Don't underestimate the power of Xbone. Because developers have to code for 11.2 means they have no reason not to use 11.2 for Windows titles as well. Of course, they'll have to put some backwards compatibility in the Windows release but there should be strong support for 11.2 on Windows soon after Xbone launches.
The Xbone has no power over developers, consumers or anybody else -- as it stands right now, it barely survived the huge user backlash from DRM. At this moment in time, about 89% of people are on either DX10 or DX11 GPUs on the PC and 360 and PS3 will still be sold for the next 2 years at least. That means about 95% of multiplatform console games in the next 2-3 years will be ported in some form on the 360 and PS3 which are not going anywhere. That still means developers will be making games in engines that are DX9 compatible. Once PS3/360 die, the developers will jump on the next most common API, which will be DX11.
Everyone in this thread is just butt hurt and crying like 12 year old girls on their first ovulation because they are going to have to upgrade to get the latest DX.
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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.
Nope. Installed Mint for a week realized its as user friendly as a colonoscopy and went back to windows. I mean honesty you guys ain't fooling anyone. If DX is no big deal why the 80 something posts of butt hurt raging. This forum has become so predictable. If you guys can't afford Windows 8 that's fine. But don't trash it because you can't afford it. That's very unbecoming of a technology forum member.
Kindly take a minute to unwedge your head from your behind. Are you seriously stupid enough to try and suggest that people here -- who spent anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars' worth of cash on their rigs -- can't afford a $25 OS upgrade?
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.