Direct X 11.1 is Windows 8 exclusive, no plans to retrofit

[DiscostewSM]

I read that as "Get Your butt to 12.10!"

 

[Rydian]

One question, is Directx really that better than OpenGL so it would be worth upgrading to W8 just for that? Because according to Valve converting Left 4 Dead 2 to OpenGL made the game faster even on Windows.

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

They'd likely get a nice performance increase from moving the game to purely-DX10(+) as well, like other things did.

DX9 is eight years old, and was built off of even older technologies. It's just not the best thing nowadays. It'd be like programming a DS game in BASIC or something.

OpenGL doesn't have that sort of issue because it's... it's different. Even it's goals are decidedly different than DirectX and other technologies of the time, and when it gets updated it doesn't carry years of crap with it like DirectX did through 9.

I don't know if I can sum this kind of stuff up in a few words, so perhaps this kind of crap holds the proper explanations.
http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs448a-01-fall/lectures/lecture15/opengl.2up.pdf
http://webstaff.itn.liu.se/~matco/TNM053/Lectures/Lecture 02 - OpenGL.pdf
(Mainly the overviews).

 

[YayMii]

DX9 is eight years old, and was built off of even older technologies. It's just not the best thing nowadays. It'd be like programming a DS game in BASIC or something.

Did you say programming DS games in BASIC?

On a related note, how is gaming performance on Linux nowadays? I haven't used Linux since LM9 and I'm just curious if it's worth trying out.

 

[Rydian]

Games are known to run slightly-better through WINE than on Windows, even though the API calls are being wrapped. If the game has any DRM though, you're likely screwed unless you find a crack to totally remove the DRM (some simple disable cracks rely on the DRM functioning in the first place, which it will not on Linux)

 

[Vanth88]

"Windows 8 is to receive Direct X 11.1 exclusively, with no plans to make it available for older versions of Microsoft’s OS. In response to the company’s position, a Microsoft employee has discussed the move on its official forum.

Neowin reports that Microsoft employee Daniel Moth took to the Microsoft Answers forum to discuss the move, where he said, “Money money money, money? money! money money money money. Money money money.. money money. Money money money, kaching, kaching, money.”

 

[Qtis]

Lol gaming in a virtual machine.

Mostly for older games which may need WinXP. I still have Win7 via bootcamp for newer games. Just too lazy to restart the computer every time

 

[Foxi4]

"Windows 8 is to receive Direct X 11.1 exclusively, with no plans to make it available for older versions of Microsoft’s OS. In response to the company’s position, a Microsoft employee has discussed the move on its official forum.

Neowin reports that Microsoft employee Daniel Moth took to the Microsoft Answers forum to discuss the move, where he said, “Money money money, money? money! money money money money. Money money money.. money money. Money money money, kaching, kaching, money.”

Good one, Moth! ...seriously though, of course it's about money - Microsoft is a business, making money is the whole point.

 

[VMM]

All this means is that they *may* develop a console and they *are* porting Steam to Linux - we all know that. It doesn't mean that everything they have to offer on Steam will work.

I'll try to find the brazilian source I had and translate it to english.
In the source I'm talking about, there is a guy caled Julian Fernandes that work for canonical.
He talks about Steam Box, and that it will be running Ubuntu,
he also talks about why Valve chose Ubuntu, and
that the effort of porting it Linux, for the final goal as using ubuntu on Steam Box,

 

[Foxi4]

I'll try to find the brazilian source I had and translate it to english.
In the source I'm talking about, there is a guy caled Julian Fernandes that work for canonical.
He talks about Steam Box, and that it will be running Ubuntu,
he also talks about why Valve chose Ubuntu, and
that the effort of porting it Linux, for the final goal as using ubuntu on Steam Box,

Right. To put it in understandable terms, Steam is a distribution channel with a built-in communication infrastructure for players to use - it's not running your game binaries. To run the binaries, they have to be native to your OS or pass through a compatibility layer like WINE. Steam does not have the other option - it merely allows you to purchase binaries that were already compiled and chat - it is not launching games within itself as an environment, it merely interfaces with them. The games would have to be recompiled for a new platform - ported in order to work. Otherwise, said games would have to run through a compatibility layer. Don't expect a sea of games.

 

[ov3rkill]

Next thing you know, we will be forced to upgrade to Windows 8 when a game comes out exclusive for Windows 8 or directX 11.1.

 

[pwsincd]

Right. To put it in understandable terms, Steam is a distribution channel with a built-in communication infrastructure for players to use - it's not running your game binaries. To run the binaries, they have to be native to your OS or pass through a compatibility layer like WINE. Steam does not have the other option - it merely allows you to purchase binaries that were already compiled and chat - it is not launching games within itself as an environment, it merely interfaces with them. The games would have to be reconsilde for a new platform - ported in order to work. Otherwise, said games would have to run through a compatibility layer = website

 

[Foxi4]

a compatibility layer = website

Excuse me, what?

You want to play contemporary titles over a website, is that what you're saying?

 

[AlanJohn]

It's time to move to OpenGl.
The year of the Linux desktop is coming, my friends.

 

[Ritsuki]

Got my copy of Windows 8, but still have a few questions before upgrading :

1) Are all programs that works on Seven and Vista compatible with W8 ? If yes, do they run in some kind of "emulator" or it's supported natively (for the "non-Metro friendly" programs) ?
2) Does the upgrade wipes everthing in the HDD/partition ?

 

[Foxi4]

Got my copy of Windows 8, but still have a few questions before upgrading :

1) Are all programs that works on Seven and Vista compatible with W8 ? If yes, do they run in some kind of "emulator" or it's supported natively (for the "non-Metro friendly" programs) ?
2) Does the upgrade wipes everthing in the HDD/partition ?

1) Windows 8 *has* a Desktop - all programs that worked on 7 are compatible with 8, no "emulation" involved.
2) It does not - you get to choose whether you want to upgrade which will preserve settings etc. or perform a full installation which has the option to put your old settings in a Windows.old folder. It can perform a wipe, but it's not required.

 

[Ritsuki]

1) Windows 8 *has* a Desktop - all programs that worked on 7 are compatible with 8, no "emulation" involved.
2) It does not - you get to choose whether you want to upgrade which will preserve settings etc. or perform a full installation which has the option to put your old settings in a Windows.old folder. If can perform a wipe if you want, but it's not required.

Thanks for your quick answer I'll certainly update tomorrow and certainly share my impressions

 

[VMM]

Right. To put it in understandable terms, Steam is a distribution channel with a built-in communication infrastructure for players to use - it's not running your game binaries. To run the binaries, they have to be native to your OS or pass through a compatibility layer like WINE. Steam does not have the other option - it merely allows you to purchase binaries that were already compiled and chat - it is not launching games within itself as an environment, it merely interfaces with them. The games would have to be recompiled for a new platform - ported in order to work. Otherwise, said games would have to run through a compatibility layer. Don't expect a sea of games.

They are porting their games to work on linux.
And if the rumours about the console are true, soon or later many other developers would port their games to linux.
I'm being optimistic saying that there will be a sea of games coming to linux,
but nothing denies that.

There is no reason in discussing an unknown future, so let's stop it.