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
Steam's active user base is by the way somewhere around 54-55 millions by now, and growing...
So I'm having a really hard time believing this "PC is dead" mantra...as I see it, the PC is a sleeping giant, that year after year is having less and less good sleep and might just wake up on the wrong side and tear other platforms a new one in a year or two... and by the looks of it, he's not wearing a full blown Win 8 pajama...more like a Win 8 sock :laugh: :
i.imgur.com/YRhhF3P.jpg
And with the feature harmony 11.2 brings is another shovel of dirt on the consoles coffin
whereas consoles... well, servers shut down GG no worky.
quite literally the xbox would be the 'standard' and you could get your own custom built PC for better performance/higher res gaming, but at the end of the day its the same thing.
the only reason it wont work is because controller Vs mouse and keyboard would destroy competition for those who are not of the PC master race.
It essentially opens the memory of the gpu and cpu up more to each other but its mostly going to be future hardware that benefits.
Current GPU's are 'compatible' with DX11.2, but you certainly wont get all of the features unless you get a new GPU that's dedicated to DX11.2, wait until October for the new Radeon 9000 series, that will be a true DX11.2.
Glad I waited, will have to stick with my trusty old 3 way 570s until then, no way am I buying a new GPU until then.
This is just marketing to get people to buy a version of Windows they otherwise don't want.
That's pretty much what I thought. Sure my 5870 is DirectX 11 compatible, but it clearly isn't as powerful as subsequent generations. I envisage a similar scenario here: if and when DirectX 11.2 does become relevant, the initial releases of compatible cards will probably be obsolete.
:roll:
Oh man, that was a great laugh. Thanks for that. No games are going to be using DX11.2 in any meaningful way for a long time, if ever. Can you even find an upcoming game right now listed as supporting it? No.
I also used the DX10 launcher for Bad Company 2. :pimp:
With PC even if they do shut down the servers you can join various unofficial servers or you can LAN via Hamachi.
First off, nobody gives two shits about upgrading from 7 to Windows 8, be it for the new DirectX, the counter-intuitive UI or anything else, as it is not worth the extra hard drive space, let alone the price of admission --and this is coming from someone who owns Windows 8. I've been using it for most of the past year or so on my second laptop and have come to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing that Windows 8 has that 7 can't do or be tweaked in some way to do the same. Better multithreading? Bullshit -- turn off core parking in Win7. Less resource usage? Turn off Aero. The only thing Windows 8 technically has over 7 is faster boot speed -- considering every single decent PC/laptop in my house now runs a Samsung SSD, the difference between them is maybe 2-3 seconds at best, and you can have your 3 second faster boot speed bragging rights, as I will never trade it for a useable UI.
The biggest performance change documented in Windows 8 is in regards to increased speed of text rendering (supposedly increased by 300%-something pecent) -- I can't remember having performance problems or even giving a flying shit about text rendering speeds since Windows 95. DirectX 11.1, 11.2, 11.5 and any more bullshit APIs they decide to introduce are not going to shift any more copies or Windows 8 or make the fake APIs any more relevant for developers or users.
If you take a look at any upcoming big multiplatform release, you will find it in some form on the 360 and PS3, which means developers will still be building on game engines that will scale down all the way to DX9 and OpenGL 2/3, because no publisher is going to be stupid enough to turn down potential ~200 million buyers on consoles alone. That will be the case for the next 2-3 years at least, since Sony wants the PS3 to outlive the PS2 and Microsoft only just released another Xbox 360 (Xbone/Cable Box Edition with the new case).
If you enjoy buying the same shitty service packs for Vista every 3 years and the crapfest UI that comes with it, more power to you -- but don't start trolling people for not sharing your views on it or Microshaft's bullshit tactics of selling people service packs packaged as a new operating system -- because no matter if I have $3000 or $300,000 to spend, I'm not going to buy another single Windows NT 6. OS release that's not a complete overhaul in every way and which has features that cannot possibly be implemented on an older OS. I'll admit, I bought into their potential BS of "driverless printer support" and the "return of hardware accelerated audio stack" with Windows 8 this time. Not going to happen again.
Personally, I like Windows 8, installed it on my daughters desktop and after a few days was well into the new flow of things, clearly Microsfort looks upon me as a minority otherwise why would they be doing this if they were selling the OS like hot cakes? The strategy didn't work too well with Vista, possibly because the games devlopers didn't seem very interested. So, until DX11.whatever allows me to smell the fart of my teammate in some coop battle, rather than notice a few more dust particles when the ground erupts from a shell I will stay where I am thanks very much.