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Old 23-02-2008, 03:54 AM   #2 (permalink)
Corbs
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Default Re: Direct X10 versus 9

I can't see why it should be worse...

First, I think it's important to understand what is DirectX.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms.
So basically, it's a bunch of libraries to help you render 2D/3D onto the screen. It could easily be compared to OpenGL, whom serves the same purpose.

Now, if you're asking whether you should buy a DX10 ready card or not? Well, to be honest, all the newer video cards will be DX10 ready. Plus, one important difference between DX10 and DX9, is that all the features are included in all the video cards (from the cheapest one to the expansive model). No more shader problems

Personally, I think it's a great new technology, although it's going to be a while before everyone gets DX10 video card. Once that day arrives, we'll be seeing more quality DX10 products (games). Right now, game developers are including both, since the DX9 market is still out there. It means they aren't deploying as much resources as they could for their DX10 version.

Read this page about the architecture difference between DX9 GPUs and DX10 GPUs.

Also, on this page, there's two interesting screenshots of Flight Simulator X. The 2nd image is the DX9 version of the game, and the 3rd image, is their beliefs of DX10 capabilities. As ExtremeTech so brilliantly puts it: "The leap over DX9 is pretty dramatic".
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