DX10 - How Far Have We Come?

MojoKid writes "When DirectX 10 was first introduced to the market by graphics manufacturers and subsequently supported by Windows Vista, it was generally understood that adoption by game developers was going to be more of a slow migration than a quick flip of a switch. That said, nearly a year later, the question is how far have we come? An article at the HotHardware site showcases many of the most popular DX10-capable game engines, like Bioshock , World In Conflict , Call of Juarez, Lost Planet, and Company of Heroes, and features current image quality comparisons versus DX9 modes with each. The article also details performance levels across many of the more popular graphics cards, from both the mid-range and high-end." PC Perspective has a similar look at DX10 performance.

Comments

Re:DX9 looks better?

[jez9999]

I think that XP+DX9 would have made useful supplements to the results they gave, but their goal was to measure DX9 vs DX10, and you don't do that by changing two variables.

Yup. That's when I tested the speed of my car vs a train, I ran the car on the tracks. I was testing the speed of a car vs train, and you don't do that by changing two variables.

Re:Shadows are wrong!

[TheNetAvenger]

That's great, except for the fact that shadows don't have crisp edges in the real world. Unless it's illuminated by a point-source (which immediately excludes the sun, lamps, flashlights, and pretty much every other light source you're likely to encounter), there will be a penumbra. The DX9 image here: http://www.hothardware.com/articleimages/item1031/big_stateofdx10_wic_shad.jpg is more realistic.

Not sure how this got confused by either bioshock or the reviewers...

DirectX 10 allows for both 'crisp' or 'soft' shadowing, as some games demonstrate, the DirectX 10 shadows are 'softer' and more realistic.

The 'difference' with DirectX 10 is that shadows are done on the GPU, in DirectX9 shadows are done on the CPU. This is the 'main' difference between DX9 and DX10.

The 'crisp' choice by bioshock is NOT what DX10 is about, this is a game developer choice. PERIOD.

I know reviews like this can lead people down wrong paths, but it doesn't hurt to look up this type of information before making fun of a fact that is incorrect in the first place.

It is strange that any site 'reviewing' DX10 in comparison to DX9 would not even know the basic 'consumer' terminology for the differences, so they would know what they were looking at... Maybe someday we can get a review posted on SlashDot that is actually done by gaming professionals... (gasp)

Here is a quick list from the MS Consumer Info site on DirectX10, notice the reference to shadows specifically.
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Summary

In summary, DirectX10 provides the following benefits to gamers:

More life-like materials and characters with:
Animated fur & vegetation
Softer/sharper shadows
Richer scenes; complex environments
Thicker forests, larger armies!
Dynamic and ever-changing in-game scenarios
Realistic motion blurring
Volumetric effects
Thicker, more realistic smoke/clouds

Other
Realistic reflections/refractions on water/cars/glass
Reduced load on CPU
    -Re-routes bulk of graphics processing to GPU
    -Avoids glitching & system hangs during game play

Re: ai

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who writes AI for text-based games, let me clear you of some misconceptions.

First, the goal of "AI" isn't always to be as smart as possible. Often, the goal is to make something believable and/or of the appropriate difficulty level. It's possible that Bioshock missed the mark there, but I haven't played Bioshock yet, so I don't know.

I can write "AI" that will kick your ass every time, even without cheating. (Mobs have the advantage of being on home turf, and they outnumber you.) But that's not fun for the player, so I don't do it. Instead, I'll write something with a pattern you have to figure out. Once you learn one of the ways to beat it, the mob will be easy for you, and it's time to move on to the next area. Very few mobs get the full "try to survive at all cost" treatment, and even fewer are programmed to actually learn from your behavior.

You're describing the classic "I wish this mob would keep getting harder" remorse, but think about it: would it really make sense for those mobs to learn from your new tactics? Are they supposed to be smart, or are they just supposed to be an obstacle?

As for your dead bodies example: would you really prefer to have an infinite standoff as the mobs decide it's not worth getting killed, so they go hide somewhere with their own traps and wait for you to attack? Right... so get over it. If games were realistic, you would realdie on level 1.