Bits DirectX 11: A look at what's coming

Because, from a development perspective, you can't write one application that is accelerated by both without an API (or double the effort) right now and for the foreseeable future. Writing general-purpose applications for both AMD and Nvidia hardware doubles your potential installed base (assuming each has 50 percent market share in discrete graphics). Developers (and publishers) really care about installed bases because the bigger the target installed base, the bigger the chance they have of making lots of money.

 

You have to take a good look at the GPU market and get a good feel for what card will last a decent amount of time. I.e. the 8800GTX had long legs, and is still a good card. The break now is the Radeon HD 4870X2. I know people will jump and say "but dooood thats sooo expensive". The reality is that card will be fine for the next 1.5 years, or you can buy 3 inferior cards every 6 months and not get to play at the level you would with the 4870x2.

Good luck....

Waiting for Crysis Warhead!!!!

Yours in Psycho Plasma,
Star*Dagger

 

I need better looking smoke clouds, beams of sunlight and better looking waves

 

IMO, no game has made the impressive jump in graphics quality since Half-Life 2 came out.. If DX11 can change that, and make a huge leap that makes me actually notice a huge change, then bravo.

Are people actually wondering why MICROSOFT is pushing the XBOX into PC games?...

 

personally i think Tim Sweeney is right, eventually we will end up back at software renderers running on gpu's without an API
i just dont think its going to happen for a good while yet

lol have you actually played hl2 again recently? not ep1 or 2, but vanilla hl2?
try playing a bit of vanilla hl2, then play hl2:ep2, then play crysis
theres your impressive jump(s)

 

Holy Horned God!!!

@docodine

If Crysis on high settings it not a significant enough of a jump for you, Id strongly suggest YOU go into the business and start writing engines, because I would like to see what YOU call a leap forward.

Yours in looking forward to the DocodineTek2 Engine Plasma,
Star*Dagger

 

I will jump from windowsXP to Windows7 and from DirectX9 to directX11 , think are changing so fast , I Dont have time to experiment with every software and every driver

 

Mmf...

Crysis on high settings looks great, but the difference between it and HL2 is not as great as the difference between HL2, and say, Morrowind.

I dunno, I might just be a bit jaded.

 

Loved the article, and I now understand why we see so few dx10 games out there. With the release of Windows 7 and the death of XP, dx10+ games should be more prominent as the design & program teams wont have to create 2 different systems to run the same game. If I understand this dx11 is based on 10, where 10 was a similar to the transition from DOS to Windows. The only thing I'm curious about is the ability to upgrade the design, etc of a dx9 to a dx10 system. Would such a thing even be possible or are we looking at Dx9 MMO's like WoW, EQx, etc.. facing extinction because it would be too difficult to transition the game (aside from the obvious they just make a new game and tack on a number)? I bring these up because unlike most non-online gaming, generally has a limited lifespan, where MMO's can last a decade or more, Ultima Online for example., and need the longevity to show profitability.