A Glimpse Into 3D future: DirectX Next Preview

Dave Baumann writes "Beyond3D has put up an article based on Microsoft's games developers presentations given at Meltdown, looking at the future directions of MS's next generation DirectX - currently titled "DirectX Next" (DX10). With Pixel Shaders 2.0 and 3.0 already a part of DirectX9 this article gives a feel of what to expect from PS/VS4.0 and other DirectX features hardware developers will be expected to deliver with the likes of R500 and NV50."

Comments

Re:Who cares?

[Glock27]

cross platform is the best way to go with game development? hah! maybe on consoles, but with the staggering price of game development now-days its almost too risky to do cross-platform development.

IMO, yes cross-platform is the way to go. If you use the right engine (Torque for instance), you get it for free, less the occasional support call. ;-)

Look at some of the top games that have been cross-platform:

• All id games
• Baldur's Gate Series
• Warcraft Series
• Diablo Series
• Sims Series
• You Don't Know Jack Series
• Age of Empires
• Starcraft
• Everquest
• 3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride
• Microsoft Close Combat 2.0: A Bridge Too Far
• Monopoly
• Terminus
• and many more...

See any successful games there? ;-) And even Microsoft is smart enough to do it, while trying to lock everyone else into Windows/DirectX. Pretty funny, actually...

so how are they going to feel developing for an os unproven in game development with users who are used to getting everything for free? (dont worry, i love linux, but i just dont think we should lie to ourselves)

If they get the port essentially for free, and provide it as an "unsupported" extra, they will get a ton of good press on Usenet, the web and so on, from alpha geeks. Look at the reception Baldur's Gate games get here on Slashdot. That's worth it right there! :-)