1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

News Microsoft confirms DirectX 11.2 is a Windows 8.1, Xbox One exclusive

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 28 Jun 2013.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    4 Dec 2007
    Posts:
    17,066
    Likes Received:
    6,610
  2. Hustler

    Hustler Minimodder

    Joined:
    8 Aug 2005
    Posts:
    1,039
    Likes Received:
    41
    Installed 8.1 (by way of a Virtual machine) and it's a definite improvement, should be worth switching from W7....by the time we get to Windows 9.

    As for DX11.2....lol, the only reason this blackmail came about in the first place was the promise of Halo 2 being a Vista DX10 only game back in 2007, and look how well that worked.
     
  3. Alecto

    Alecto Minimodder

    Joined:
    20 Apr 2012
    Posts:
    134
    Likes Received:
    1
    "Windows 8.1, Xbox One exclusive"

    And not a single **** was given.
     
  4. law99

    law99 Custom User Title

    Joined:
    24 Sep 2009
    Posts:
    2,390
    Likes Received:
    63
    So the real clever trick is the need to upgrade. Was going to anyway... can hardly be too annoyed.

    Will there be hardware compliance above and beyond what is required already?

    Asking the same question differently: Do I have to buy another GFX card?
     
  5. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    4 Dec 2007
    Posts:
    17,066
    Likes Received:
    6,610
    That's not clear yet. My gut says 'no,' because the point of the feature is that it's independent to the graphics card drivers - some Nvidia and AMD cards already have the ability to steal a chunk of system RAM to boost the memory they've got on-board, but this is a separate thing that doesn't need to 'reserve' a chunk of RAM. There's no technological reason that I can think of for it to require new hardware.

    That's only speculation on my part, though - Microsoft has yet to release any technical details about the system, and it's perfectly possible that resource tiling support will be dependent on special DirectX 11.2 graphics card drivers - in which case AMD and Nvidia may end up using the release to flog new graphics cards just as Microsoft is using it to flog Windows 8.1
     
  6. Modsbywoz

    Modsbywoz Multimodder

    Joined:
    14 Oct 2009
    Posts:
    2,778
    Likes Received:
    273
    So, who's up for a 9GB GTX790?
     
    siliconfanatic likes this.
  7. konstantine

    konstantine What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    18 Jan 2009
    Posts:
    51
    Likes Received:
    1
    Microsoft is not doing well when it comes to common sense. Pissing off their long term customers is not a good idea.
    Many of their customers, especially desktop and workstation users, just have had no reason to upgrade to Windows 8, and now they're talking about Windows 8.1, which is basically windows 8 with a start menu that doesn't function the way people are used to..

    I'm not saying Metro is bad, nor am I saying no one needs it. On those small-screen convertible ultrabooks, metro is quite nice, especially if you like to have a tablet like experience. On a big non-touch display, it's awful, and trying to emulate touch gestures on such displays is mind-blowing.

    DX 11.2 sounds like a minor upgrade to the original DX11 API and I'm not convinced this so called Tiling is much of a needed "technology" when we have 4GBs of ram on sub-$200 graphics cards nowadays.
    I don't think it will cost much to add another 4GBs and just call it a day for "Tiling".
     
    Last edited: 28 Jun 2013
  8. Harlequin

    Harlequin Modder

    Joined:
    4 Jun 2004
    Posts:
    7,131
    Likes Received:
    194
    all MS are doing is the Apple model - nice upgrade to DX11 though
     
  9. TheStockBroker

    TheStockBroker Modder

    Joined:
    19 Nov 2009
    Posts:
    1,533
    Likes Received:
    110
    But this is good news for PC gamers... By allowing and promoting the use of this technology; and with the new consoles already being x86 - There's no reason for the delayed, crappy ports of yesteryear.

    We have the same CPU architecture, can now mimic (to some extent) the console shared memory subsystem and have a fair bit more horespower in the PC form to make up for any anomalies...

    We can hope, right?
     
  10. maverik-sg1

    maverik-sg1 Minimodder

    Joined:
    18 Aug 2010
    Posts:
    371
    Likes Received:
    1
    This is not enough reason to get Windows 8, in the same way that DX10 was not enough of a reason to get Vista - 18Months+ before people think this is essential and win9 will be out by then.

    In some ways, this smacks of desperation by Microsoft, at the same time it's adding fuel to the fire of discontent for the anti-Microsoft posse too.

    The history of small, incremental DX patches usually mean 3 parts of Fanny Adams to most of us, if it was not for Microsoft restricting it's access by making exlcusise to xbone and it's newest OS, none of us would notice or even care.
     
  11. konstantine

    konstantine What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    18 Jan 2009
    Posts:
    51
    Likes Received:
    1
    Is windows 8.1 free to upgrade for Windows 7 users?
     
    Last edited: 28 Jun 2013
  12. konstantine

    konstantine What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    18 Jan 2009
    Posts:
    51
    Likes Received:
    1
    Is there a way to edit your post on bit-tech?

    Edit: Thanks mate
     
    Last edited: 28 Jun 2013
  13. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    I agree. We got lumbered with DX9 for YEARS thanks to the PS3 having to go for a non-unified design. Better to start it with the very latest and by the time we all upgrade there might be games that use it. I've not read the specifics yet, but the issue name is a derivative of DX11 so I can imagine it will be compatible with existing DX11 spec.
     
  14. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

    Joined:
    30 Oct 2012
    Posts:
    9,648
    Likes Received:
    388
    I almost shed a tear when there was no mention of OpenGL, 3dfx, and GLQuake when talking about the history of DirectX :waah:
    I can see the sharing of system RAM being a bigger thing when we get Wellsburg but i don't see 11.2 causing people to rush out and buy a copy of 8.1 before that.
     
  15. law99

    law99 Custom User Title

    Joined:
    24 Sep 2009
    Posts:
    2,390
    Likes Received:
    63
    I'm with you on the hunch... but you never know... there could be something else in there that is hardware dependant. Perhaps it won't be required of the GFX card, but a minimum RAM spec... ???

    If you click on forums and go to the top category "Article Discussion" you can view your comments in the forum and do all the proper editing you'd expect from a forum.

    Well at least this time there is unified gfx architecture in place.
     
  16. SAimNE

    SAimNE What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    23 Oct 2012
    Posts:
    122
    Likes Received:
    0
    now here's hoping ps4 uses openGL... one of the few pieces still needed for linux gaming is openGL being more widespread. if all works out i'll never have to buy another microsoft product unless i actually WANT it.
     
  17. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    4 Dec 2007
    Posts:
    17,066
    Likes Received:
    6,610
    The PS4's operating system is Orbis OS, a fork of FreeBSD - so it certainly ain't going to be using DirectX...
     
  18. Florian

    Florian Minimodder

    Joined:
    4 Jun 2004
    Posts:
    137
    Likes Received:
    1
    Storing textures in system memory has been a feature since AGP first game along...
     
  19. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    4 Dec 2007
    Posts:
    17,066
    Likes Received:
    6,610
    This is very distinct: somebody's uploaded a snippet of the talk to YouTube that shows Leblond explaining roughly how the system works - but, for some reason, Microsoft hasn't published a full video of the keynote nor any documentation on the technology for public access. It also has Leblond claiming that the technology is fully compatible with DirectX 11 graphics hardware, which I missed when I was making notes of the presentation - although, again, there's no detail as to whether that relies on a driver update from the vendors or not.

    EDIT: Found a little more information over on MSDN:
    Interestingly, the code sample includes a step that checks to see if the hardware supports tiled resources - meaning, despite Leblond's claims, it will be dependent on driver support from AMD/Nvidia/Intel, and won't be compatible with all DirectX11 cards unless and until those companies decide to make it so.
     
    Last edited: 28 Jun 2013
  20. damien c

    damien c Mad FPS Gamer

    Joined:
    31 Aug 2010
    Posts:
    3,004
    Likes Received:
    255
    Well if the games I play work properly on Windows 8 for me, I would switch to Windows 8.1 but if they don't work properly I will stick to Windows 7.

    I will however wait till 8.1 is officially released before I try it.
     

Share This Page