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View Full Version : will game developers even program games for Direct3D10??



billdotson
March 9th, 2007, 04:54 PM
As probably most of you know the release of Vista was supposed to usher in the "next-gen" of PC gaming. These sort of statements mostly seem to be backed up by the new features that make PC games easier on Vista than any Windows OS before it.. here is a few for example:


http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/games.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/games.mspx)

Apart from the new ease-of-use features the big thing is Direct3D10 which is now in the DirectX suite. [ I personally do not know if Direct3D10 is the only updated API in the DirectX suite and am not claiming to, but I would assume that they would have updated the other APIs in there. ]
It claims to be able to do much more than DirectX9 can and make PC games go "next-gen"

The biggest proponent that Direct3D10 will revolutionize PC games is the game Crysis, who's stunning visuals awed many people when the first screens and trailers were released. Although, just recently screens of Crysis running in DirectX10 have been released. That means that the screens seen earlier that were so amazing were running w/ DX9, not DX10 (although they may have been trying to emulate DX10 somehow).

There are those that have already "upgraded" to Vista and purchased a Direct3D10 capable video card so they should be ready for the "next-gen of PC games" but what about those who are fine w/ their games now?

I personally think that Microsoft could have developed DirectX10 so that it would work with XP and Vista but they did not in order to force the adoption or faster adoption of Vista. I do not know technically if Direct3D10 works "so well" (as I have seen no DirectX10 games yet) because they made it with the integration with Vista in mind. Maybe they wanted it to be integrated into Vista only and not XP so there would be less bugs, etc. but I still think they could have included it as SP for XP.

I have heard that DirectX is used by Windows, the Xbox and the X360 but all the other games that are not on those platforms use the OpenGL and OpenAL APIs. I do not know if this is true but if the price of developing games keeps going up developers can't keep making DirectX games and then porting them to OpenGL + OpenAL and vice versa. Do you think that Direct3D10 will be the "gaming revolution" that it claims to be, will the games be the same as last gen with graphical upgrades or will it not be very popular at all?

Will game developers even bother to program Direct3D10 games at all or will it take them 2-3 years before they see it as profitable?

Tomosaur
March 9th, 2007, 04:59 PM
All DX updates take a while to 'filter through' to games developers. That being said, DX10 games have been in production for quite a while prior to Vista's release, as Microsoft released the DX10 technology earlier specifically to allow developers to have products out (almost) straight away as Vista is released. Developers will continue to use DirectX because it makes money - the real problem is whether people will continue to buy games. The sheer amount of money these next-gen games are costing prices them way out of reach for many people. The games will come - but people might not buy them.

maxamillion
March 9th, 2007, 05:03 PM
I give it at least 5 years before game developers fully use D3D10 capabilities instead of just the reverse compatible library functions.

... just my opinion, take it for what its worth.

Erunno
March 9th, 2007, 05:37 PM
Of course developers will use DirectX10. If I remember correctly it took about a year from the first wide availability of DirectX 9 cards until many games hit the market which supported the new API. It will probably be the same once ATI releases cards with their DX10 chipset (R600) and makes a wide selection for different price sections available. Right now there are no games which use the API and only nVidia released a DX10 cabable card for the high-end market but this will change soon I guess as mid- and low-price cards are already announced. DX9 card will slowly phase out and there will be no reason to NOT develop for DX10. Plus, with DirectX in general they can develop for Windows and XBox which gives you a wider audience you can sell your game to and if someone looks at todays costs for a single game most companies have to sell as many copies as possible to cover their costs.

compiledkernel
March 9th, 2007, 05:48 PM
From most reading that I have done on this issue -- Wine developers (transgaming and codeweavers as well likewise) see DX10 easier -- as opposed to DX9 -- to follow up after because of its modular nature. My issue with respect to DX10 is its forcing of users to use Vista, a sad reprensentation of an OS in my opinion.

billdotson
March 9th, 2007, 06:05 PM
yeah.. forcing gamers to use Vista just to use DX10 is a pretty low business move to promote that OS.

compiledkernel
March 9th, 2007, 06:17 PM
Well that was already a known deal (Halo3 is Vista only). Trying to force users into the use of Vista is a bad practive, the DX10 move is just another sign of that. Already there is enough press over Vista vs the Gaming industry (Nvidia was getting legal action threatened on them for not having proper Vista drivers prepped -- someone cite this please I dont remember the specifics). I dont really see it getting any better, and really, much worse.

Erunno
March 9th, 2007, 06:19 PM
yeah.. forcing gamers to use Vista just to use DX10 is a pretty low business move to promote that OS.

The true marketing disaster is that current games seem to run slower than on Windows XP right now. I'm not sure if it can be solved by Windows or ATI/nVidia developers but it surely isn't what people expected when they moved to Vista. I think using such cheap promotion techniques hints that Microsoft themselves know that Vista hasn't enough appeal by itself to convince users to switch by themselves (and not via preinstallation). Anyway, Vista is coming. Last time I visited a computer store all computers there were already running Vista.

tyke
March 9th, 2007, 08:10 PM
The true marketing disaster is that current games seem to run slower than on Windows XP right now.

Not too surprising really. If you run a more resource hungry OS on the same hardware and use brand new, version 1.0 drivers, then you are inevitably going to see a drop in performance.


Anyway, Vista is coming. Last time I visited a computer store all computers there were already running Vista.

Absolutely true. One year after it's retail release, XP had a twenty percent market share. Today it's eighty/ninety plus, depending, who's stats you believe. Vista will follow exactly the same adoption curve, because virtually everyone who buys a new PC will find it comes with Vista pre-installed. So you can be pretty sure that DX10 will be fairly widely adopted by developers within a few years.