DX11 Tested Against DX9 With Dirt 2 Demo

MojoKid writes "The PC demo for Codemasters' upcoming DirectX 11 racing title, Dirt 2, has just hit the web and is available for download. Dirt 2 is a highly-anticipated racing sim that also happens to feature leading-edge graphic effects. In addition to a DirectX 9 code path, Dirt 2 also utilizes a number of DirectX 11 features, like hardware-tessellated dynamic water, an animated crowd and dynamic cloth effects, in addition to DirectCompute 11-accelerated high-definition ambient occlusion (HADO), full floating-point high dynamic range (HDR) lighting, and full-screen resolution post processing. Performance-wise, DX11 didn't take its toll as much as you'd expect this early on in its adoption cycle." Bit-tech also took a look at the graphical differences, arriving at this conclusion: "You'd need a seriously keen eye and brown paper envelope full of cash from one of the creators of Dirt 2 to notice any real difference between textures in the two versions of DirectX."

Comments

ehh

[Dyinobal]

I Personally view DX11 as I do sonys push from DVD to blueray. Sure blueray has some nice features but I'm still enjoying my DVDs, and I don't really need uncompressed audio tracks for every language on my disks. Same thing with DX11, I've not even properly gotten set with many DX10 games and now they are pushing DX11 (well pushing as in mostly tech demos) and I've not even got much dust on my latest graphics card. I'll upgrade in a few years, perhaps when I see DX9 vanish, or at least become increasingly uncommon.

Re:ehh

[Petrushka]

Quoth Dyinobal:

Sure blueray has some nice features ... I don't really need ... I'll upgrade in a few years ...

Quoth webheaded:

... kicking and screaming ... There is no LIMIT to the amount of shit you'll complain about ... the higher version gives you shit fits ... what kind of moron ...

Compare and contrast: which of these two is complaining and having shit fits?

Re:ehh

[hairyfeet]

I think the problem is that DX9 has gotten "good enough" for most folks, at least IMHO. There is only so much pretty you can look at while dodging gunfire and shit blowing up all around you. I haven't played a game in the last 4-5 years where I thought "they really need to add more pretty" because I've been too busy going "Holy Crap! dodge dodge duck blast Shit! The bad guys are packing hefty and I'm packing wimpy! shit!". See for example the first time I whipped around the corner and shot at a splicer and hit Big Daddy in the ass by mistake. When those big red eyes spun on me all I needed was a sound bite of Daffy Duck to make the moment perfect.

For me pretty much everything after Far cry 1 has been past the "good enough" level as far as graphics and bling goes. Now if they would do better on stories and AI I would be a happy camper, but sadly we haven't gotten much better on that front since Far Cry 1. IMHO it isn't so much the graphics that separate the okay from the good from the great, but decent story and AI. Bioshock, FEAR, L4D I was too busy playing the game to actually spend much time looking at the pretty. But the atmosphere, the AI (or lack of it in too many games), the story, these things I notice.

So I have to agree that while I am running Windows 7 HP I just don't see the need to toss my ATI 4650 1Gb. The games I play already look prettier than I can actually pay attention to while not getting the living shit blasted outta me, I haven't seen anything in DX11 that will make bad game companies come out with better AI (I'm looking at you, EA!) or better stories. So I will stick with DX9 until there are enough compelling games out that use DX11 to make it worth using.

And doesn't the X360 use DX9? Considering how many PC games are nothing but shitty X360 ports anymore DX11 will probably be waiting until the x720 before getting adopted. Oh well, that is what MSFT gets for killing MechWarrior and turning every game company they touch into an X360 company.

Bad summary

[julesh]

Summary picks out one point where the article states that graphics haven't improved, but article goes on to discuss improvements in other areas. The pictures speak for themselves; the shadows are much more realistic and the water effects are much more realistic. The textures were fine to start with -- who cares if they improved?