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

So it's not going to be called DirectX X???

[Anonymous Coward]

XBOX Next?
DirectX Next?

I guess we all know what the Next version of Windows is going to be called! :)

Re: So it's not going to be called DirectX X???

[ezh]

We had one NeXT already. It turned back into Apple ;) On the other hand, obsession with X's will finally bring you to triple X. What an operating system that would be! :-)

Re:Does this mean OpenGL is finished ?

[lemody]

OpenGL and DirectX are different kind of systems, DirectX offering interfaces to input devices, sound controlling etc. OpenGL is just for graphics!
Don't get this personal, I always post like this when someone compares these two :)

In other news...

[Jarrik]

Doom 3 was delayed.. again.

Slayers

[zeroclip]

So DX11 will be "DirectX Try"?

Who cares?

[Glock27]

Beyond3D has put up an article based on Microsoft's games developers presentations given at Meltdown

I could care less about this functionality being exposed through a proprietary API.

My question is: when will it be available in OpenGL 2.x? :-)

Cross platform is the best way to go with game development...and OpenGL is the only game in town for cross-platform 3D graphics. It is also the official 3D API for Macintosh.

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! :-)

DX9, 10 or whatever already is "compatible"!

[cybrthng]

DX9 is backwards compatible with even my lowly NV25 and MX cards.

The issue is my card doesn't have the vertex shaders and other registers that DX9 takes advantage of so i won't be fully accelerating new DX9 features. I can run DX9 games just fine even though my card was designed with 8 in mind.

Its not that it isn't backwards compatible, it is that your hardware doesn't suport technology of the future since it didn't exist

Only way around this would be if your GPU core was software driven and they could update it. Otherwise to get new DX10 support, you need a DX10 card that was built with the new functionality in mind.

Backwards compatibility has nothing to do with it. Its just like in the days of MMX vs NON MMX. IF you had MMX it ran faster, if you didn't it never wouldn't work for you.. just would be slower.