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DirectX 11 Details Emerge, Adds New Features to DX10 Hardware
by Aaron Linde, Jul 22, 2008 12:03pm PDTSoftware giant Microsoft today revealed details concerning DirectX 11, the latest edition of its PC gaming graphics API.
Similar to DirectX 10, the software will be available only on Windows Vista and future versions of Microsoft's operating system. DirectX 11 will add new compute shader technology that Microsoft says will allow GPUs to be used "for more than just 3D graphics," allowing developers to utilize video cards as parallel processors.
DirectX 11 will support tessellation, a feature which can potentially assist developers in making models appear smoother when seen up close. Multi-threaded resource handling is also incorporated, making it easier for games to utilize multi-core processors in a user's machine.
Microsoft also disclosed that DirectX 11 will add features to existing DirectX 10-compatible hardware, though it was not immediately clear what those features may be.
A launch date for the new software was not provided, though Microsoft is expected to release more information in the near future. The bullet points, as provided by Microsoft, are listed below.
- Full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows
- Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
- New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
- Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines
- Support for tessellation, which blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close
Comments
I'm glad Microsoft pushes DirectX as much as they do, but I really disagree with their business model here. I understand their job as a software developer is to make new money by releasing new products, but it's a pretty hard sell to make me believe that DX10 and 11 can't work with XP.
I have Vista on a laptop so it's not such a big deal to me personally. It still just ... bothers me.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 16 replies.
Shadowrun couldn't run in XP because Vista was oh so necessary. A simple crack and it ran in XP without problems.
Halo 2 couldn't run in XP because it was so dependent on the kernel that Vista was indispensable. Again, bullshit. A couple of libraries, a couple of changes and presto!. Halo 2 in XP. And running way better than in Vista, I might add.
I have no problem with Microsoft pushing DX. I DO have a problem with them trying to push us has towards the POS Vista while doing it. And I hope in the end it blows in their face.
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