MS DirectX 11.1 with Native Stereo-3D Output Is Exclusive for Windows 8 [xbitlabs]

[vid_ghost]

Microsoft Corp. said that it would not port DirectX 11.1 application programming interface (API) from its latest Windows 8 operating system to older OS platforms like Windows 7 and Vista. The move will help the software giant to encourage transition of performance and games enthusiasts to the new Windows 8...read more here:http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphic...Windows_8.html

I have an LG-47-ml7600 3D TV (cheapo $1 cinema 3D glasses work) and because my laptop uses Nvidia Optmius intel 4000GPU+NV GT650m 3D doesn't work... hope new games made in Directx 11.1 fixes this issue.

[FearTec]

I'm glad I'm switching to Macs for programming, I will fire up a pc for games (but stick with Win7) for as long as possible.

[Linkin]

3D is a waste of time. It always has been and always will be. At least we got 120hz out of it.

[lowdog]

Woooptie fuckin dooooo Windows 8 is a steaming pile of shit!!!!!!!....no wonder the guy who designed it and had worked for microsoft for decades either got prompted to resign or got sacked after it was released.

[Brass Em]

They almost got Direct3D right. 11.1 was going to be the fix. Looks like I will have to wait for Windows 9 now.

[walker_2003]

I heard win 7 will get some of dx11.1 and with hacks can get it all.

[PRiME2007]

Will laugh if all it takes is copying a dll into windows folder to ad 11.1 support in lower windows versions.

[SiriusDragon]

Originally Posted by walker_2003

I heard win 7 will get some of dx11.1 and with hacks can get it all.

[citation needed]



I'm curious about that though, I'd probably do it myself as although I don't mind some of Windows 8 I'm not a fan of the reduced benchmark/games performance

[FuzzyKaos]

Originally Posted by lowdog

Woooptie fuckin dooooo Windows 8 is a steaming pile of shit!!!!!!!....no wonder the guy who designed it and had worked for microsoft for decades either got prompted to resign or got sacked after it was released.

lol it has pinball!

[elvis]

OpenGL got stereo 3D in 2005 as part of OpenGL 2.0. Basic functionality was available in OpenGL ES 1.1, and enhanced in OpenGL ES 2.2 in 2007.

http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs...eo_control.txt

OpenGL is currently on stable release 4.3, and is available on Windows, Linux and Mac. OpenGL ES is currently on stable release 3.0, and is available on just about every device you can imagine.

Why any developer would limit themselves to DirectX/3D in this day and age of mobile gaming is beyond me, unless you wanted to limit yourself to a Windows/XBox release, and completely avoid Wii/PS3/Vita/DS/Android/iOS/Mac/Linux releases.

And before people bitch about those other markets being "too small", the fact is more sales are more sales. I hear of a games company closing it's doors every week at the moment, so it's pretty clear that targeting the hardcore gamer market isn't keeping developers in jobs, or games businesses running.

[SiriusDragon]

drivers, performance, nicer API

those are my guesses

[Chuppa]

In other words...

We know Windows 8 is crap, and no one wants to use it..
So we are going to restrict new technology in a way that forces people who want cutting edge features in their games to move to Windows 8.

[elvis]

Originally Posted by SiriusDragon

drivers, performance, nicer API

those are my guesses

Drivers and performance are frequently better under OpenGL (Valve have proved that recently), and again cross platform.

API is a possibility, but like all things is based on experience. It's a bit rich to say platform X is better than platform Y because you've got more experience in platform X. It's clearly not "better", just that you're used to it.

IMHO, DirectX is suffering the same future as Flash. HTML5 was once highly theoretical and only used in edge cases, and the bulk of the global development talent knew it well. Now HTML5 is becoming more common, with a wider array of devices supporting it (and not supporting Flash), and developers are starting to multi-skill because they can see a future where their Flash dev skills are useless. That "future" isn't going to be tomorrow or even next month, but the important point is that getting skills in HTML5 sooner is safer than later.

Likewise, OpenGL is headed that way. The greatest sin of OpenGL was a 10 year lull where it didn't keep up with features, and got left behind by DirectX. Today that's a different story - features are appearing in OpenGL quickly, sometimes even beating DirectX to market. Likewise OpenCL gives a nice vendor/platform-independent method of using GPU compute power using an API that is extremely similar, and is also keeping up with the state of proprietary alternatives like CUDA.

Kronos (the people who govern OpenGL) learned from their mistakes, and realised that a slow bureaucracy is not the way to manage something that moves as quickly as 3D graphics. They've changed their ways and now offer an API free of charge that can be used on a huge number of OSes and devices (from commercial game consoles to mobile phones to PC desktops to embedded systems), and more importantly is keeping up with the latest high end research into computer graphics.

People seem to forget too that not using DirectX does not mean not using Windows. Windows supports OpenGL just fine, and developing software for OpenGL means that porting your software to *anything* (including Windows) becomes far less of a headache. And at the end of the day, the more customers you can reach, the better your chance of maximising your profits and continuing your business for another year.

[PRiME2007]

I find Windows 8 to be ok the main issue I see is that although the new Metro Start screen is nice, MANY applications don't integrate into it thus just take you to normal desktop. If you launch teamspeak or daemon tools or steam in it, it just takes you to desktop to access those apps rather then into metro interface.

This isn't a bad thing but shows that metro is not really very practical, people will also notice metro does not allow full control of how you divide the tiles/apps up (seems to either flick to left or right side rather then seamless movement of the page divider which is disappointing).

[AEKaBeer]

According to this article DX11.1 will be on windows 7.