DirectX holding PC games back? AMD thinks so

I would like to see how it would turn out if they tried dropping DirectX for a change, but I'm still skeptical as to how well people would adopt a non-DirectX game. I'm sure people would be concerned with whether or not they could run it (etc.) and this might impact sales. They would need to market it quite heavily...

Hmm that's pretty interesting. I'd never thought about this before. I've always thought DX was pretty cool, but never really fully understood what it exactly does/is. Interesting indeed...

Quite interesting wondering if they will make a retail game without it completely..

Without standardization you will have more games made for different types of computers instead all of them. Direct X may not be the best way for some developers, but they will have to eventually create a new standard to which will allow game developers more free run over their games and allow for better optimized games.

I knew it

i live for the future

It'd be interesting (even though it would be costly) if a game developer included an option to use direct x (therefore making it compatible with a wider range of computers) and when left off it allows the game to reach its full potential (which would be much more limited to higher end computers).

well alot of people have good computers where they dont need this anymore. In the future when people have better computers It would be a nice idea

I'd love to see some new OpenGL games

Apples_mmmmmmmm said: It'd be interesting (even though it would be costly) if a game developer included an option to use direct x (therefore making it compatible with a wider range of computers) and when left off it allows the game to reach its full potential (which would be much more limited to higher end computers).

I would totally agree with your statement Apples. I would hope, some day, someone will take the initiative to do such a thing.
And to point fingers, DirectX is to blame for a majority of issues. It was developed to increase the range of computers to place different games but DirectX markets to the GPU manufacturers as well. This card isn't compatible with this version, or the board will not support it... yada yada yada... The computer is 2 years old, custom built with updated hardware... DirectX will not let them play the game. DUMB. Hard to believe but it does happen. Or, it will let them play the game but the game is sooooo horrible in game play, the user never plays it again. Disgusting. IDK what to say now.... im tired lol

yes plz get rid of the direct x

change is always good.

Now it all makes sense

I would agree on dropping directX mainly due to its limited abilities. Yes, microsoft is always trying to make directX better and may or may not be trying to keep up with current technology. A reason not to would be that there are more computers and consoles still running in 9.0 and 10. More and more people are going to Windows 7 and 9.0 and 10 will be obsolete. Myself, i still run on a dX 10 based card and i do not get the full featured dX 11 just for that fact.

Look at what dice has done with B3, so no i dont agree with AMD because all you need is to put the right tools and effort into the right areas

I think that eventually, when the graphic cards get to the point of insane graphics, direct x will bottleneck the potential, but Microsoft could always work on another graphics engine to go beyond current limits/restrictions

Not the first time I've read "Microsoft" and "holding back" in the same article before.

DirectX go bye bye and PC become better than consoles ^_^

Nowadays most people have a capable graphic card unlike a few years ago so it wouldn't be that bad to take DirectX away.

I would like to see them try.

It probably won't work.
-In before they try making a webgame with Silverlight.

Won't happen soon.

Some time ago here have been 3 main 3D APIs called Direct3D, OpenGL and Glide. OpenGL/OpenCL is quite a good framework but I don't know if the development/standardization process can keep up with the edge of GPU engineering. The advantage of DirectX/Direct3D over console APIs or direct low level access is that you can make your engine available to several generations of GPUs. High end processing and features for the DX11 users but also a playable not that rich version for the DX9 guys.
I can remember when we had these different APIs side by side and the huge compatibility issues even between cards of the same chipsets but with a different layout.
Why OpenGL isn't used by game developers atm is beyond my grasp. I guess the latest OpenGL standard is always feature wise several months behind Direct3D. Maybe Direct3D is also better integrated into the tool chain of the developers.

I don't know if DirectX really is the problem. PC GFX accelerators will be vastly different as long as there are dedicated GFX cards. If Intel/Nvidia or AMD/Ati manage to unify high end gpus and cpus on a chip there may be a way to create a more efficient framework due to the smaller hardware base similar to the situations the console engineers are facing.
But I predict that even due to the fact that especially with the rise of casual games and games that are tailored to run on a wide range of systems (see FIFA PC engine for example) to allow the game to reach a wider audience this won't happen soon. PC gaming doesn't function the way it did in the 90s and early 2k. You can't amaze people with the latest greatest engine (see Crysis for example) and expect them to buy a new system every 2 years especially as the sales of desktops compared to notebooks has been declining steadily.


TL;DR
The different revision of DirectX ensures compatibility. Thats the reason why its slower then dedicated slim APIs for the very limited hardwarebase of the consoles. As long as there is no unified architecture there always will be a "slow" API like DirectX.

Sounds interesting, if it leads to greater looking games and its doable, it should be a simple choice - But im guessing it would take time and a lot of money to do it.

Back when there was xp producers could chose betwen opengl anddirectx. For some reason on win7 they have droped suport for opengl so guess there is only directx left. Don't think it will change very soon...

i never really understood why there is always an direct-x requirement and what it really does but if it really does slow down games why it wasn't replaced till now?