whats with BF3 not supporting DX9?

[Ronbert]

But those are just graphical improvements that require more power especially tessalation.

Isn't there like improvements that allow performance increase while mainting or improving visual quality?

See thats the thing the graphics are improved without promoting more workload. The idea behind this is better engine for rending will equal more output with less work load.

DX10 has superior shading as I said but provided this performance in a way that wouldn't slow it down. Trying to get the same experience out of DX9 wasn't possible because the engine wasn't optimized to handle the workload. Or at least this is my understanding of it. Look at it this way if we tried to introduce tesselation without DX11 it wouldn't be possible because the rendering power needed would be enormous. The DX11 engine introduces Tesselation Rendering to the CPU and GPU in a way they can "understand".

 

[Zantal]

guys google it, can't remember all the features.

DX 10 had different shaders. dx9 shader code is limited to a set number of instructions and variables. DX10 and DX11 don't have these limits.

DX11 makes it possible to use tessellation.
DX11 supports multithreaded rendering (not SLI)

oh and DX9 has a fixed pipeline while dx10 and 11 have it completely programmable.

can't explain all here, but if you search around there are many articles
google is your friend.

here is one about dx11 and new features http://www.anandtech.com/show/2716/1

 

[\dev\goat]

That article is proof positive and likely has a causual relationship with linux probably never becoming a mainstream desktop environment. People are stuck on DX, people are gonna use DX, and even carmack, the MAN when it comes to OGL, is switching to DX.

'It is really just inertia that keeps us on OpenGL at this point,' Carmack told us. He also explained that the developer has no plans to move over to Direct3D, despite its advantages.

'OpenGL still works fine,' said Carmack, 'and we wouldn’t get any huge benefits by making the switch, so I can’t work up much enthusiasm for cleaning it out of our codebase. If it was just a matter of the game code, we could quite quickly produce a DirectX PC executable, but all of our tool code has to share resources with the game renderer, and I wouldn’t care to go over all of that for a dubious win.'

linux will be just fine

 

[Aynjell]

'It is really just inertia that keeps us on OpenGL at this point,' Carmack told us. He also explained that the developer has no plans to move over to Direct3D, despite its advantages.

'OpenGL still works fine,' said Carmack, 'and we wouldn’t get any huge benefits by making the switch, so I can’t work up much enthusiasm for cleaning it out of our codebase. If it was just a matter of the game code, we could quite quickly produce a DirectX PC executable, but all of our tool code has to share resources with the game renderer, and I wouldn’t care to go over all of that for a dubious win.'

linux will be just fine

I suppose their development isn't switching, but I think it's pretty clear he won't be endorsing it anymore. I meant switching in a more "general" term. If carmack were to start a new project not on the idtech engine, based on his own words I'd predict a switch to direct X.

 

[\dev\goat]

No doubt. Microsoft won the marketing war with Directx. Maintaining a graphics API is a small price to pay to guarantee every single PC gamer in the market buys a copy of your operating system.

I'm sure whatever Microsoft guy came up with that idea in that board meeting is blowing his nose with 100 dollar bills and wiping his *** with live bunny rabbits today

edit: I like this synopsis of it
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX

 

[Original1993]

everyone seems to think im running DX9 coz of this, im running a 9500 GT under windows 7, so im running DX10, i just thought this game was a console port, you cant blame me, look at the newest games xD

 

[Ronbert]

edit: I like this synopsis of it
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX

Link is a good read.

 

[Tokae]

Being a hardcore IDSoft fan since the creation of DooM, I am an OpenGL guy. I still have not bought Brink yet, but I really wanted to buy it just to see what it looked and played like, based on its engine. OpenGL is a pretty amazing framework that has been updated over the last 20 years by a dedicated group, Khronos.

I really hope we see more games in the future using it instead of DirectX. I do appreciate DirectX though. Microsoft has come a long way with it as well.

Even though DX9 is 'old' and I cannot wait to see the new games using DX11 to its fullest, the work done with Crysis 2 and COD MW2 (the best looking COD IMO) shows the power of DX9, but its time to move on. Technology must be updated and continue to advance. If it weren't we would all still be using 486's with 16 MB of RAM!

 

[Aynjell]

everyone seems to think im running DX9 coz of this, im running a 9500 GT under windows 7, so im running DX10, i just thought this game was a console port, you cant blame me, look at the newest games xD

Console port or not, it's still possible to find diamonds in the rough, and BC2 is one of them.

 

[Owenator]

Console port or not, it's still possible to find diamonds in the rough, and BC2 is one of them.

I in my opinion that's because it was made by DICE. They are still PC guys at heart.

BF3 is a great chance for them to show what PC's can do and what we've been missing with all the watered down ports IMHO.

I upgraded to Win 7 x64 for this reason!