GeForce FX and Half-Life 2: DirectX 8 only?

[Gorgon]

Auto-detecting hardware is good for gamers who know little or nothing about their PC’s hardware. The typical consumer frequently knows little about the hardware within his or her PC other than the processor inside. These guys know nothing about shaders, trilinear and anisotropic filtering, or anti-aliasing. By auto-detecting their hardware, Valve can configure these settings appropriately with no intervention from the end user. This is a win-win scenario for both, as Valve can deliver the best overall gaming experience for that user’s hardware, while at the same time he doesn’t need to know all the fine details about his PC in order to play the game.

Auto detection is also good for those who don’t have the patience to tweak the plethora of visual settings present within Half-Life 2. Checkboxes for model, texture, water, and shadow detail are located within the video section’s advanced menu, while anti-aliasing and texture filtering can also be adjusted here. This still doesn’t include the console! It can all be pretty intimidating if you don’t know what any of these settings does.

Arguing the case for auto detection is an easy one, clearly it benefits all parties. But what happens if end users are forced down one set path, and aren’t allowed to adjust certain settings? This appears to be the case for GeForce FX card owners.

The Firing Squad have thrown up a new article called GeForce FX and Half-Life 2: DirectX 8 only? It's well worth checking out!

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/half_life_2_fx/

:O

 

[Milo 7]

autodetect isnt that usefull i think most of the time it puts ur settings way to low

 

[Gorgon]

autodetect isnt that usefull i think most of the time it puts ur settings way to low

Right, Additionaly the article shows the differences between DX9 and DX8.1: take a look at the walls http://firingsquad.com/hardware/half_life_2_fx/page3.asp

 

[Sparta]

Why does Direct X8.0 look better then 9?

 

[lans]

Why does Direct X8.0 look better then 9?

They look the same to me - although the bump maps looks slghtly better in dx 9.

If you run in dx 8 mode - you'll see some effects missing I suppose, which really add to the scene. Although this has yet to be proven.

 

[Sparta]

They look the same to me - although the bump maps looks slghtly better in dx 9.

The bump-mapping looks more defined with DX8

 

[Homercidal]

Why does Direct X8.0 look better then 9?

The problem is that when looking at static screenshots liek these, you dont' see the quality of the reflections very well. They would look veyr different in motion.

These in particular don't do DX9 justice.

 

[crownest]

Didnt know DX7 and 8 had HDR

 

[Homercidal]

I didnt' either. and as to my last post, apparently there isn't that much DX9 stuff here. The shots do look very similar, but the DX9 looks a bit better in a couple where it's actually running DX9 on a radeon. The FX cards didn't go to DX9 for some reason.

The difference is pretty small. I'd have to run it on my machine to judge which one I'd prefer to use. nice article!

 

[th1nk]

I think it is faked HDR.

 

[kaf11]

i have an fx now, but im going to pick up a 9800 pro soon.

 

[Brian Damage]

That's not HDR, just a bloom. HDR is extra precision in the colour calculations.

 

[Gemini][]

That's not HDR, just a bloom. HDR is extra precision in the colour calculations.

I agree and it looks like it's not shader based.

 

[RussianEmpire]

Right, Additionaly the article shows the differences between DX9 and DX8.1: take a look at the walls http://firingsquad.com/hardware/half_life_2_fx/page3.asp

Does this mean my 6800 is gonna suck on half life 2 :bonce:

 

[Gemini][]

Does this mean my 6800 is gonna suck on half life 2 :bonce:

No, you'll be fine!

 

[crabcakes66]

That article is full of errors.

 

[RussianEmpire]

No, you'll be fine!

thx i was worried as hell :E

 

[blahblahblah]

That article is full of errors.

Firingsquad's info is usually inaccurate. Their benchmarking numbers are good, but they can't tell the difference from a light map and a normal map. :|

There was no HDR in CS:S. And HDR is not available in DX 8.

Depending how well Valve implements the DX 9 path into HL2, there can be a big visual difference between DX 8 and DX 9. It just depends on how much they implemented for HL2.

 

[Mountain Man]

That article is full of errors.

Such as...?

 

[ArChAnGeLv7]

such as.... their review goes based on the assumption this game isnt vaporware.

 

[Mountain Man]

Whatever the hell that means.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

No, you'll be fine!

How about my GeForce MX440

 

[Nex321]

I'm quite surprised that all of the cards got higher scores than my radeon 9700 OCed to 315 core and 300 memory. It got only 21.5 fps with 4 AA and 8 AF.

F*** this, I must have the worst card.

 

[Asus]

Yeah, that article isn't the best.
Although it doesn't make my 6800GT look very good in some of those tests...hehe

Check out the comments too.
I don't really care about this article because no one I know nor I have a FX card, thankfully.

 

[ArChAnGeLv7]

$100 bucks says the 6800 series will have a bug where the game reads it as a fx card forcing dx8.1, and it will take them 8 months to release a patch. (Its will be their way of aplogizing to ati for the delay(s)..)

 

[poseyjmac]

I'm quite surprised that all of the cards got higher scores than my radeon 9700 OCed to 315 core and 300 memory. It got only 21.5 fps with 4 AA and 8 AF.

F*** this, I must have the worst card.

you don't, but 4x is really taxing on a 9700pro, if you want to run 4x 8x AF without much of a performance hit you'll need to get a 6800gt+ or x800 pro+

 

[Takaitokuten]

I was wondering, I have a GeForce 5200FX, which I'm pretty sure isn't DX9 compatible, only DX8. In CS S, I run the game excellent,
except for the fact that there aren't any tile glare effects, and the like, I just wanted to clear up that these are DX9 specific effects? Or are they not...

 

[Gemini][]

I was wondering, I have a GeForce 5200FX, which I'm pretty sure isn't DX9 compatible, only DX8. In CS S, I run the game excellent,
except for the fact that there aren't any tile glare effects, and the like, I just wanted to clear up that these are DX9 specific effects? Or are they not...

The 5200FX is a DX9 card but it's so slow (compare it to a GF4MX440) that even some DX8 games have troubles running on it. It'll run on the DX8.1 path.

DEATH eVADER, you'll be fine, but as you can see from the firingsquad article, you card will run the game with no shaders at all (the nice effects like fire, smoke, water ripples, etc.) because it's a DX7 card.

 

[blahblahblah]

I was wondering, I have a GeForce 5200FX, which I'm pretty sure isn't DX9 compatible, only DX8. In CS S, I run the game excellent,
except for the fact that there aren't any tile glare effects, and the like, I just wanted to clear up that these are DX9 specific effects? Or are they not...

I believe you are talking about specular highlights. IIRC those are a DX 7 effect. They should be present if you are running DX 8 or DX 9. Most likely specular highlights are turned off in your option menu.

 

[oldagerocker]

But does this mean that me sitting here with my 9800 pro, could drop to dx8.1, up the res and still have a great looking game, rather than drop the res to run dx9 ? (and get good fps..)

 

[Takaitokuten]

I believe you are talking about specular highlights. IIRC those are a DX 7 effect. They should be present if you are running DX 8 or DX 9. Most likely specular highlights are turned off in your option menu.

Thx for the reply, but I don't see an option for spec. highlights in the video options advance menu, do you mean the console?

 

[serp]

As I have said before, I'm fairly sure nVidia has completely disabled DirectX 9 on FXs through the drivers, meaning if you try to get them to render DX9, they will still do it using 8-bit fixed point shaders (ie. exactly the same as DX8)

The bump-mapping looks more defined with DX8

It is also less accurate. There is lots of black and not much in between. This shows the effects of lower accuracy (8-bit vs. 16-bit/24-bit)

 

[Doombringer]

And my lowly G4ti4600 ... where will it stand?

 

[Icarus]

This thread now is more of a Hardware thread

*Moved*

 

[Gemini][]

And my lowly G4ti4600 ... where will it stand?

8.1 path.

 

[Intel17]

No, the 8.0 path...

The TI4xxx and GeForce 3's are DX8.0 cards.

 

[Doombringer]

Ah... well, still not bad. Will have to look into an upgrade in the near future, though.

 

[Doombringer]

Consequently, what would be a good upgrade path? Radeon 9800 Pro? This is figuring I go out and buy a new card today.. that probably won't happen

 

[Gemini][]

No, the 8.0 path...

The TI4xxx and GeForce 3's are DX8.0 cards.

You're right. I said DX8.1 because I was playing with a 9000PRO lately and I was doing some comparisons with a Ti4200.
The 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200SE are DX8.1 (PS1.4) cards.

 

[Play4Fun]

lol even when I change my dx level to 8 my lame G4MX still render dx7!!