Comments on: Direct3D 11 Details Part I: Intro http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/direct3d-11-details-part-i-intro/ Tracking the latest developments in interactive rendering techniques Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:17:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Naty http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/direct3d-11-details-part-i-intro/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Naty Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:27:59 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=15#comment-11 There has been some confusion over what "D3D11 will run on down-level hardware" means and what the significance is. Of course, D3D11 will not expose features the hardware does not have (no software emulation here!). So D3D10 or D3D9 parts will not have any compute shaders, tessellation stages, new texture compression modes, etc. even when accessed through a D3D11 interface. So why is this important? There is one new feature older hardware will have, which is multithreaded rendering (although for best performance new drivers will be needed). The most significant fact is that D3D11 will allow a developer to target all hardware on Vista (or later) with one API. This was not the case with D3D10 (which did not support D3D9 hardware), and since the API changed drastically going from D3D9 to D3D10, this required developers to support two very different code paths to support older hardware. The situation with D3D11 is not ideal, since the D3D9 code path is still needed to support users running Windows XP. But at least supporting users on post-XP Windows OSes can be done with one API, regardless of the hardware they are using. There has been some confusion over what “D3D11 will run on down-level hardware” means and what the significance is. Of course, D3D11 will not expose features the hardware does not have (no software emulation here!). So D3D10 or D3D9 parts will not have any compute shaders, tessellation stages, new texture compression modes, etc. even when accessed through a D3D11 interface.

So why is this important? There is one new feature older hardware will have, which is multithreaded rendering (although for best performance new drivers will be needed). The most significant fact is that D3D11 will allow a developer to target all hardware on Vista (or later) with one API. This was not the case with D3D10 (which did not support D3D9 hardware), and since the API changed drastically going from D3D9 to D3D10, this required developers to support two very different code paths to support older hardware.

The situation with D3D11 is not ideal, since the D3D9 code path is still needed to support users running Windows XP. But at least supporting users on post-XP Windows OSes can be done with one API, regardless of the hardware they are using.

]]> By: Naty http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/direct3d-11-details-part-i-intro/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Naty Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:42:49 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=15#comment-9 Quoting from one of their slides: * Direct3D 11 will run on down-level hardware - Multithreading! - Direct3D 10.1, 10, and 9 hardware / drivers - Full functionality (for example, tessellation) will require Direct3D 11 hardware Quoting from one of their slides:

* Direct3D 11 will run on down-level hardware
– Multithreading!
– Direct3D 10.1, 10, and 9 hardware / drivers
– Full functionality (for example, tessellation) will require Direct3D 11 hardware

]]> By: Aras Pranckevičius http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/direct3d-11-details-part-i-intro/comment-page-1/#comment-8 Aras Pranckevičius Sun, 03 Aug 2008 06:30:21 +0000 http://www.realtimerendering.com/blog/?p=15#comment-8 "Direct3D 11 will also be available on Direct3D 9, 10, and 10.1 level graphics hardware" - is that actually true? (that DX11 will be available on DX9 level hardware) “Direct3D 11 will also be available on Direct3D 9, 10, and 10.1 level graphics hardware” – is that actually true? (that DX11 will be available on DX9 level hardware)

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