devs to work with till the hardware was ready. This one is just for DX10 and a bit more advanced/performs better.

I guess people won't drop it until MS says it themselves but WARP10 is a software base for developers to code apps for.

Just like how it was for games before (software mode) until OpenGL and DirectX hardware got to be the norm. MS is using this "software mode" to make sure that when devs code their apps with D3D (note, apps not just games here), they don't have to worry about people having a DX10 GPU or not. It's that simple people. Oh, and before we all forget Aero runs on a updated version of DX9, 9.0L or was it 9.0C? It's not even DX10 iirc.

[PGHammer]

The most useless feature. What's next? It seems that Microsoft doesn't come up with anything useful and smart.

I want to see an idiot who is going to run Crysis using this and having 5 FPS.

Microsoft -> :cry:

There's a reason for this, and it has nothing to do with the AAA-list games.

What WARP means is there is now a single level of capability for every system that runs Windows 7 graphically-speaking (no having to write multiple versions of an application merely because some hardware is only capable of DX9c if you're targeting Windows 7; write one version and be done with it).

Desktops, notebooks, netbooks, laptops, what-have-you.

The biggest gainers? It's not the big devs (like EA or Activision Blizzard), but the casual-gaming devs, and especially PopCap Games (who does nothing BUT casual games); with WARP, they can actually hit the ground running with a truckload of fully DX10-ready casual games ready when Windows 7 launches.

I first saw this sort of floor-level capability with Windows 2000 Professional (the first NT-based OS to support DirectX); what a lot of folks have apparently forgotten is that Windows 2000 Pro provided a floor level of DirectX capability for even the wimpiest of hardware (especially integrated graphics and integrated audio). One game I used to show exactly how capable Windows 2000 Pro was at gaming was the original Unreal Tournament, running on a Celeron 533 with S3 graphics and onboard Realtek-based sound. It basically ran smoother, and, to a large extent *faster*, on 2000 Pro than on the same hardware running either ME or 98 SE.

It's not new technology (as I just pointed out, it's an improvement of existing technology that's been in NT for the past eight years).

Once again, it's not always big things that make a great operating system.

WARP's darn near as little as it gets (and most Neowinians that will run 7 at launch won't care).

However, does anyone (in the thread) remember the big brouhaha over DX10 being Vista-only?

[PGHammer]

WARP isn't exactly new for D3D, They've always had a software version for devs to work with till the hardware was ready. This one is just for DX10 and a bit more advanced/performs better.

I guess people won't drop it until MS says it themselves but WARP10 is a software base for developers to code apps for.

Just like how it was for games before (software mode) until OpenGL and DirectX hardware got to be the norm. MS is using this "software mode" to make sure that when devs code their apps with D3D (note, apps not just games here), they don't have to worry about people having a DX10 GPU or not. It's that simple people. Oh, and before we all forget Aero runs on a updated version of DX9, 9.0L or was it 9.0C? It's not even DX10 iirc.

Aero requires no more than DX9c (which itself requires no more than AMD R3xx, nVidia GeForceFX, or Intel x3100).

[SierraSonic]

I wonder if its possible for graphics drivers to take advantage of this, in a way like crossfire or sli or something, and include a performance boost across the board?

[jjrambo]

Why not use OpenGL?

[PGHammer]

Why not use OpenGL?

How many developers use OpenGL today?

If anything, since the advent of the last two generations of consoles, use of OpenGL in game development has fallen (all games, not just PC-targeted games).

OpenGL remains an option (again, as it has been since Windows 2000 Professional); however, DirectX is, by far, the most used game-development platform.