Next 3DMark Vista/DX10 only

[Iced_Eagle]

Well, it seems people are starting to push away from "legacy" XP and DX9 already... Everyone's favorite 3DMark program will now be Vista only and will require DX10.

First of all (and this shouldn't come as a shocker to anyone) the next generation 3DMark will be Windows Vista only, and will require DX10 compliant hardware. You may ask: Why no fallback to DX9 then? Well, we already have a Vista enabled DX9 benchmark (3DMark06) and the last three 3DMarks have all been DX9; 3DMark03 has one test which requires SM2.0, 3DMark05 requires SM2.0 for all tests and 3DMark06 uppers the requirements for two tests to SM3.0. I think both we and the rest of the world are ready to step into the next generation - DX10. There's no reason to go backwards, if you know what I mean.
I haven't been following up on all articles about DX10 on the net, but it really is a great step in the right direction compared to DX9. I can't go into details here (our PC product director and our sales & marketing guys would hang me by my beloved ones if I did), but the whole environment surrounding DX10 feels like a fresh breath of air. It's clean, nice, and tidy. Something completely the opposite to my apartment..

It seems that when people want to judge their hardware via 3DMark, it's either 3DMark 06, or upgrade to DX10 card with Vista.


http://www.yougamers.com/blogs/nick_r/

Other very small and vague details about the next 3DMark... Nothing official really.

 

[StardogChampion]

Only people with the latest hardware use 3DMark anyway.

 

[Sidewinder]

to bad Nvidia can't bring out decent vista drivers

 

[Iced_Eagle]

to bad Nvidia can't bring out decent vista drivers

Erm, have you tried the latest ones that were released yesterday?

They work perfectly fine... Smells like trolling to me.

 

[Javert]

Why Vista only then? XP can't run DX10?

 

[DESSTROYER]

what's 3dmark?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Nope it can't. You obviously haven't been paying attention

Now before someone goes off, it's not like XP can't run it... It's just that it's a marketing move and also would help the Vista platform in gaming...

*Edit* desstroyer: It's sort of like the cream of the crop of 3D benchmarking... If someone gets new hardware and wants to see how good it is overall, they use 3DMark. Google and and download the test version of 3DMark 06.

 

[TCfromBN]

Now before someone goes off, it's not like XP can't run it... It's just that it's a marketing move and also would help the Vista platform in gaming...

Ermm... XP couldn't run it.

The DX10 architecture takes advantage of the completely redesigned OS, which is why it has such a performance boost. I guess if you were able to some how code the DX 10 architecture to communicate with XP, it would run... very inefficiently.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

The DX team could get DX10 to run on Win 95 if they felt like taking a HUGE amount of time to rework everything. There is absolutely nothing in the computer world saying you have to stick to certain platforms. If the DX team felt like taking a multi-year project to do it, they could. Run like crap? Of course... They could still do it though.

I know about the architecture of DX10 / Vista and how they've cut support for XP so they can move forward... DX10 also takes a great use of DWM and GDI+ now, which XP doesn't have. etc etc... It's just that people always argue that it's technically possible for XP to run DX10, which it is with a ton of work on their end.

 

[Unfocused]

Sounds like someone's pocket is full of cash now.

 

[VirusType2]

The DX team could get DX10 to run on Win 95 if they felt like taking a HUGE amount of time to rework everything. There is absolutely nothing in the computer world saying you have to stick to certain platforms. If the DX team felt like taking a multi-year project to do it, they could. Run like crap? Of course... They could still do it though.

I know about the architecture of DX10 / Vista and how they've cut support for XP so they can move forward... DX10 also takes a great use of DWM and GDI+ now, which XP doesn't have. etc etc... It's just that people always argue that it's technically possible for XP to run DX10, which it is with a ton of work on their end.

Just to add to the info:
I have heard that "it is possible, but Microsoft won't allow it. The WindowsXP DX10 project is canned."

 

[Javert]

I figured. I bet XP could run DX10 is MS wanted to. It's bull****.

 

[VirusType2]

I figured. I bet XP could run DX10 is MS wanted to. It's bull****.

You speak the troof.

Ya know, I bet it all, that the software programmer / XP gamer fanbase would do all the work, wouldn't cost MS a penny to get XP to run DX10. But I won't deny that I hardly know what I'm talking about. It's some kind of copyright issues too possibly?

I'm not really worried about it though because DX10 games aren't even here yet, I'll be getting Vista when the kinks are ironed out (it is lovely and better designed "i lyk teh start buton end new menues.), and I'll be getting a better gfx card anyway so...

 

[Iced_Eagle]

The thing is, is that PC gaming is doing poorly when compared to other platforms. Reason being it's too loose of a system right now.

Developers have to worry about working on hardware from years past, and past DX versions and that takes tons of time to develop and test it properly.

Now with DX10 being Vista only, that means you, as of now, have only one OS and one DX to develop and test for. If the title is DX10 only, then that also limits the hardware you need to program and test for.

It's really about doing a restart on the Windows platform since the way it was being handled was the same as it was back in like Win 3.11 / Win95 days...

They did the same thing with the OSX back in the days. In fact, they didn't even put app compatibility in the new OSX. However, look how good the Mac is doing now since they had that refresh. Windows needs that as well right now. They do have app compat, and it is hurting software development believe it or not (there's so much legacy crap in Windows that it just plain sucks at times!). Microsoft is working on a full restart of there stuff doing it slowly over time and not abrupt like Apple did way back when.

It sucks short-time, but trust me... The effects will soon be apparent in years to come when DX10 only titles start coming out. Hopefully 3DMark will showcase the start of that.

 

[Cole]

To further expand on what Iced_Eagle is talking about.

-A major idea behind Vista is to take gaming back up against consoles(and then make Vista/360 a seamless media system).

-For one this starts with drivers. Back with XP some things wouldn't work on X hardware configurations.

-With Vista, drivers for sound and graphics are much more strict. This means less problems. Less debugging for developers(less bugs in games). Faster code. More secure and stable code.

-Dx10 API is also a much more strict API than Dx9 for hardware developers. This takes direct advantage of the strict drivers. These two things combined will directly cause heavy speed increases. Throw in Dx10 API is itself faster than the Dx9 API and allows for more.

-Yes you could port it to Xp, but then you would also have to completely revamp a lot of how Xp handles drivers(otherwise your defeating the whole purpose). If you change how Xp handles drivers, a lot of hardware configurations will simply fail.

-And of course $$$, but that's the idea. Microsoft though could just release a new OS every single year with a new DirectX that is only available through that OS, however they don't, they will offer Dx10 for many OS'es after Vista. That last sentence was btw picking on Apple. Microsoft has updated Xp a lot and added a lot into the OS. Apple releases a new OS quite often and adds new features, however those features could just come in a free update.. but they don't.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Meh, don't care. I couldn't run '06 properly anyways. It made my compy cry slow, painful, stuttery tears.