Dx 11 benefits

[Cedaway]

We all know what DirectX is and we approximately all know (not deeply) the differences between Dx9 - 10 and 11.

 

I've just read an article (in french) concerning DirectX 11.1 and it's supported OS and GPU.

 

One of the functionality of the API made me think about that:

- DCS World is currently integrally rendered. By this way, it's possible to have a view of what's happening anywhere on the map. And that's nice, but CPU-GPU consuming.

 

In the article, I've read that:

 

With Direct3D11, 'Clip Planes' were not usable with the D3D9 generation of GPU's. Clip Planes can define zones where the rendering of the objects can be evicted, because that are outside the FOV or because that are too far away from the vision point. The supplementary flexibility introduced with Direct3D10 in the definition of the Clip Planes, and reconducted with Direct3D11, made it incompatible with older GPU's. Direct3D11.1 along with the 9.x funcionnality level is able to reinterpret certain kinds of Clip Planes in a format supported by DirectX9

 

 

(Original Version in French)

 

Avec Direct3D 11, les clip planes n'étaient pas utilisables pour le matériel de la génération DirectX 9. Les clip planes permettent de définir les zones en dehors desquelles le rendu des objets peut être évité, soit parce qu'ils sont hors du champ de vision, soit parce qu'ils sont trop loin. La flexibilité supplémentaire introduite à partir de Direct3D 10 dans la définition des clips planes, et reprise dans Direct3D 11, avait rendu sa gestion incompatible avec le matériel plus ancien. Direct3D 11.1 avec les niveaux 9_x est capable de réinterpréter certains clip planes dans un format supporté par le matériel DirectX 9.

 

 

So, ED, do you plan to use D3D11 or 11.1?

What do you think over this functionality and generally with the D3D11 / 11.1 functionalities like 'Target Independent Rasterazation' (displacement of irregular geometric forms treatment from the CPU to the GPU)?

 

And the community, do you think it should be a good idea to move the engine to Dx11?

Edited November 22, 2012 by Cedaway

[Rhinox]

do you think it should be a good idea to move the engine to Dx11?

I'm affraid there is no such a thing as "moving" engine to dx11. ED would have to create new 3d-engine from the scratch...

[EtherealN]

Not quite from scratch, but still a big job.

 

There's a difference between "graphics engine" and "rendering pipeline", so to speak. The latter happens inside the former, and is what would be implemented in Dx9 or 11 etcetera.

 

There is nothing inherently impossible in having multiple pipelines - for example Battlefield Bad Company 2 has both Dx9 and Dx10 pipes. (The only difference between them though is that Dx10 pipe is slightly faster, the resulting image is exactly the same.) But as always we run into the question of resources - Frostbite engine itself has a budget many many times larger than the entirety of DCS...

[upupandaway]

Ok, this has me confused because you make it sound hypothetical.

Doesn´t EDGE use a DX11 rendering engine? It has been stated that this new terrain engine uses DX11 features, right?

Accordingly, it is some kind of new graphics engine which uses these feaures for the terrain while other features like explosions etc. remain at the current DX9 standard pipeline within a global DX11 engine, simply not making use of the new available possiblities (yet).

Is this vague outline correct, or am I misunderstanding the whole thing?

 

THX

[EtherealN]

You cannot use two rendering pipelines at the same time. It's either Dx9 or Dx11. Cannot use both at the same time.

 

What you can do is have the same game use both - but only one at a time. So for example, the same game can offer two rendering pipelines, such that if someone lacks Dx11 support they can still play (via the Dx9 renderer). This can be important because Dx11 requires Win7. If you make a game without Dx9 options, you're basically giving everyone using XP and Vista the finger. Latest Steam Hardware survey shows that it is only very recently that even half of active Steam users that have Dx11 support on their systems. (50.89%, to be exact.)

 

Basically: the same game can have both, but they won't be using both at the same time. They'll be options for the user.

 

As for future features, like EDGE, I'm being very careful with what I say there so I don't end up saying something that is wrong. Don't read too much into it in either direction. :)

[Pilotasso]

If my memory serves me right ED has stated long ago that DX10 (not 11) and multi CPu threaded optimizations are going to find their way to DCS eventually.

[upupandaway]

Ok, thank you.

I have about a million more questions regarding this, but I guess it can´t be too long until some new info will surface around here. Some things about EDGE have to be new (and incredibly revolutionary) in order to justify the new designation.

[Cedaway]

And to complete, here is an article about the different features (functionalities) of the API between its different versions: