Microsoft Makes Direct X 11.1 a Windows 8 Exclusive 553
BluPhenix316 writes "Microsoft has made Direct X 11.1 a Windows 8 Exclusive. I think this is merely an update to make Direct X more integrated with Windows 8. Is this going to be the trend? To lock you into the OS updates so Windows 7 doesn't last as long as Windows XP has?"
The update is pretty minor, but it does add Stereoscopic rendering, and there seemed to be an implication that no new DirectX updates after this will be made for Windows 7.
Re:I still can't tell the difference betwen DX9 an (Score:5, Informative)
They did it with Vista, too (Score:4, Informative)
And no one bought that any more than they'll be buying 8.
Re:Mod parent up (Score:3, Informative)
WDDM 1.2 has something called a composer that schedules between CPU and GPU tasks with directX 11.1 on top. It is a major performance improvement and great for power saving features.
Unfortunately, it can't be backported to Windows 7/XP as they would no longer be Windows 7 and XP anymore as it is a kernel rewrite. IT would break corporate software which is why they love using obsolete platforms for decades as it never changes.
Well no wonder IE 10 is not available on Windows 7. All that hardware acceleration has to be redone and fine tuned for a WDDM without a composer.
Re:Let's hope Steam on Linux gathers... steam (Score:3, Informative)
Linux sucks as a desktop os
... have you ever actually used Linux as a "Desktop OS"? All* of them?
If you've just "tried" one, then you really have no room for an opinion.
* by 'all' I mean the variations in desktop UI's... KDE, Gnome, MATE, XFCE, Fluxbox, Windowmaker, and so on and so forth.
Re:Careful what you wish for (Score:5, Informative)
Why would you worry about which version has your graphics drivers? Ubuntu, which will be the only distro for the near future with Steam support, will have the major drivers available. If you choose to use another, it's up to you to get it to work until they decide to branch out to another distribution.
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/steamd-penguins/ [valvesoftware.com]
Why Ubuntu? There are a couple of reasons for that. First, we’re just starting development and working with a single distribution is critical when you are experimenting, as we are. It reduces the variability of the testing space and makes early iteration easier and faster. Secondly, Ubuntu is a popular distribution and has recognition with the general gaming and developer communities. This doesn’t mean that Ubuntu will be the only distribution we support. Based on the success of our efforts around Ubuntu, we will look at supporting other distributions in the future.
Re:Well there's 11.1 reasons to use OpenGL (Score:5, Informative)
Solution: don't buy from the big studios. Send them an email telling them that you aren't buying, and tell them why. Inform them that the indies are supplying your needs, with OpenGL compatible games. Problem solved.
Re:I still can't tell the difference betwen DX9 an (Score:4, Informative)
Early on in DX10 times, it was the exact opposite. Switching to DX10 renderer cost around 10-30% performance over what you would get on DX9.
It wasn't until DX11 and win7 that we started to see games that would actually have proper support that didn't come with a massive performance hit when switching from DX9 to DX11. And even so, DX11 still generally is a net fps loss because of the extra features that put extra load on the hardware. Load that isn't there in DX9.
Re:Didn't work with Vista (Score:3, Informative)
Not true anymore. About 50% of upcoming new games require direct X 10 as minimum, for example: Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Company of Heroes 2, Total War: Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Re:Let's hope Steam on Linux gathers... steam (Score:2, Informative)
Oh come on. Do you really think I'm not aware of LibreOffice? I tried opening some .doc and .docx files recently with it (version 3.6.2) - it was able to open them and show things mostly like they do in Office 2010. But it's that mostly bit which is the problem, and I don't care about whether it's Microsoft's problem or not, the fact remains that it's not a perfect replication. This might not be an issue for certain documents but it certainly increases the odds that it will chew on something critical later down the track. We don't need that level of uncertainty.
Oh, and things like WordArt and borders are sucky in LibreOffice. Writer has Fontwork which is similar, but nowhere near as flexible or pretty (and any Word documents which use WordArt will not render properly in Writer). The borders also aren't as good and Word documents don't transfer properly when using borders from Word. These might seem like "minor" things, but it's an accumulation of "minor" issues in LibreOffice that make it less useful for us than it should be.
I don't' know why people in the FOSS community can't accept the fact that free software often has deficiencies, and those deficiencies can't always been ignored or worked around (or it might not be worth the effort to do so).
Re:Careful what you wish for (Score:4, Informative)
I can't speak for nvidia, but all of ATi's DX 9 cards are unsupported. I had a hell of a time getting an XPress 200M working in Windows 8 when I tested it out.
Re:Time to retire XP (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong. There are still hundreds of millions of users with perfectly good computers that are running XP. They don't want to upgrade and migrate all their data and settings. They don't want to pay for new software that will let them do the things they do already. Hell, the feature touted in the thread summary (stereoscopic rendering) is already on Windows XP in OpenGL (and has been forever, including lots of effects that Microsoft forced you to get Vista for). Requiring an OS upgrade for simple features has nothing to do with technology (since OpenGL has no problem) - it is all about bilking you for more money.
According to StatCounte [statcounter.com]r XP usage is now tying MacOSX and Vista usage! Look under United States and add November statistics to do the calculation?
XP is a security nightmare. THe only place where XP and IE 6 are huge is CHina. Outside of that market it is dying. It is time to move on and stop fearing change. XP security is really bad just like IE 6 which came with it as the grandparent stated was from a different era where a good password is all you needed and oh stay out of websites you do not know etc.
Today, you get hacked by just having flash out of date or java installed through an infected ad network. I setup a new install of WIndows 7 just the other day and someone hit the blue E and BAM msn.com had an ad. Had to re-image the damn thing. XP lacks ASLR, DEP (except on a few services), and heap-spray protection. ASLR = random address layering (out of order). All you need to do to hack an XP box is know which ram addresses core dll files use. You can do this as a regular user.
Just insert some code by overflowing a buffer or integer in XP and BAM your code is running as admin, even if the code started as a regular user. Dep and ASLR with Windows 7 can stop this. VC10 has bounds checking when a program crashes to prevent loss of control ... again does not work on XP. XP does not seperate processes and priveldges and even impersonates administrator and hardware devices ... wow.
XP
- can't scale beyond 2 cores efficiently
- SATA driver can't multitask with command queing
- Swaps like a mofo due to a terrible paging algorithm (double pennalty if you use the default SATA driver) even if you have plenty of ram
- Slower and shitty graphics due to not supporting WDDM and a compuser below DirectX11 and the hardware. This makes your computer more stable
- Driver BSOD protection
- No UEFI support
- No Trim SSD Support
- No modern browser support after 2014 (Chrome and FF will drop it)
I assume if you work in IT (like most slashdotters) that you are under 30 and are used to behavior that dictates run unupdated ancient platforms but DO NOT TOUCH IT. THose of use over 35 remember doing it every 2- 3 years like your phones.
It is irresponsible and dangerous to run XP today and especially after next year. It is time to move on my friend. It is 2012 now. Your PC is not an appliance like a fridge if it is internet enabled. We wont support you anymore and it wont be our problem for not supporting IE 6- 8 and XP. That problem is yours.
Re:And in other news...Steve Sinofsky is GONE. (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe it's because 8 is a stinker and they have to deep discount the so-called upgrade to 15 bucks just to get people to try it?
If that were the case, why put Larson-Green in his place? She's the one behind Metro (and Ribbon before that)...