DirectX-11 posts

A new batch of screenshots from The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim have been released and the new visuals of the upcoming fantasy RPG sequel are certainly stunning. However, folks who plan to get the PC version of the game may be a tad disappointed to learn that developer Bethesda Game Studios won't be using much of DirectX 11's advanced graphical features.

While DirectX 11 will be over two years old by the time the game is released this November, the game's director Todd Howard told Eurogamer that it will be "mostly a DirectX 9 game in terms of how the shaders work." While DirectX 11 will be supported Howard says, "... there are things they get us for free, like performance gains. You're going to get performance gains out of it versus an older version." However he added, " ... the specifics DX11 does, like tessellation and all that kinda stuff, we aren't taking advantage of that right now. That doesn't mean we won't in the future. We aren't right now because we want to author it so it looks great." Meanwhile you can check out the new screenshots in our gallery.

This patch for Dragon Age 2 fixes a a list of bugs and gameplay issues, including DirectX 11 performance and quest problems. Full patch notes can be found after the jump.

Download Dragon Age II v1.02 Patch (21 MB)
Download Dragon Age II Demo (1.9 GB)
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Crysis 2 remains a fairly controversial game for its PC owners with many saying that Crytek's latest first person shooter needed more development time. Today on the MyCrysis.com message board a Crytek rep said that the game's multiplayer modes will get some help, specifically on keeping cheaters and hackers out. The message board post states, "We are currently taking steps to permanently remove cheats from Crysis 2 and those individuals that choose to utilize them."

Meanwhile Eurogamer.cz reports via unnamed sources that the long awaited DirectX 11 update for Crysis 2 is still two to three months away from being released. The article claims that Crytek only started putting DirectX 11 features in the game last November and that it wasn't ready to be put into the final version before its release last week. Neither Crytek nor publisher Electronic Arts have officially confirmed that a DirectX 11 patch is even in the works.

A number of web sites have been reporting today that Crytek had plans to release a new patch sometime today for the PC port of its just released first person shooter Crysis 2. The patch was reported by these sites to finally update the game to support DirectX 11 graphics cards. However a post on the official MyCrysis.com message boards has put these rumors to rest.

According to Crytek's community manager, "No patch was ever confirmed, I have no idea why this website even posted such information." He added, "When there are any big announcements regarding Crysis 2 they will be posted on MyCrysis, if you read something about a patch for example, but don't see it on MyCrysis.com, then it isn't genuine." On the plus side the community manager stated in another forum post there will be a new PC patch for the game available via auto-updater later this week but there's no word on what the patch will contain.

Last week Bit-tech.net posted an interview with AMD's GPU developer relations manager Richard Huddy where he was quoted as saying that Microsoft's DirectX API for game graphics was " ... getting in the way" of game developers using all of a PC's hardware and graphics power and that game developers have told him to, "Make the API go away."

Now Huddy is quoted in another interview with the CRN web site stating that his remarks last week were taken out of context. While he admits that a small number of high end game developers such as Digital Illusions and Crytek have in fact wanted to go around DirectX in order to get more performance for games, he also said. "It's not something most developers want. If you held a vote among developers, they would go for DirectX or Open GL, because it's a great platform."

Folks who have bought and installed Crysis 2 on their PC gaming rigs today have a couple of unexpected twists. The first is a day 1 patch for Crytek's first person shooter that automatically downloads when you first start the game. The MyCrysis.com community message boards has a patch list of what's fixed or changed including re-enabling the console and putting in cheat detection.

The other unexpected news is that at the moment Crysis 2 does not yet support DirectX 11 graphics. While the game still looks good even in its current DirectX 9 version, PC gamers who have high end hardware will likely be disappointed that all the promised bells and whistles are not in place. We have emailed the game's publisher Electronic Arts to find out when Crysis 2 will be updated with the promised DirectX 11 support.

DirectX has been the graphical API that most PC game developers use to make their game titles. Microsoft created the API years ago and has issued new versions around the time it also releases new versions of Windows. The latest version, DirectX 11, was released in the fall of 2009.

Now one of the PC hardware's biggest names, AMD, says it's perhaps time to do away with DirectX11. Bit-tech.net quotes Richard Huddy, the developer relations manager of AMD's GPU division, as saying that PC games should look a lot better than console titles because PCs have better hardware specs. However that's not the case and Huddy says, " To a significant extent, that's because, one way or another, for good reasons and bad - mostly good, DirectX is getting in the way." In fact he says that game developers have told him, "Make the API go away."

Programming graphics for game consoles do allow developers to program directly for the hardware. While PC game developers can use DirectX as a way to solve many problems, the software layer also prevents game developers to develop directly into the PC game hardware and thus keep them from using much of a PC's hardware. While its likely that DirectX will continue to be around for a while, Crytek's R&D technical director Michael Glueck states in the article that as PC GPUs become more like general purpose chips, the less an API like DirectX will be needed.

[Via Blue's News]

The DirectX graphics API created by Microsoft is used by nearly all PC game developers. The one big exception is id Software. Its main programmer John Carmack has used the OpenGL graphics API to help program all of id's 3D graphics engines including id Tech 5 which is the basis for id's upcoming shooter Rage.

While Carmack has been critical of DirectX in the past that has now changed. In an article at bit-tech.net (based on an interview Carmack gave to the Custom PC print mag) he states, "I actually think that Direct3D is a rather better API today." He added that while DirectX has improved over the years, OpenGL "has been held back by compatibility concerns."

So does that mean that Carmack will switch to DirectX? Maybe not. He states, "OpenGL still works fine and we wouldn't get any huge benefits by making the switch, so I can't work up much enthusiasm for cleaning it out of our codebase."

Total War Shogun 2 has been promoted as a game that would take advantage of DirectX 11 graphical features. That will still be the case for the latest historical RTS game from The Creative Assembly. Unfortunately, according to a Eurogamer news story, the DirectX 11 support won't be ready when the game is released on March 15.

According to a rep from the developer, "We just wanted a couple more weeks to tweak the performance on various difference cards." The DirectX 11 support will be added to Total War Shogun 2 in a patch that should be released two to four weeks after the full game is released. Even without the DirectX 11 features, the Creative Assembly rep states, "The game still looks absolutely stunning at top end. There are no resolution restrictions. It looks fabulous. It'll be absolutely playable. All of the features are in there."

The Unreal Development Kit (UDK) beta, a free-to-use version of the Unreal Engine 3 development tools, has been updated with the latest updates and improvements. The March 2011 update includes DirectX 11, Nvidia APEX physics support and more. For more information, visit the official website. Continue after the jump to watch a realtime demonstration video showcasing the new features.

Download Unreal Development Kit March 2011 Beta (1.29 GB)
Download the 'Samaritan' Unreal Engine 3 Demonstration Video (220 MB)
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