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What about DX10?
Vallenar
Member Posts: 124
In the recent interview with Warcry developers stated that they will release a DX10 patch with book 11.
I am really surprised this hasn't been getting more attention.
If DX10 is suppose to be all that and a bag of chips why isn't Turbine on a marketing blitz about this?
Where are all the cool screenshots and in-game videos and official webpage updates?
I guess this leads me to ask is DX10 just buggy as all heck and is Turbine just scared to play it up?
Some of the DX10 screenshots for AoC just look amazing! I don't understand why Turbine is releasing this stuff through back channels and not on their main webpage.
Comments
Vista Sales Sluggish
or
Vista - Running the numbers
That would be my thought anyways...
Really? I never heard of this...Haha
And Vista's sales are sluggish right now...They will be until they come out with the service packs.
Quite frankly, because patche din DX10 is just a bit of window dressing. They are not going to make DX10 the main rendering path so the benifits to appearance will be negligible as has been the case to date with other games that are really DX9 but with some DX10 dribbled in.
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LOTRO looks amazing even on Dx9
Lotro - Dwarf Champion
WOW - Undead Warrior
I would say cause the majority of people still run XP and DX10 doesn't work on XP. I will be waiting until the first service pack from vista before i take the plunge and buy it.
It is nice to know though that the game is DX10 compatible now after the next update. Vista just isn't that popular right now. With AOC coming out way after the first service pack does it makes senese they would push the DX10 feature. Well it does to me anyway.
DX10 support is being introduced with Book 11 update scheduled for the end of this month (October).
Dx10 can not be fully implemented on a DX9 game that has already finished being made with DX9.
Only a handful of features allow you to take a DX9 game to DX10 with limited use. Most of it is dynamic lighting and more shadows. That is about all you get extra and when you move about you do not recognize the differences so easy between Dx9 and Dx10.
A game that is built with full Dx10 will have a ton of new features and more eye candy, check out Crysis for that. Also Dx9 did have support for more shadows and lighting such as Farcry had and if LOTRO couldn't make it happen with the Dx9 I think that they did partial Dx10 update to satisfy the marketing aspect of all this and make people think they got all the Dx10 features because the article doesn't comment on the limited use they got from implementing Dx10 into their Dx9 game.
My bet is it will make for more lag and bugs with people not using Dx9 and those using it Dx10 will have more lag.
I never stated that it would fully be DX10, what I said is the DX10 Support was going in. You are right that the only changes are better dynamic lighting, alot more shadows, trees and other things moving around that we don't see using the DX9 graphics. Wanna see for yourself download the Roheryn client and try them out and you will see for yourself.
I do agree that it does cause alot more lag. I am running LOTRO on a XPS 710 dual core 1.86 processor, 4 gigs of ram, 8600gts vid card and when I turned on DX10 Graphics I got nothing but lag. It is still a work in progress though so we shall see how Turbine handles it.
Mmmm Not Entirely true....
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=93411
What this is explaining is that players using the LOTRO game client will be able to choose to have their client use the Direct X 9.0c Rendering API or the Direct X 10 Rendering API (Provided they have Windows Vista installed and a Direct X 10 Capable piece of Graphics Hardware.) This is a very similar choice to what players in Age of Conan will also recieve for example. You will also notice in the above that they ask for a full client restart it turning on or off the Direct X 10 rendering Support. This is because the full screen 3d application (In Vista) needs to physically switch the "rendering API" it is going to use, they are two seperate entities and the client will require specific code at an engine level to work with one or the other.
Where i can refute your above statement and also agree with it is that yes you are right in that a game developed from the ground up to work with a single rendering API is essentially less time consuming and cleaner an approach the end result would be no different.
The Direct X 9 and 10 rendering API's are very different due to the new WDDM Graphics model used in Windows Vista and thus why no support or compatibility is listed for Windows XP in the future. When the LOTRO Client is told too render using the Direct X 9 API it will run in Direct X 9, when told to run in Direct X 10 it will run in Direct X 10. There is no half mode there....i.e Direct X 9 with bolted Direct X 10 features.
What is important however and relevent to your point turbine have been working for months at a very low graphical subsystem level in their engine to implement changes for the code in the engine which is designed to work with the DX10 Renderer. Direct X 10 comes with all sorts of Algorythmic improvements and optimizations as well as features over Direct X 9 right from Shader Compilers to Geometry Compilers to lighting methods. What is important is how much advantage Turbine have currently taken of the Direct X 10 API and its new features in regards to their game engine, NOT what they are able to simply BOLT on to Direct X 9.
Considering that they are making improvement to the engine portions that work with the Direct X 9 renderer still, then essentially this progress will be ongoing for the code at engine level that instructs the Direct X 10 Rendering API. Essentially at first there may well be little differences between the two in terms of looks (Although some of the above sound noticable already) however as time goes on and they produce and develop further there is no reason why the Direct X 10 Rendered version of the LOTRO engine will not start to look much better / play smoother than the older Direct X 9 rendered version. Time will certainly tell.
Best Regards
Mag