Thursday, July 4th 2013
DirectX 11.2 Exclusive to Windows 8.1 and Xbox One
Our recent editorial on adoption of Windows 8.1 by PC enthusiasts concluded saying "...and Microsoft isn't stopping with its innovations that will get increasingly out of reach for Windows 7 users." It looks like the first of such innovations is DirectX 11.2. Microsoft revealed that the latest version of its multimedia API will require Windows 8.1 on the PC, and comes built into its next-generation Xbox One console. With this, Microsoft established that you will need Windows 8.1 or later, to access future versions of DirectX.
Microsoft has often used the tactic of limiting DirectX versions to certain versions of Windows, often citing driver-model changes, to force PC enthusiasts to either upgrade, or lag behind in PC technology, and in the past it worked. Windows XP capped out at DirectX 9.0c, forcing gamers to upgrade to Windows Vista, to experience cutting-edge games of the time, such as "Crysis," with new visual effects that DirectX 10 brought to the scene. DirectX 11.0 had the unique distinction of spanning across Windows Vista and Windows 7. DirectX 11.1 was exclusive to Windows 8 and above, as it required WDDM 1.2 (Windows display driver model). The Direct3D component of the API didn't bring anything substantial to the scene. With Windows 8.1, Microsoft is introducing DirectX 11.2, it requires WDDM 1.3, which the operating system introduces. Since Windows 8.1 will be offered as a free upgrade to current Windows 8 users, it's effectively the Windows 7 user-base, that's being asked to take a hike.
DirectX 11.2 introduces a few new Direct3D features that could matter to games. The "D3D tiled resources" feature is analogous to OpenGL MegaTexture, implemented on id Software's "Rage." The feature offers a better alternative to the current model of streaming textures as a 3D scene is being rendered; by letting developers use larger textures that are fewer in number. Portions of these giant monolithic textures would be accessed by an application, as they become relevant to the scene being rendered. The complete texture needn't be loaded to the memory. In essence, mega-textures heralds a sort of virtual memory system to GPUs, and shifts the focus from increasingly larger video memory to faster memory.
With Windows 7 user-base being cut out from DirectX 11.2, game developers may think twice before spending time to implement D3D tiled resources, but there's also Xbox One to consider. DirectX 11.2 is at the heart of the console, and Microsoft could recommend developers to take advantage of tiled resources, to optimally use the console's limited hardware resources. That could hasten the adoption of DirectX 11.2 by developers, on the PC front.
Among the features DirectX 11.2 introduces are:
Sources:
Microsoft, NextPowerUp
Microsoft has often used the tactic of limiting DirectX versions to certain versions of Windows, often citing driver-model changes, to force PC enthusiasts to either upgrade, or lag behind in PC technology, and in the past it worked. Windows XP capped out at DirectX 9.0c, forcing gamers to upgrade to Windows Vista, to experience cutting-edge games of the time, such as "Crysis," with new visual effects that DirectX 10 brought to the scene. DirectX 11.0 had the unique distinction of spanning across Windows Vista and Windows 7. DirectX 11.1 was exclusive to Windows 8 and above, as it required WDDM 1.2 (Windows display driver model). The Direct3D component of the API didn't bring anything substantial to the scene. With Windows 8.1, Microsoft is introducing DirectX 11.2, it requires WDDM 1.3, which the operating system introduces. Since Windows 8.1 will be offered as a free upgrade to current Windows 8 users, it's effectively the Windows 7 user-base, that's being asked to take a hike.
DirectX 11.2 introduces a few new Direct3D features that could matter to games. The "D3D tiled resources" feature is analogous to OpenGL MegaTexture, implemented on id Software's "Rage." The feature offers a better alternative to the current model of streaming textures as a 3D scene is being rendered; by letting developers use larger textures that are fewer in number. Portions of these giant monolithic textures would be accessed by an application, as they become relevant to the scene being rendered. The complete texture needn't be loaded to the memory. In essence, mega-textures heralds a sort of virtual memory system to GPUs, and shifts the focus from increasingly larger video memory to faster memory.
With Windows 7 user-base being cut out from DirectX 11.2, game developers may think twice before spending time to implement D3D tiled resources, but there's also Xbox One to consider. DirectX 11.2 is at the heart of the console, and Microsoft could recommend developers to take advantage of tiled resources, to optimally use the console's limited hardware resources. That could hasten the adoption of DirectX 11.2 by developers, on the PC front.
Among the features DirectX 11.2 introduces are:
- HLSL shader linking
- Inbox HLSL compiler
- GPU overlay support
- DirectX tiled resources
- Direct3D low-latency presentation API
- DXGI Trim API and map default buffer
- Frame buffer scaling
- Multithreading with SurfaceImageSource
- Interactive Microsoft DirectX composition of XAML visual elements
- Direct2D batching with SurfaceImageSource
192 Comments on DirectX 11.2 Exclusive to Windows 8.1 and Xbox One
But they have money to do this so wont really bother them all that much but what it will do is help steam sell games on Linux haha.
Must be fun to be able to play dangerous games when you have money. And all so at the expense of others too.
I guess it could go the other way as no one ends up using the 11.2 HAHA.
Other wise well done Microsoft you might have found me a way to save money buying a OS and making phones to people who don't speak english
Click details. So does this mean tiled resources aren't new and only the way they're implemented in Windows 8.1 / next-gen consoles is?
EDIT: I wanted to note that btarunr's editorial mentions tiled resources being "analogous to OpenGL MegaTexture, implemented on id Software's 'Rage'".
Linux sucks for games.....and everything else unless you were born with a slide ruler shoved up your ass.
Mac is late getting games and they hardly get AAA titles nevermind the premium on hardware.
So at the end of the day this whole thread is the inevitable fact all you people bitching will be upgrading to windows 8. Taste that?...........That's what they call crow.
Control panel in W8 (windows+x > control panel):
Task switch (alt+tab):
So unless the majority of 7 card owners are independently wealthy, this pushiness by MS matters not in the least, because most will be rocking those same cards for 2-3 years, some even longer. Game developers will be conscious of this fact too.
DX 11.2 might become relevant in 2 years not sooner. Enough for me to remain comfy in my Win 7 safe zone.
Yeah the Xbox influence could work but we should remember that console is only important in the US, the rest of the world is for PS4 and this time the gap will be wider. I know the US is the biggest videogames market but in 5-10 years that won't be enough.
oh sorry i meant to say win ME. i mean win 8.
You forget that for a while OpenGL was the de-facto standard for gaming, even in Windows simply because it offered a superior feature set. After a while, OpenGL sort of stagnated while Microsoft picked up the pace on DX development. Between 2006 and 2008 there was nothing new on the OpenGL front. Meanwhile, DirectX has had pixel shaders since 2001 with DX8. DX was first to the table with hardware T&L, texture compression, a lot of other features. AFAIK bump mapped textures was the last time OGL held an advantage over DX.
OpenGL should never have been displaced by DirectX (Microsoft certainly had a hard time getting their standards in, remember what happened to WinG and the early versions of DX?), but sad to say the people behind the standard got lazy and complacent and they were rightfully displaced, and now it's up to them to come up with a superior feature set if they want developers to use them in favor of DX.
let's see what will happen in the next future with PS4 runs with openGL API
:rolleyes:
Good day to you sir.
Not I..
Seriously. 11.2 will bring nothing of importance to us that we will care about for the next 5years. While consoles are still around, and likely wont do a great deal, if anything at all with 11.2, we wont get much from it when all those games are ported over anyway.
M$ has done this multiple times, and each time it never made a difference to any of us. Sure its a dick move, but its not going to hunder PC gamers who dont want Win 8 or 8.1 right now.
But as others have said, unless it brings something truly great to the table it doesn't really matter.
BTW, are you locked to DirectX when developing for the Xbox? I imagine you are, but I have no idea really.
Game devs usually deal mostly with engine tools.
For example, in Unreal engine you make your game with high detailed tesselated objects at max level of detail quality.
When finished you deploy for xbox360 - only the low-mid quality LODs and shader pack for xbox is used.
When deploying for PC - both dx9 and dx11 shader pack is deployed and in settings if dx11 is detected, tesselation can be enabled.
It's all transparent to the game developer these days.
As for shaders, when developing for the Xbox, you are locked to instruction set of the GPU because mostly to really optimize for the console, some parts of shaders are written in assembler. But again those are game engine developers, game devs usually know squat about these things. :laugh: They drag sliders to get armor to be more shiny.