🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:38:45 -0400, EvilBill <quake2lives@gmail.com>
wrote:

>~misfit~ wrote:
>> Somewhere on teh intarwebs Moosen wrote:
>>> On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:28:46 +1300, "~misfit~"
>>> <misfit61nz@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Somewhere on teh intarwebs ~misfit~ wrote:
>>>>> Perhaps I'll see you in D3, assuming my comuter will be able to play
>>>>> it and it's not pay-to-play...
>>>> Eeek! Horrible thought....
>>>>
>>>> What if D3 is DX10 (or even DX11) only? Will I have to fork out 4 x
>>>> the price of the game on Vista / Windows 7?
>>> No idea on that one, sorry. While it's hard to know what the current
>>> verion of DirectX will be by the time D3 is out, I haven't seen a lot
>>> of movement by Microsoft in the direction of an 11. Many industry
>>> people think DX9 is just fine, and that 10 was unnecessary. Guess
>>> we'll see. Blizzard doesn't seem to be the types to limit who can play
>>> there games, and I would be very surprised if they did anything to
>>> eliminate DX9 players from their customer-pool.
>> 
>> Let's hope so huh? I'm hearing rumours that D3 and Windows 7 are both likely 
>> to be out towards the end of the year (Xmas market) and that W7 will ship 
>> with DX11. By that time Vista will be close to 3 years old so expecting game 
>> programmers to programme for a 3 year/2 generation old API (DX9) could be 
>> asking a bit nuch. Especially when the game is fully 3D and supposedly 
>> graphics-heavy.
>> 
>> If DX10 is a requirement that will rule out anyone who's still using Windows 
>> XP.
>> 
>> Fingers crossed.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>
>No kidding! While I'm likely to have a new PC by then, I'd say it's 95% 
>likely that the first thing I'll DO with a new PC is wipe Vista off and 
>replace it with XP! ;)

While Windows 7 and D3 may be coming out around the same time, and
Windows 7 *may* only support native DX11 (hadn't heard this myself, so
no idea if that's only a rumor or not), you have to remember that just
because something new like that comes out, doesn't mean 100% of the
world's computer users instantly switch to it overnight :-) 

It will take years for a majority of PC users to switch to Windows 7
and whatever DX version it supports, there will be relatively few
people using it initially. And Blizzard is developing D3 right now,
and right now, the majority of gamers in the world are still using
Windows XP with DX9 video cards. Vista is starting to make inroads
into that finally, after 3 years, but Blizzard isn't going to make a
game that comes out within a year or so that will totally cut out all
of those XP/DX9 users, I guarantee it. It's way too early for them to
start saying "Oh, DX11 is coming, time to dump half or more of our
customer base and force them to suck eggs or buy new computers!" 

Not going to happen, so stop worrying :-)  If they do program D3 to be
able use the cool features in DX10 (very likely, probable I would say)
and possibly 11 (who knows), they will still also make it so you can
toggle off those features for compatibility with DX9. Many games made
since Vista/DX10 came along have been made that way, so you can use
either DX9 or DX10 depending on your OS and video card. Don't see
Blizzard doing any different. Again, Blizzard is a savvy bunch when it
comes to making money, they aren't going to cut out a majority of
their potential customers. It may not play as fast or pretty as it
would on new hardware and DX10+, but it will play.
I'd bet money on that.
    -Marshall