S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Screenshots Compare DirectX 10 and DirectX 11

For myself, a game can look utterly gorgeous but after 5 minutes my attention is absorbed by the gameplay at which point it can be running DX8 and I wouldn't bat an eye.

I think games have reached the "good enough" point in terms of graphics for the time being.

Holy shit, Shack comments are the new Youtube comments.

DX is just a fucking API. It's a development tool, not a fucking hardware upgrade or something. The steps have always been incremental, yet necessary. You can blame hardware manufacturers for hyping it, but not Microsoft. DirectX 9 was a very noticeable jump because it was the first shader heavy update. Remember, this is when we first really started seeing cool-ass looking water effects and what not. But really, DirectX isn't only about making games look BETTER. It's also about streamlining development and making existing implementations work better and faster.

Second, to all these kiddies bitching about upgrades, I wanna ask what the flying fuck do you expect? You have to upgrade at some point, so it's your own fault if you wait till you have to do it all at once. And if you're on 2-generation-old hardware then it sucks for you. Suck it up, or go buy a fucking console.

The improvements brought to the table by DirectX11 are mostly processing and performance changes. A few still images won't show whats really going on. Post some performance benchmarks.

I'd just like to point out that a STALKER game probably isn't the best to judge DX11 with. Tons of the assets in these screens are recycled from Clear Sky which were recycled from the original - which didn't even have normal maps. You'd be able to spot differences more easily from a more modern game built from the ground up.

Hot damn! Looks like I need to switch back to my PC and get a new $400 video card cuz the difference between whatever my Xbox 360 has and those DX11 shots are night and day. /sarcasm x100 <hugs 360>

Nothing special. When they make the gameplay look like the little intro videos and split videos, then I will be super impressed. Unfortunately we will be waiting till the next console comes out before that happens.

Didn't see anything so good that I'd like to see on the screenshots. Pretty much the same shit.

And yes, I'm on XP but I have DX10 GPU. I'm not going to upgrade to Vista/7, I'm all good with DX9. Actually pretty relieved that the DX10 is Vista+ only (apart from some DX10 only games, like upcoming Alan Wake), I can play with DX9 and kep graphics settings pretty high, I'd probably have to take them down a bit with DX10.

Who cares? 70% of people are still on XP and can't run DX10 or DX11.

Take a page from Valve's how-to-sometimes-not-be-retarded book and build your engine while concentrating on the hardware of the majority for better sales and polish.

I'm assuming the rest of the engine is flawless and the poor engineer is bored out of his wits with nothing to do if they have time to tack on DX11 shit.

OK, everyone in this thread is taking a big shit on this, but I must ask..

a) We all agree that the DX11 shot looks better than the DX10 shot, right? Sure, by only a small amount but still better, yes?

b) With new technology coming out it's better that games take advantage of it than just keep on trucking with the same old stuff, right?

c) Nowhere does it say that DX11 is required, or even that DX10 is required. Why is everyone acting like this is some sort of horrible conspiracy designed to sell video cards?

d) DX11 is moving things forward. Isn't that good? Would you rather that things not move forward? If you don't think this is enough, what would you like to see?

Finally, people aren't understanding something: DirectX 10 or 11 is not about making games look 100x better. It's about improving the development pipeline. It's about making things better and easier to implement. A nice side effect is better graphics, more stuff implementable, etc. But it's never been some sort of magic bullet to make games automatically more awesomer:

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=14877234
http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=16356107

The reason DX10 was Vista exclusive was not some evil conspiracy to sell Vista, it's because it required fundamental operating system changes not possible with XP. That's why no one has ever hacked it back into XP (efforts to do so have failed).

This is different from games like Shadowrun or Halo 2 which had Vista as an artificial requirement but really ran on DX9 - that was indeed an evil conspiracy to sell Vista. Which failed.

I could care less about DX11, I just want Call of Pripyat to not suck like Clear Sky.

No offence but shacknews's screenshot system doesn't help with comparing these shots.
Also - I'd like to see DX9 shots to boot, Crysis in DX9 and DX10 looks essentially identical (except DX9 used to be 10% quicker, I think they finally fixed that now)

i rememeber reading somewhere that the directx upgrades go like this
dx8 was a huge jump
dx9 small
dx10 huge jump
dx11 small

i REALLy noticed a difference going from 9 to 10, but all i see in 11 is small shadow details.
whens 12 supposed to be released? 2011?

maybe dx11 looks noticably better than 10 while in motion, but i doubt it,

Holy shit, this is worth getting a $400 video card. DX11 FTW.

Compute shaders are exciting as far as performance is concerned, but tessellation support is THE SHIT.

Basically what tessellation does is increase the number of polygons in an object. The amount of polygons an object has determines how round it is. Increasing the number of polygons that a face has, say, is very important -- wrinkles will be actual polygons instead of textures painted on a flat surface -- ears and noses will no longer be jagged and pointy -- teeth and eyes will be rounded and smooth. It's the difference between Lara Croft in the latest Tomb Raider and Aki from Final Fantasy, The Spirits Within, wrinkles in her clothing and whatnot. Combined with a good LOD, nearer characters will be super-hi-polygon and realistic looking, while characters that are farther away will have their polygons reduced accordingly.

Both of these advancements are extremely exciting, and I for one can't wait to see what can be done on DX11 hardware and software.

I think a lot of the backlash is because we're in a global recession and people are more money-conscious and don't like the idea of upgrading. Of all the comments I read, the one thing they all have in common is that in essence they all come down to a question of "worth". Is it "worth" it. Well, if you enjoy new technologies, and computers are a love and a hobby and you want to see advancements like "Toy Story" graphics, then it is certainly worth it. If you don't care about graphics or advancements in technology, then why the hell are you still a gamer, anyway? We're in an age where gaming and technology are one and the same; a Siamese twin. The two are inseparable and entwined now, forever. Some of you may resist it but it's not going to just stop or become simpler all of a sudden. Technology is going to keep advancing gaming and immersion and complexity whether you want it to or not, so either get used to it or jump ship and stop buying games and new consoles. But don't come into a gaming website, maintained by people that love games as a hobby and past-time, and insult us because you're too poor or not passionate enough to enjoy the latest technology for what it is.

Furthermore, it also comes down to the fools that bought into marketing hype instead of looking up what Direct 10 and 11 actually are. I'm glad many of you now know that marketing is tricky, and you're now skeptical of new technical jargin, but your gullibility regarding marketing is hardly a reason to be angry at the technology itself, and is downright ignorant.

I see a slight difference. But I cant tell which one is supposed to look better.

11 is starting to look as fucking worthless as 10 is.

Oh boy. Developers seem to be developing a habit out of jumping the gun. Games have just begun to use DX10. Many games are outraged at the thought of having to buy DX10 hardware, while others are beginning to grudgingly accept it. Hell, many games seem to feel downright betrayed at the mention of DX10. Now they want to add features for DX11? No, the game obviously isn't going to force you, but who will actually use this? A couple hundred people?
According to the Steam Hardware survey results, less than 30% of gamers are DX10 equipped.

I don't think it's a conspiracy or some ridiculous crap like that, but DX11 doesn't move forward nearly enough. This isn't evolution. This is a tiny improvement that you have to look hard to see. They should wait until atleast 50% of gamers use DX10 and then roll out DX11 in a few years in the form of an evolutionary step. Every other DX has provided huge upgrades in graphics. If it only benefits developers, then what's the point? DX was made for gaming and gamers are the ones who play the game (we're half the picture.)

My general take on DX11 for PC games. I really want to upgrade my graphics card and operating system, reinstall all the stuff that is perfectly fine right now, make backups of all my personal settings, emails, files etc. just to play a game in DirectX 11 because of marginal differences in tessalation, shaders and nicer shadows. Not to mention incompatability on Vista/W7, new drivers for all devices, issues with older software etc.

I don't see a difference. A little different lightning and a shadow that looked a little different.

Looks like more foreground lighting. Really all I care about is the weapons, armor and customization of it all. Also, lots of good fights. Less Snorks and more Exo guys please.

I for one will be ordering a DX11 capable card ASAP so I can experience slightly softer shadows1!

Definitely better lighting and shadowing, thats for sure. And for all the people bitching about Dx11 not being that better, dont. Its necessary, and some games in dx11 will look much better in comparison to their dx10 versions than other games will to their dx10 versions. With games like crysis, I can make my dx9 version look as good, if not better than other people than have dx10 with a few midifications, so the change isnt a must. In other words, dont kill yourself to upgrade, just do it slowly.

I hope they fix the crappy antialiasing support the last two STALKERS had.

I see the difference. DX11 clearly more realistic.

The 2 DX10 features they had were hawt - volunetric smoke and that realistic rain running down a surface thingy. But no way in hell was I gonna use vista.

direct x 11 aint going to make those low poly models and crappy textures right....

The future of graphics is SHADOWS! Rejoice!

DX11 will bring heretofore unknown shades of brown to a monitor near you!

I really didn't see a big enough difference to give a shit. The shadows look different but good in both. It's like having a salt shaker on your table and saying "the past" *slides the shaker 2 inches to the right* "THE FUCKING FUTAR!"

Maybe it should've been called DX10.2 instead of DX11.

Differences are subtle in the landscapes but the character looks a lot better in DX11. The round filter canister in particular.

It's clear that even now playing Xevius or Gallaga is still a lot of fun despite primitive graphics etc. STALKER's success won't depend on DX11. It'll depend on game play. When you combine good game play with top of the line graphics, well, that's just awesome.

That said I'll happily try the demo of this game on my GTX 260 :)

Good graphics are well and good, but when you're talking about a small change as this (and this is a pretty small change, it's not like switching AA on or off) I think people are focusing too much on trivial changes. If it makes the game run faster/smoother, fine. If not, I don't need it.

I'm shocked at how many people can't even count polygons and tell the differnce between octagon and circle. Look at his gas mask people! Ah, whatever...

The difference in the lighting and shadow quality is clear and noticeable. Much more defined than the difference between DX9 and DX10 which seemed to be mostly trivial aesthetic changes. This is pretty pronounced and much more tangible, by comparison.

Completely unimpressed.

I'll be using my DX10 card for the new Stalker now.

I must be a horrible 3D artist because that looks almost identical.

There's not a huge difference except in some softer shadowing, but I think it'd be noticeable in the game.

uuuh was stalker dx10??

"S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat will support two of the most important features of DirectX 11: 'tessellation' and 'compute shaders.'"

So what happened to tessellation? In the 3rd and 4th screens (the ones with the brick pillars), the twisted piece of metal sticking out of the ground to the left is clearly supposed to be round, but in BOTH shots has 5 flat sides!!! I thought tessellation was supposed to put an end to flat-sides round objects!?

To be fair to the DirectX11 guys, this is not a 'magic' feature and must be coded for by the developers. The guys writing this game don't seem to care about it too much, even though they clain they do in their quote.

It is sloppy support of the new features that will give DirectX11 a bad name, not DirectX11 itself.