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[Doubler]

I can't imagine video game producers are going to be pleased to see their most recent productions having their wings clipped before time.

Gah. I hate Microsoft. :tai:

[Tulac]

I'm pretty sure that news is bogus... (maybe derived from linux hq? )

[Nikson]

Yeah. Since when are new versions of DirectX not compatible with older ones?
Diablo asks for DirectX 3. It works just fine with DX9, and this is 8 years later.


How about a link to the source article, Niles?

[The Niles]

This news is not bogus and has been confirmed by Microsoft itself. My source is Dutch so it does no good putting it up here though.

[Tulac]

Well it's weird since this kind of new would be all over the press, I bet journalists misinterpret it...
Or put the words out of context...
I just can't/won't believe that they would do such a stupid thing...

[SupSuper]

Google does wonders:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/DirectX-10-...ends-7762.shtml
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25902

[Nikson]

I found some sources. It seems Vista will come with both DX10 and a modified DX9, for backwards compatibilty.

Microsoft is currently working on a large update to DirectX. Originally called Windows Graphics Foundation, but later renamed to DirectX 10, it will appear as part of Windows Vista. Version 10 will represent a departure from the driver model of DirectX 9.0, with the addition of a scheduler and memory virtualization system. DirectX 10 will forego the current DirectX practice of using "capability bits" to indicate which features are active on the current hardware. Instead, DirectX 10 will define a minimum standard of hardware capabilities which must be supported for a display system to be "DirectX 10 compatible".

From Wikipedia


And here's something to make everyone love Vista even more:

OpenGL is the industry choice for cross platform, hardware accelerated 3D graphics, and it is also the only way you can get fast 3D graphics on your Linux desktop. It now seems Windows Vista implements OpenGL via Direct3D, seriously degrading its performance and attractiveness to developers." From the article: "In practice this means for OpenGL under Aeroglass: OpenGL performance will be significantly reduced - perhaps as much as 50%, OpenGL on Windows will be fixed at a vanilla version of OpenGL 1.4, No extensions will be possible to expose future hardware innovations.

From Slashdot.org



EDIT: I should point out, however, that since Microsoft created and is the owner of DirectX technology, they can do whatever the bloody hell they want with it. If every subsequent version from 1 to 9 has been an improvement over the previous ones, I think we should at least give MS the benefit of the doubt. Maybe DX10 will be worth the loss of backwards compatibilty.

This is why I always say wait for the finished product before you criticize.

[Tulac]

Yeah well I hope they'll use elementary business logic...