DirectX 10: feedback

DirectX 10: feedback

DirectX is a programming interface (API) between the game code and the graphics card driver. It exists to enforce uniformity between different manufacturers so that everyone gets a more consistent experience and manufacturers and game developers can design for a solid set of specs. As new hardware features and techniques are devised, they are then incorporated into DirectX.

Up until DirectX 10, it has been backward compatible with previous versions. DirectX 10 is not backwards compatible with DX9 and earlier versions so Vista includes both DX9 and DX10 to maintain game compatibility. But in order to take advantage of the gains provided by a newer version of DirectX, both the game and graphics card must be developed with that version in mind. The Nvidia 8xxx and ATI HD series are the first DirectX 10 chips on the market, and the first games are making their way out now. The question is... is DirectX 10 worth it, and does it overcome Vista's performance hit?

First, the pitch from Microsoft: http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/articles/447226.aspx

Looks fantastic, right? Everyone is looking forward to seeing what graphics hardware will be required for such stunning graphics detail. Of course, the Halo graphics shown above it are completely pathetic for representing what current DirectX 9 games provide. They are closer to the Unreal Tournament from 2000.

One other note. That truly awesome Flight Simulator DirectX 10 screenshot isn't a screenshot at all. It's an artist's concept of what a DirectX 10 Flight Simulator X would look like. Look at the bottom left corner of this image: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/792/792287/img_3876940.html Water being rendered that realistically would be fantastic. I hope they can pull it off. But will they?

At the moment, there are less than 5 games that support DirectX 10 on the market. That number is expected to rise rapidly as we approach Christmas.

Two of the games that currently support DirectX 10 are Lost Planet and Company of Heroes. Both were designed as DirectX 9 titles but added some DirectX 10 feature support. Lost Planets appears to have been focused primarily on performance, quoting a 10-20% performance improvement. This basically makes up for the 20% performance hit Vista applies over XP. Company of Heroes modified their explosions and a few other details, but the performance was abysmal in comparison to Dx9. You can read the two reviews here: http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/06/20/company_of_heroes_dx10_comparison/1 http://www.gamespot.com/features/6171326/index.html

One other thing that DirectX 10 changes is that there will no longer be feature comparison lists for different graphics cards. Either they support DX10 or they don't. With DX9 and earlier versions, many features were only supported by some DirectX9 cards. Microsoft has put a stop to that.

Basically, DirectX 10 adds a geometry shader and some efficiency improvements over DirectX9. That should allow games to look better, especially in lighting, smoke, and distance environmental detail, but it probably won't be as mind-blowing as the Flight Simulator X screenshot suggests. The real question is whether they will be able to make these improvements on the current crop of 8600-level cards or whether we'll have to wait for more GPU horsepower to really use it. Only time will tell.