The DirectX 10 API will have completely new and faster dynamic link libraries (DLLs) and is supposed to run much faster. The company decided to cut the backward compatibility with DirectX 9, 8, 7 and lower in this API but there will be a way to use games programmed for those APIs. Microsoft will enable support for DX 9 or lower games through a software layer, meaning it might run slower.
PB use DX7 calls right ?
Right now DX program written in PB runs on Vista Beta 1, hope they will continue in the final.
Don't worry. DX7, 8 and 9 games and programs will continue to run as before,
although in software emulation mode, and not hardware mode.
Only applications made for DX10 will be able to take full advantage of DX10 hardware or DX10 compliant hardware (not a big surprise really all DX versions has been like that).
I guess the main difference seem to be that the OS will "switch" to a DX9 software layer, rather than kick in DX10 emulation or remapping for DX9 and older applications.
In other words (maybe this sounds a bit too harsh), if you try to run a DX9 or older application on a DX10 system,
then you loose hardware acceleration and end up with software rendering etc. instead. (if you got a very fast CPU this won't be so bad)
The upside I guess is that DX10 will be smaller,faster and tighter.
No compatibility bugs because it no longer has backwards compatibility.
Most likely PureBasic editor will add a compile time option so you can choose between DX3, DX7/8/9, DX10
And don't worry, I'm sure that when DX10 is released that it will be made available to Windows XP and so on as well.
(don't cont on Win95/98/Me though, M$ pretty much ditched all support for anything older tan Win2000 it seems)
So as long as you don't have a very old graphics card (DX7 at the least)
and the OS you have isn't too old. (Win2000 or later)
Then your DX10 applications will run nicely on a DX10 system,
and DX9 and older too, but without any hardware speedups.
It's a curse and a blessing in one I guess.
Longhorn/Vista basically jumps the whole thing ahead to
push DX10 hardware and software,
a very good thing really as that kinda whipe the slate clean
and you will get better hardware and software based around DX10+ only API.
The curse I guess is that older non DX10 software will run slower on Vista,
and that (depends on the actual graphic drivers and their native emulation I guess)
older hardware will not be used at all (software mode used instead)
or that (if the graphics drivers has native emulation to match DX10 specs)
certain hardware stuff runs a lot slower than it should.
Rescator wrote:Don't worry. DX7, 8 and 9 games and programs will continue to run as before,
although in software emulation mode, and not hardware mode.
Hi Rescator, thank you for you reply.
We'll see, after all when DX 10 specs will be stable maybe someone will come up with a lib/wrapper for PB. I hope
I like very much this community and I hope to contribute in some way (probably a little way) in the near future.
I'll do some more experiments with PB but I believe I'll register it soon.
From Fred's point of view, I wonder how difficult it will be to add the "compile for DX10" capability into the compiler to get the best possible performance?
Will the DX10 .dll calls be that radically different from DX9?
Using the current "Dynamic CPU" option in Compiler Options, perhaps multi-DX versions could be created that support whatever version the end user has (The trade-off being a slightly larger executable)? This is probably a lot of work, but would be very useful to stay ahead of the game, so to speak.
Russell
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Don't worry. DX7, 8 and 9 games and programs will continue to run as before,
although in software emulation mode,
As we all know from past experience, DX's software emulation is unusable because it is so slow.
My understanding is that the software layer will convert the DX 9,8,7,etc. function calls into DX 10 equivalents and then send them along to the DX 10 API - so it will still use hardware acceleration.
Ah! So the DX 7,8,9 software layer "calls" DX10?
Almost like a wrapper?
Yeah that should still allow some hardware features,
but some might still be software emulation.
In either case, it's obvious this extra step will impact performance
vs DX10 apps.
Oh crap. Imagine all the issues with future games as they ship with both DX9 and DX10 install setups. and the matching bugs/issues that brings. *sigh*
It will be interesting to see what happens, but it is still a while until it happens. It would certainly angry a large percentage of their userbase if the new OS broke compatibility with all the older games or greatly reduced performance of their games.
In theory, if DX10 is all new and not backwards compatible, couldn't you have a side-by-side installation of DX10 & DX9? Any new DX10 games would use DX10 and any older DX9 or below games could use DX9.
MS will figure something out. There is always all kinds of false-hype and rumors before any new OS release and MS habitually changes plans along the way. Vista hardly represents what Longhorn was first said to be. The new file system has been yanked, along with many other features.
