the IGN link thread says that DX11 support is included. apparently not much is in game but that doesnt mean it cant be utilized by modders. hell........look what modders have to with STALKER SoC Complete.

Just something for everyone to keep in mind.

Those features are completely non-existent unless the game is actually optimized for DX11. Having DX11 inclusion isn't just turning on some magical switch that will make the game look better. Considering the core of the game is being made on DX9, we can expect minor improvements at the most for those of us with DX11 capabilities. Unless an actual game developer prioritizes their game for DX11 use (like DICE is doing now with Battlefield 3, and it will be amazing!!!), they will never get the full use out of DX11 as a lot of PC gamers (and clearly console) just don't have access to these features.

I won't expect games to start making the leap to DX11 like DICE until a year or two from now though. For now, we will see slow steps into adding features, but nothing major. We can definitely bet that Fallout 4 will take full advantage of DX11 though.

Even with modders having access to the feature, we shouldn't expect anything major, as the core game is built on DX9. It's still a nice feature to have regardless though, and practically any AAA title seems to at least come with the feature now.

Elite PC Gamer thread here. Tessellation is sweet and all, but I hardly notice it in games. All I've played was Metro 2033 and Call of Pripyat, so I haven't seen much.
And Stuff like Heaven Benchmark is specifically designed to showcase DX 11 and nothing else.

From what I see, DX 11 is just to small a market for Bethesda to cater to.

Tessellation is almost non-existent because no game developer has actually taken advantage of it in the market yet. What DX11 is actually capable of is truly amazing, but we aren't going to see those features for at least another year or two (aside from Battlefield 3) just because not all PC gamers and consoles obviously have access to DX11. When game developers actually start making games specifically for DX11 though, the detail of environments is going to increase exponentially and look truly amazing!

Would it have to wait until the next generation of consoles to be truly common? On that matter, what about this OpenGL Playstations use? How will that work with DX11 support when Playstations, meaning most likely the PS4, don't have any connection to DX features of any kind?

I don't think game developers will wait for the next generation of consoles to come out before using DX11 to a greater extent. I'm also predicting we will see the next generation around 2013-14ish (Microsoft already started hiring designers for the next console).

Well keep in mind OpenGL is a non-profit tool, which is technically just as good as DX11. However, Direct X is owned by Microsoft, and they have the technology on the Direct Xbox 360 and on PC (as they are the dominate force). It's unlikely that OpenGL will make any significant grounds, since Microsoft more or less controls gaming on the PC. So I suspect that Sony/Nintendo will either have to convert over to Direct X if they want those features, or they will just clearly miss out. Game Developers aren't going to switch over to OpenGL (unless they are trying to lose money) as DX is the clear juggernaut for making games.

Would Sony ever use DX11? Would they ever be able to? My primary platforms are typically Playstations so these questions are more ones of personal hope for my future gaming experiences, but I'm curious to know.

I don't really know to be honest. If they continue to get away with OpenGL while staying competitive, maybe not. However, if Microsoft starts leaving Sony in the dust, they may not have any other choice. We will see what happens, but clearly Microsoft is the one holding all the cards at this point. It is ultimately up to the game developers to decide which technology they use to make games, and DX is the obvious standard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny2291cRdOs

OpenGL is really good. there is nothing like 'getting away with openGL'


it is a very good api afaik.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/115/1158651p2.html


IGN: Will the PC version support DirectX 11?

Todd Howard: Yes, but I guess the real question here is do we take advantage of DX11's big new features and the answer is 'not specifically'. Our graphics work centers around doing things that will look the same regardless of platform, and sometimes that implementation will be different on the 360, PS3, and PC.

Im just so glad it will support it. Period. The game will look jaw dropping on pc.

Sure, why not? The thing about tech demos is that they describe what games could be like in 2, 3, 4 years - not now. As there are very few DX11 capable games, we only have tech demos. Every DX11-capable game I've tried has run absolutely fine on my GTS 450 - which is pretty much as low as you can go and still be a DX11 capable card.


That's, uh, that's the point. Not noticing it means it's doing its job. The idea isn't to be flashy and "Look at me!", it's to dynamically scale model complexity based on distance so that you can have very complex models near you, but then have much simpler ones as you get further away. You're not *meant* to notice it.


As for DX11 vs OpenGL, it's important to note that these are both abstraction layers, that don't add any capabilities to the GPU, but use what's there. Whether you're OpenGL or DirectX is meaningless on console - DX11 is a thing on PC because newer cards have a standardised architecture that DX11 supports, but because both consoles are set hardware, it's a meaningless distinction. They're never going to get any better, you have what you have.

My current card actually runs the Unigine Heaven Benchmark at max setting (including tessellation, shaders, AA, etc) at a stead 30 fps. It's quite fascinating to watch the changing polycount as you move through the environment. It's almost unnoticeable with wireframes turned on.

It's really interesting to see how good and cheap graphic cards perform nowadays.
10 years ago every generation of cards were a huge leap forward. Nowadays even a 3 to 4 year old card can play modern games on a high quality level.

Yeah, back in 2003-2005 the graphical advancements got kinda stuck. Games didn't use the power to the fullest, and many games were DX8 games even though DX9 was released in 2002. Then the Xbox 360 was released and a huge jump happened, suddenly all the games started to use SM3.0 and so on, as developers started to release their multiplatform games for more powerful hardware.

The same is happening now again, and we won't really see any big jump until the next generation of consoles are released.

I thought they said in an Interview that they will not build the graphics of Skyrim around Directx11, but i9t will be supported on PC

I just hope modders can use the Dx11 tech

its in, modders can do what they will with it and make some hightmaps now


all i need now is cloth physics and decent refractions.

He said in the IGN interview that DX11 was in... but that they wouldn't be doing anything with it. Skyrim Graphics Extender anyone?

AFAIK, I think there's no need of them. Graphics extenders hooks modern DX libraries in order to use it's functions on an engine which doesn't support that DX version. If Creation engine already supports DX11, it's only a matter of creating DX11 stuff (shaders, tessellated models, etc).

Something like the Graphics Extenders might still be needed, though. Sure, Skyrim is supporting DX11, but it's not actually using it's big features. That might mean that a lot more is required to "turn them on" than just having modders prep the assets to make use of them or tweaking the ini file.

You really could with heaven benchmark, but if you don't notice it whats the point. Its supposed to Improve visuals, but you can't see it

I had to actually look up pictures of Tessellation vs no Tessellation to see the difference.

Theres not point in having it on Metro 2033 or Call of Pripyat, I just did anyways to be awesome.

The point is you can have much higher quality objects than you could without tessellation. Like you say, it's very noticable in the Heaven benchmark - it's still a fairly new technology, and it's not really surprising it hasn't been perfected yet. I mean, look at FEAR - it had completely dynamic shadows, but even now we're still improving our dynamic shadowing.

For CoP specifically, I'm not entirely sure what the extent of their tesellation is. It's very noticeable on character models if you toggle it on and off while standing in front of them.

No, we didn't get gimped. The very fact that the game supports it is a godsend. That means we can tweak the game. Even if it doesn't use the features like Tessellation, we can add it in because of the fact it supports DX11. PC can never be gimped because we can mod.



Cloth physics probably isn't in from what we have seen, though it's not improbable that they may decide to put it in between now and when the game goes gold. However, I'm sure good refractions will be in the game, at this point in gaming history, great refractions are a very easy feature to add. Lack of good refractions shouldn't be an issue to worry about as this is Bethesda and it definitely has refraction and it is most certainly going to have very good refractions and PC will have full reflections in the water.

Am...

I just hope than that "a lot more" isn't "A LOT MORE", if you get my meaning...