DirectX9 vs DirectX10

A brief intro about DirectX. Directx is created by Microsoft code named Directx, a collective name for a programming interface, Direct3D, Direct Draw, DirectSound etc, and is used to handle tasks in multimedia applications. Mainly used with video games. Basically how well a video game looks. It started with Directx 1.0 in 1995 and we’re up to version 10 now.
DirectX10 has arrived with Windows Vista! (a Vista exclusive, stupid move on Microsoft’s part but I’ll talk about that later).

Although a few video cards actually support it (Nvidia 8800 series / ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, and not many games are out that actually take advantage of it, the results are stunning!

DirecX10 is only with Vista. Problem is, Vista and DirectX9 (version 9c) gaming don’t get along with each other although Microsoft’s claim that they are backwards compatible. They are simply not. DirectX10 is built from ground up, on a totally different architecture. They started with a clean slate with means that more then half of the games and applications you used to run under XP with good old DirectX9 simply don’t work anymore with DirectX10 installed.

My old computer has XP with DirectX9, my new one has Vista with DirectX10.
So far I can’t tell the difference with directx10 because for the simple fact I don’t have any games that support DirectX10. And even if I did, I need to get the right video card in order to support it! So basically I have to spend a lot of cash to see stunning quality graphics. That’s right, even more stunning and realistic then XboX360 (once again Microsoft made the mistake here that the XboX360 cannot be upgraded to DirectX10! There were rumors that ATI was going to release a patch but that’s unfortunately untrue)

Some images so you can see the power of DirectX10.

Flight Simulator with DirectX9

Flight Simulator with DirectX10

Age of Conan with DirectX9

Age of Conan with DirectX10

Some video samples: (pardon the shitty low YouTube resolution)

Looks awesome right! The only problem is that you need Vista and a high end video card!
I don’t see why they don’t make it compatible with XP or even XboX360! It’s their own product line! They can’t even make it compatible?!

Bottom line is, if you have XP it stops at DirectX9, to take full advantage of DirectX10 and all it’s components you need Vista.
Directx10 is NOT backwards compatible as they claim at Microsoft. It’s as I like to call it ‘artificially’ backwards compatible which means it will ‘emulate’ DirectX9, but that’s not the real step back since it’s built on a totally different architecture.
It should’ve been named something completely different since it’s a different software driver. DirectX 10 has nothing to do with the previous versions of DirectX!
I tried it myself. Most of my games that had no trouble with XP, simply won’t run under Vista.
It will take years for most gamers to catch up with the latest technology to take advance of DirectX10. Especially since they excluded XP and Xbox360.
Way to go Microsoft!

Some performance (FPS) benchmarks with the game ‘Lost Planet’ DirectX9 vs Directx10

oh yeah and check this out too:

Windows Vista and PC Gaming

Sure, three weeks ago, when I got my new Microsoft Windows Vista Gaming system in, I was very excited! Can you imaging playing all these games with the latest OS (Operation System) technology that has full support of DirectX10, more beautiful, easier to use and more secure? Wow it does look nice! Runs great too! So far in OS applications have never crashed. As a PC gamer I have alot of PC games in my arsenal and I couldn’t wait to finally play some games in high res, full screen and in a proper FPS (frames per second) on this.
Of course my old computer could do it but not ‘the way it was meant to be played’. Out of all my original games (without patches or mods) only 2 games run on windows’ ‘great’ new OS! WHAT?! Only two out of the tons of PC Games I have?

Yes, only 2. The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft.

Call of Duty, Heroes of Might and Magic V (although as advertised on Vista), Soldier Of Fortune and the list goes on DO NOT RUN UNDER VISTA!
I do not have the newest games available to me such as Bioshock and they of course will run under Vista. But I’m talking about the ‘older’ games that Windows XP had no problem with running.

Now Windows Vista is still relatively new and is still updating quite frequently but I don’t see why they can’t put out an system that is, like the new generation of console gaming systems, backwards compatible?!

Microsoft has always done that. Also in the past I noticed, and I can’t seem to understand why.
Back in the day I was one of the first ones with Windows 95, but my old MS-DOS games didn’t run anymore. (Although it’s MicroSoft Disk Operating System), Like “Transport Tycoon)

Then I had Windows 98 and 98 SE which seem to be more backwards compatible with eachother (Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior)
And then came XP, now XP was way more solid and reliable in a way then Windows 98 SE.
But the latest and ‘greatest’ installment of Microsofts operating system is when it comes to games not so great. Even their ‘compatibly mode’ remains to be seen. ( I’ve never gotten a game to run under that)

So basically you’re in a catch 22 in a way…  I bought this new system with Vista thinking the older programs were going to run a lot smoother, but the older programs don’t run under the new Vista. Only the new programs do that demand so much from your system that it runs slow. Now only if I spend a lot of money on upgrades I can get it to run normal. So, if Microsoft comes out with a new operation system in the future (which by the way they’re currently working on) the designed programs for Vista won’t run under the new OS anymore since it’s not compatible? That’s so rediculous! If it was from another company, like Apple Macintosh made the application and it doesn’t run, I can understand that. But it’s the same company!!
I did some research on the internet and noticed a lot of people are having the same problems!
I don’t understand why they don’t make all these applications backwards compatible! If I want to play Duke Nukem 3D on my new Vista machine I have to be able to do that! In fact, the installation has be be so smooth that it blow the old operation system that the game was made for away! And the way it runs? Man with all the new technology out it has to run smooth as hell! Not a single flaw or crash. Why not?
Because you had plenty of time to perfection the system that it’s running on!
This is all too good to be true, instead I have to deal with patches, self programming and a lot of frustration!

(“Going Downtown” is a customized Duke Nukem 3D level I made back in 1997, downloadable from cyrell.net, too bad I can’t run it anymore because of my new Vista)

After a hard days of work I want to be able to play a game I just bought from Gamestop. Instead I have to figure out that it doesn’t run under Vista unless I download 5 patches, modify the executable file (some anonymous tip from a shady website said that it might work), just a whole lot of horse crap you don’t want to deal with. It’s not so much the game programmers fault I don’t think since they designed the game to run under that particular OS, it’s Microsoft that is messing around, somehow not include a proper backward compatible mode or emulator (of their own OS) in the latest release of their Vista.
It just amazes me that after all these years of programming and development they still can’t get a simple computer game such as,

I don’t know, Tex Murphy: Under A killing Moon (an old detective game) to run under Vista, because they claim Vista is too advanced to run Under A killing Moon because that game wasn’t built with DirectX9 / 10 architecture.
Bullshit! It should run any old dos game because the shell (Operating System) is so far ahead of the game that it should handle anything!

Running the original Doom under Vista should be no big deal!

I never understood why this is and this trend is continuing and it’s sad, because I like to archive my game collection (in a way that I should be able to play the game whenever I want after I install it, like a console game, you pop it in and it runs) and I have many games at the moment that I can’t even play because the operating system changes to often..

I’m not saying not to buy games for Vista, I hope Vista goes well and I wish it all the best, just a little bit more ‘compatible’ would be nice.

I was just getting used to Windows XP…