Microsoft Preps to Unveil DirectX 11 Features

Unlike DirectX 9, the DirectX 10 will not have a more than four year lifespan as Microsoft Corp. plans to introduce features of DirectX 11 application programming interface at the forthcoming XNA gamefest conference that takes place next week in Seattle, Washington. Moreover, ATI, graphics product group of AMD, and Nvidia Corp. also plan to discuss certain Direct3D 11 features at upcoming conferences.

Microsoft is going to host four sessions dedicated to Direct3D 11 application programming interface (API), according to agenda of XNA conference. The world’s largest software maker plans to introduce the Direct3D 11 graphics pipeline, unveil details about D3D 11 Tessellation capability, new type of shaders called Compute Shader as well as high level shader language 5.0.

The DirectX 11 should be compatible with both Windows Vista and Windows 7 since Microsoft officially said that it has no plans to change driver model in its next-generation operating system. Therefore, it is logical to expect the arrival of DirectX 11 both ahead or after the launch of Windows 7, as the releases of the two products do not seem to be aligned.

It is unknown when ATI and Nvidia plan to launch hardware compatible with DirectX 11 application programming interface.

*neowin.net/news/main/08/07/18/microsoft-preps-to-unveil-directx-11-features
full story - *www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/displa...veil_DirectX_11_Features_in_Several_Days.html

WTF! DirectX 10 isn't even mainstream and we are talking about DX 11! :O
Seriously, MS needs better CEO who really knows and understands company's priorities...

Well if compatibility is maintained with DX10 cards, then I think progress should always be priority. I don't see any point in holding back.

I don't see any reason why Dx11 should be a priority when they have other things to fix. I'd have concentrated more on the OS so that consumers actually pull the product instead of pushing it into the market. No flame war please.

amitava82 said:
WTF! DirectX 10 isn't even mainstream and we are talking about DX 11! :O
Seriously, MS needs better CEO who really knows and understands company's priorities...

So true! aah!but enjoy vendor-lockin

I think I misunderstood you the first time. Now I'd +1 your earlier post.

U guys have many misconseptions. Too bad I M standing in metro right now so can't type much, I will reply till 2 pm here. DX 11 is bringing tesselation & when combined with geometry shader it can do wonders for game devs, also GPGPU is the next big thing so we need DX 11 to bring a common API to use the potential of all GPUs equally.

gx_saurav said:
U guys have many misconseptions. Too bad I M standing in metro right now so can't type much, I will reply till 2 pm here. DX 11 is bringing tesselation & when combined with geometry shader it can do wonders for game devs, also GPGPU is the next big thing so we need DX 11 to bring a common API to use the potential of all GPUs equally.

I will go ahead and admit that I don't know jack about this stuff. So my +1 doesn't hold much weight as it can sway either way.

I don't know how that's going to help the OS. And as far as I remember, you said the same stuffs during early days of Dx10. So, yeah your lecture is not going the change the fact that MS team really need to focus on the OS.

Well, the announcement should not have come so soon.

amitava82 said:
I don't see any reason why Dx11 should be a priority when they have other things to fix. I'd have concentrated more on the OS so that consumers actually pull the product instead of pushing it into the market. No flame war please.

No flame wars plz.. but imho MS has really FAILED when they came out with Vista. Not boasting around or something but I'm quite an advanced user (in all 3 platforms/OS internals) and haf been using Windows since I guess Windows 3.0 and I feel to the end user Vista has NO discernable improvements over XP. They surely wanna better their gaming console and I think its Xbox and related things that pushing MS in betterment of DX.

that means some (not so) free unwanted goodies (hidden in closet) too

^^^ Whatever.. they wanna pull back their image after Vista.. prolly thats the most cursed MS' OS.

Xbox is a wonderful product, its a welcome move if the next version would be DX11 compatible.

^^yeah but then should all those who purchased DX 10 cards may have to trash them. beside people have seen that there really is not much visual advantage in DX9 and DX10. Remember Crysis highest setting mode was locked in XP (just coz people will play it on VISTA for the namesake of DX10). Its damn cruel business

Even Godfather fails here :!:

This has more entropy than filled jar of candies

Xbox is a noisy little beast

countdown to the decline started ,I think

.someone bought 9800GTxyz and there comes DX11 ! :lol:

[ignoring useless rant]

@T159: Depends on how DirectX 11 actually works. Also, it is not like they are releasing DX 11 next month or next year for that matter. This is just going to be preview of sorts. Does someone actually stall their purchase of something that is announced today as going to be launched 3 years hence? Even if it were to trash DX 10 cards, 3 years from now, people would be in the usual upgrade cycle by then. People still buy second hand 7900gt inspite of DX 10 cards.

[/ignoring useless rant]

infra_red_dude said:
Xbox is a wonderful product, its a welcome move if the next version would be DX11 compatible.

Current XBOX 360 is already DirectX 10 compatible.

beside people have seen that there really is not much visual advantage in DX9 and DX10

DirectX 10 was never intended to be visually appealing then DX 9c. It was more of a highly efficient update. However with this efficiency developers were ablet o do more work per clock in DX 10 compared to DX 9 due to which resulting quality was much better, Example Crysis

All this rant about DirectX 11 makes me wish OpenGL 3.0 would come out soon. Its about time they have had a major upgrade.

gx_saurav said:
Current XBOX 360 is already DirectX 10 compatible.

thats what he meant ;-)

DirectX 10 was never intended to be visually appealing then DX 9c. It was more of a highly efficient update. However with this efficiency developers were ablet o do more work per clock in DX 10 compared to DX 9 due to which resulting quality was much better, Example Crysis

Crysis ? U seen the DX9 and DX10 shots in highest setting ? lolz

I agree that it was more of an efficiency upgrade from dev point of view

this will be a gr8 inspiration for gpu manus....but fact is even DX 10.1 games are rare and still most sites benches DX9 games even now.

^^manus ??

gx_saurav said:
Current XBOX 360 is already DirectX 10 compatible.

Are you confused or something?

T159 said:
^^manus ??

manufacturers

yup

... and if I remember rite, Xbox 360 uses a custom version of DirectX (which can vaguely be called DirectX 9.5) as its GPU is not fully DX10 compliant.

rite if i remember correctly

Err.. Isn't DX10.1 coming out before that?

nvidia said:
Err.. Isn't DX10.1 coming out before that?

its already out.

^^Oh..

Didnt know that..

nvidia said:
^^Oh..
Didnt know that..

don't you remember ATI Radeon HD3xxx and HD4xxx series ? :!:

^^Yeah, i know that they support DX10.1.
But DX10.1 isn't there in Vsita SP1.
DX10.1 isn's available for download in MS site.

^^see his user name

wtf nvidia with ATI

nvidia said:
^^Yeah, i know that they support DX10.1.
But DX10.1 isn't there in Vsita SP1.
DX10.1 isn's available for download in MS site.

It does NOT show DX 10, but it scales to DX 10.1 and it is a bug in Windows that it does not show 10.1

T159 said:
^^see his user name
wtf nvidia with ATI

nVidia was THE company. ATI was the "other" manufacturer. Now times have changed. He needs to include ATI too :lol:

T159 said:
^^see his user name
wtf nvidia with ATI

have u seen the movie 'a boy girl thing' ?
a similar scenario

T159 said:
^^see his user name
wtf nvidia with ATI

MetalheadGautham said:
nVidia was THE company. ATI was the "other" manufacturer. Now times have changed. He needs to include ATI too

If you guys havent noticed already, see my display pic. It contains AMD and Intel too!

I'm the nvidia-ATi-AMD-Intel guy..

iMav said:
It does NOT show DX 10, but it scales to DX 10.1 and it is a bug in Windows that it does not show 10.1

So do you mean to say that DX10.1 is included with Vista and its useless unless i have a DX10.1 supporting card?

nvidia said:
So do you mean to say that DX10.1 is included with Vista and its useless unless i have a DX10.1 supporting card?

In SP 1 yes. But, when did I say you need a DX 10.1 card? It is a bug that it does not show 10.1

iMav said:
It does NOT show DX 10, but it scales to DX 10.1 and it is a bug in Windows that it does not show 10.1

Microsoft did not release DX10.1 , but D3D verson 10.1 , its false rumours that VIsta SP1 came with DX10.1 ! it did not !

, this is the truth

But didn't MS themselves say that they will release 10.1 with SP1. And, what is D3D 10.1 & DIrectX 10.1?

lolz...d3d is used in renderin ummmm something

T159 said:
lolz...d3d is used in renderin ummmm something

You spammer.

no they didnt

, its the bad news.. D3d is something and i dont know exactly ! but am sure SP1 does not haves 10.1

Wikipedia says
Direct3D is used to render three dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games.

lolz

Direct3d is a layer between the application (or game) and the hardware. AFAIK, it handles 3D and 2D renedering (something of the likes of GDI).

^^reminds me of my seminar on DX 10 and Unified Shader Moder in TE...lolz

Why the hell are they talking about 11 when they haven done anything with 10...

This seriously puts doubt in 10...,

naveen_reloaded said:
Why the hell are they talking about 11 when they haven done anything with 10...

This seriously puts doubt in 10...,

Itihass Kehta hai " Microsoft's each and every policy is doubtful/confusing "

naveen_reloaded said:
Why the hell are they talking about 11 when they haven done anything with 10...

This seriously puts doubt in 10...,

They are adding more features to DirectX 10, Naming it DirectX 11 & will release it in 2010 with Windows 7.

CadCrazy said:
Itihass Kehta hai " Microsoft's each and every policy is doubtful/confusing "

dont spread FUD

something alternative to directx should be born. else ,give support to OpenGL . otherwise ,dear window$ game lover ,you will spend a lakh rupees changing both hardware and software inorder to keep your game addiction

. what you people experience is called as vendorlock-in ,where you lacks other options.so ,keep supporting other open standards like opengl.

naveen_reloaded said:
This seriously puts doubt in 10...,

So you mean to say when Nokia announces another model it puts serious doubts in their other models? When Apple announces Snow Leopard, it puts serious doubts in Leopard? When KDE announces KDE 3, it puts serious doubts in KDE 3? You guys make it sound like MS committed a crime by announcing what their roadmap is :lol:

iMav said:
So you mean to say when Nokia announces another model it puts serious doubts in their other models? When Apple announces Snow Leopard, it puts serious doubts in Leopard? When KDE announces KDE 3, it puts serious doubts in KDE 3? You guys make it sound like MS committed a crime by announcing what their roadmap is

He don't mean that... What he mean is, DX10 is not yet well established n M$ going to wear DX11 suits.... THIS seriously put double in 10 !

How long do you expect one technology to last? 10 years? 20 years? 30 years? Graphic cards are launched practically everyday, new processors & laptops are announced day-in day-out. So if Microsoft decides to show what it is working on for the future means that the present is in doubt? If any other corporate house were to show some concept or features of what to expect 4 years from now, people clap and when MS does the same, it puts doubt in the present products! Awesome.

Arey yaar,... Tell me, how many games out there which are using DX10 fully ?? n if u r talking abt DX11 then for which DX developers shld create games ?? DX10 or DX11 ??

Garbage said:
DX10 or DX11 ??

When Sony announced PS 3 did the game developers stop PS 2 game development? Microsoft is going to announce some features & give info of what to expect in DX 11. DX 11 is expected to come out at least 3 years from now, that's minimum. Till then will game devs shut down their PCs and stop developing? Does announcing some features of a product that will be released 3 years from now mean that everyone should stop developing for what is available today? Or according to you people should not develop or experiment on something new and advanced till 5 years after releasing something?

According to your logic, all Linux distro makers should NOT work on, develop & announce anything about a new version for 5 years!

I don't mean that... There are doubts because the failure of Microsoft in case of Vista.. They not given what they promissed to give. And people (me?) thinks that, they should give more stress to establish their DX10 in market well than developing DX11.

And why they think, there should be DX11 ?? There is much scope in DX10 still.. ( just like SP1 for Vista)

why not DX 10abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
or DX 10.23456789

??

Why altogether 11 ? Lucky number uh ?

Garbage said:
And why they think, there should be DX11 ??

Why should there be iPhone v2? Why should there be KDE 4? Did the developers of KDE have doubt in KDE 3? Why should there be Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon? Why should there be Ubuntu Hardy Heron? Wasn't there scope in 6.06? Or did Canonical have doubt in 6.06? Why should there be Snow Leopard? Why should there be Leopard? Wasn't there scope in Tiger? Or did Apple have doubt in Tiger?

How does announcing some features of something which is expected to come after 3 years hamper the development of what is available today? When Leopard was announced (don't confuse it with released) was Tiger abandoned? Were there no updates to Tiger at all, just because Leopard was announced?

After Vista was announced, were updates for XP stopped? After Office 2007 was released were updates for Office 2003 stalled?

praka123 said:
something alternative to directx should be born. else ,give support to OpenGL . otherwise ,dear window$ game lover ,you will spend a lakh rupees changing both hardware and software inorder to keep your game addiction . what you people experience is called as vendorlock-in ,where you lacks other options.so ,keep supporting other open standards like opengl.

Why should an alternative be born? Do you even know what DirectX is? How easy it is for multimedia programmers to employ DX? Don't criticize a product just coz its from MS. Open your eyes...

iMav said:
Why should there be iPhone v2? Why should there be KDE 4? Did the developers of KDE have doubt in KDE 3? Why should there be Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon? Why should there be Ubuntu Hardy Heron? Wasn't there scope in 6.06? Or did Canonical have doubt in 6.06? Why should there be Snow Leopard? Why should there be Leopard? Wasn't there scope in Tiger? Or did Apple have doubt in Tiger?

How does announcing some features of something which is expected to come after 3 years hamper the development of what is available today? When Leopard was announced (don't confuse it with released) was Tiger abandoned? Were there no updates to Tiger at all, just because Leopard was announced?

After Vista was announced, were updates for XP stopped? After Office 2007 was released were updates for Office 2003 stalled?

You don't understand the point... When the previous version itself hasn't matured (as in, being fully adopted by the industry) then does it make sense to jump into the next version?

I'm not saying MS shudn't put efforts in developing DX11, but just supporting Garbage's argument.

gx_saurav said:
They are adding more features to DirectX 10, Naming it DirectX 11 & will release it in 2010 with Windows 7.

We don't believe you.. you are one of them, now! :))

haha...

@imav, i serioudly ask u, does ms pay you to be so supporive for them?
no offence tho

i mean, com'on man, i hav a dx10 card laptop (hp dv9704), spent 64k for that, suppose dx10.1 games come, i'll have to buy new crap

doesnt make any sense even in a business man's tactics

one wants to capture the market, not make stupid crap like this.

look at dx9
when it came, it still is considered as game base.

vista was "thrown" at us as a "gaming os", but is it really a gaming os.

the only diffrenece i've noticed is - its fast access to drives, gaming is bad, with "8600gs m" (tried bloody old games. gta sa, gtr2...).

xp with 1gb ram is hot.

vista should have been tested better.

i'm really pissed off with vista.

1st- its over priced
2nd - it under performs

MS should have first got the drivers....readied & then released it.

just look at vista & xp's life span. that itself proves MS screwed up real big f time.

economy dx10.1 cards are not out yet & if you talk of dx11, its f stupidty, business wise.
& dont even start about dx10 games.

afaik, crysis. :lol:

some say its a locked sh1t.

ms just "used" its prev. customer base, & it FAILED.

look at intel :lol:

they know how GOOD vista is, thats y they want to stay with xp.

so bottom line = its too f early to announce the dev. of dx11

its only going to ruin their own business.

btw, if you havent noticed yet, MS doenst even giv monkey balls about its os anymore, its just XBox 360 & later ver. of it.

the dx10+ ver. of nvidia cards = 2,
1= 9xxx series
2=2xx series

^Crytek was in deal with VISTA to lock it
and Warhead is another sh!t
look at the thread in random news posted recently about windows live.

<Snipped>

Stop the name calling please. - goobi

And iMav, u talked abt Linux... so...

There are Release Cycles of Ubuntu after every 6 months... Everyone knows that, there will be NEXT version after 6 months.

Now abt DX, is there Release Cycle of DX?? I mean, is there any thing, like next version of DX will be released after every year ??? If it is, then .....

Note: I don't wanted to be in debate... n u put Linux in middle... iMav

Crytek made cryengine 2.0 in DX 10 and modified cryengine 1.0 used in Far Cry which was made in DX 9c. It was there decision which OS to support, U yourself saw the quality difference in Crysis with Direct X 10 & 9's engine, DX 10 was worth it.

gx_saurav said:
Crytek made cryengine 2.0 in DX 10 and modified cryengine 1.0 used in Far Cry which was made in DX 9c. It was there decision which OS to support, U yourself saw the quality difference in Crysis with Direct X 10 & 9's engine, DX 10 was worth it.

Lets face it.. Crytek was paid to lock the highest setting on XP.. lets not close our eyes to the truth. Everyone knows this.

And personally I haf nothing against MS for working on DX11

Its a welcome move.

DX has a life cycle of 4 years. If MS won't evolve features of DX then game devs & gamers will bash for not giving some feature or increse the quality. OpenGL is there too but how wany devs r using it compared to DX? Current GFX cards support openGL 2.1 but do v see any game for it yet?.. does that means Khronos group will stop evolving it?

lets keep this thread to dx11 only :))

btw, i'm not bashing, i prefer vista on my desktop, but for gaming, its xp :))

alli'm saying is,its obvious that nvidia & ati have "some" "conc." with MS, then why dont i see a proper driver when vista came, why is there... this dx10 & dx10.1 compatibilty issue.

if you wanna keep your innovation, keep it for next gen crap or make it compatible with current gen. cards,.

look at nvidia

, 9 series, then 2xx seriies

dont tel me to blame nvidua for tat, if nvidia makes cards , its cos of their business stuff wit MS.

even xbox360 has nvidia s

Highest settings in Crysis need DirectX 10 to work which isn't available on XP so Y give it anyway. It will just result in game crashing as it will look for DX 10 runtime & won't find it in XP, in which case it will fallback to DX 9c path anyway.

^^how many times will I have to tell dear that highest graphical setting was locked intentionally for XP

Hackers unlocked that setting and found that there was no significant difference b/w dx9 and dx10

gx_saurav said:
<snipped>

losers? when did I bashed? pathetic try :lol:

also reported for name calling .

the real issue now is dx10 & dx10.1

+ vista

infra_red_dude said:
You don't understand the point... When the previous version itself hasn't matured (as in, being fully adopted by the industry) then does it make sense to jump into the next version?

Jump to the next version? Dude! DX 11 is still at least 3 years away! Where is the jump? They are show casing what to expect 3 years from now. Is it wrong for a company to showcase it's development?

s18000rpm said:
@imav, i serioudly ask u, does ms pay you to be so supporive for them?
no offence tho

NO. But, I wouldn't mind the extra cash. Ballmer, where are you?

s18000rpm said:
i mean, com'on man, i hav a dx10 card laptop (hp dv9704), spent 64k for that, suppose dx10.1 games come, i'll have to buy new crap
doesnt make any sense even in a business man's tactics

I would not comment on this because MS has said you won't need new hardware. There was speculation that SP1 will have 10.1 but that too came out to be false, so I will not believe what people from Softpedia and other news sources have to say on this issue.

s18000rpm said:
MS should have first got the drivers....readied & then released it.

MS released the betas and M1s long before the final version cam out. Why the drivers are an issue is something only hardware manufacturers can answer.

s18000rpm said:
just look at vista & xp's life span. that itself proves MS screwed up real big f time.

Dude! You're making the same kind of comments that Garbage was making initially. Life span of XP was not 5 years because MS wanted it to be. It was not by choice but by compulsion. Vista was initally Longhorn which was completely different from what was launched, the compulsions I cannot comment on.

s18000rpm said:
economy dx10.1 cards are not out yet & if you talk of dx11, its f stupidty, business wise.
& dont even start about dx10 games.

Again, should a company not talk of what it is working on? Is it wrong for SE to show case Xperia 6 months before launch?

s18000rpm said:
afaik, crysis.
some say its a locked sh1t.

ms just "used" its prev. customer base, & it FAILED.

I think gx has answered this to great effect.

s18000rpm said:
look at intel
they know how GOOD vista is, thats y they want to stay with xp.

Well, that is their company's choice. They see nothing worth to give their employees with Vista laptops, that's their decision. You don't like Vista, you should not have bought that laptop. You could have bought something else. And, if you don't get something else, it is not MS's fault but the laptop vendor's fault. Besides, contrary to popular belief most of these companies have and are shifting to Server 2008.

s18000rpm said:
so bottom line = its too f early to announce the dev. of dx11

its only going to ruin their own business.

The timing is wrong and I have said so in my first post of this thread itself.

gx_saurav said:
DX has a life cycle of 4 years. If MS won't evolve features of DX then game devs & gamers will bash for not giving some feature or increse the quality. OpenGL is there too but how wany devs r using it compared to DX? Current GFX cards support openGL 2.1 but do v see any game for it yet?.. does that means Khronos group will stop evolving it?

Plz keep the discussion centered to DirectX. Do not drag OpenGL into the picture and try to divert the topic. This wil only feed trolls that will lead to a war DX vs. OGL, Win vs. Lin and bullsh1t of the likes.

There is no doubt that for games on Windows, DX is the natural choice and it should be since its more suitable and capable on that platform

iMav said:
Jump to the next version? Dude! DX 11 is still at least 3 years away! Where is the jump? They are show casing what to expect 3 years from now. Is it wrong for a company to showcase it's development?

If you read all my posts, then I've never criticized MS for showcasing DX11. I've always said, its a welcome move

Read before you comment.

infra_red_dude said:
You don't understand the point... When the previous version itself hasn't matured (as in, being fully adopted by the industry) then does it make sense to jump into the next version?

I read this post and asked you as to where is there a jump to new technology. MS has NOT jumped. THey are showcasing DX 11 and are not abandoning DX 10.

infra_red_dude said:
If you read all my posts, then I've never criticized MS for showcasing DX11. I've always said, its a welcome move Read before you comment.

What has everyone got against DX11?

If its released by 2010 with Windows Seven then it'll take at least another year for decent games to come out for it. When DX10 came out, it took quite a while for DX10 games to come out.

Most games developed for DX10 work on DX9, you had the option to change hardware. We'll see the same thing happening here. If DX11 comes out by 2010, then good games for it will be available by 2011. Thats almost 3 years from now and why cry about it now? It wont outdate the hardware that we have now. Its the hardware industry that has to be blamed if you have to(i wont blame them either).

iMav said:
I read this post and asked you as to where is there a jump to new technology. MS has NOT jumped. THey are showcasing DX 11 and are not abandoning DX 10.

Galti ho gayi bhaiyaa...

@s18000rpm
I agree with the fact that vista redcues fps in many games. But you should also realise that you should not use lame laptop as an excuse for incapability of hardware. 8600m gt score less than 7600gt in 3d mark 06. Firstly, never expecting high end gaming from laptops. Secnondly, low end hardware of newer generation is meant to play prev gen games at high settings. You should have waited for dx10 to mature.
Right now,
Vista is the gaming OS for very high end setups with dx10 and dx10.1
XP is the gaming os low- medium gaming setups with dx9

You are stuck with dx9 with low end setup on a crappy unupgradable laptop.

adithyagenius said:
8600m gt score less than 7600gt in 3d mark 06.

Sure, it is. But how can you compare a mobile gfx chipset with a desktop one?

adithyagenius said:
You should have waited for dx10 to mature.

Exactly, I guess thats what the whole rant is about and s10000rpm is upset about!

infra_red_dude said:
Sure, it is. But how can you compare a mobile gfx chipset with a desktop one?

I was making a point - Don't expect laptop gfx to be as good desktop gfx and get misled that 8600m gt will work like 8600gt.

^^^ yep.. the point he was making, if I am correct is about DirectX compatibility. As to what I understand, he's not complaining about the performance issues but compatibility.

infra_red_dude said:
^^^ yep.. the point he was making, if I am correct is about DirectX compatibility. As to what I understand, he's not complaining about the performance issues but compatibility.

I just realised that there are many posts between s18000rpm's post and my reply to his post. I wasn't replying to you.
8600gt is compatible with dx10. But it just sucks @ performance.

^i was not talking about 8600gt's compatibily with dx9 & dx10

i'm talking about dx10 & dx10.1

btw i know the diff. between mobile & desktop h/ws

that laptop was bought for office purpose, i dont expect "awesommmmme" gaming frm it

just think of the millions of customers who hav bought 8xxx, 9xxx sure it performs (wth u expect for 5k?), most of them must be pissed off, coz of this dx10 & dx10.1 compatibilty issues. good thing is dx10.1 & dx10 games(good) arent out yet.

some are saying let dx10 to mature, that will obviously take more than a year frm now, then when it finally matures, MS will throw DX11

.

learn from XP & dx9 is what i'm saying.
create a os which makes profit for both (buyer & company).

& MS needs to have better communication with its h/w partners, especially gfx. makers.

kick that fatso ballmer

==========================================
DirectX 11 Won't Have 'DX9/10 Discontinuity'

During its Gamefest 2008 developer conference in Seattle, Microsoft officially announced DirectX 11, the newest version of its multimedia API package. Like its predecessor DirectX 10, it will be exclusive to Windows Vista "as well as future versions of Windows."

Features include new shader technology that begins to allow developers to position GPUs as more general-purpose parallel processors, rather than being dedicated solely to graphics processing; better multi-threading capabilities; and hardware-based tesselation.

Said newly promoted Microsoft's Entertainment Business Division CTO Chris Satchell during a Gamefest keynote, "We want to break away from purely having a paradigm of pixels, vertices and shaders."

DirectX 10, which was first released in 2006, required DX10-specific hardware, creating a clearly-defined split between it and DX9. "We created a discontinuity; that was deliberate," Satchell said during his address, but DX11 will be compatible with DX10 hardware.

"DX11 is totally compatible with DX10. There's not that 9/10 discontinuity we created before," he said.

On the state of the PC hardware switch from 32-bit to 64-bit architecture, Satchell noted that software has been the limiting factor. "We've been shipping 64-bit CPUs on the hardware side for awhile," he pointed out. "We're not at the point where the 64-bit OS is catching up. I think we are [there] in the next six to eight months." Satchell did not specify Windows platforms when referring to 64-bit systems.

well thats one welcome news.

lets see whether the gfx. card makers give us good "mature" (wch uses all features of dx10/11) card.

btw, just recently Intel was saying "GPGPU" has very less scope.

i hope dx 11 is like dx 9.0 c (upgrade type).
its good to get the product polished as long as every substantial upgrade don't require an upgrade of card.

Main thing is directx bringing standardization to gpu computing. Now need of worrying about buying AMD card and crying about not having CUDA or buying nvidia and crying about not having Ct. Now developers can program embaressingly parallel tasks in directly in dx11.

Features include new shader technology that begins to allow developers to position GPUs as more general-purpose parallel processors, rather than being dedicated solely to graphics processing; better multi-threading capabilities; and hardware-based tesselation.

Told u so, GPGPU & GPU based Physics API are part of DX 11