Both AMD and Nvidia officially stopped supporting and developing performance drivers for direct x 9 in 2010 and instead stated they would focus primarily on direct x 11(stated on their respective sites). If direct X 11 cards hit the market in 2009, I just can't understand what made the devs think releasing a direct x 9 game in 2012 was a good idea, heck even Wow when direct x 11 and people saw a huge benefit with the new version of cards that began to hit the market. Direct X 11 handles just about everything better, including computer resources, I would think this would be the devs top priority but apparently I am probably mistaken.

(Continuation)

I think people are completely misunderstanding my original post. Adding direct X 11 does not mean they need to completely get rid of direct X 9, it merely means you have the option of using the much more efficient direct X instead of the old one.

Using WoW as an example, when they launched the direct X 11 version, I gained about 25 fps on my D11x card. I also noticed a marketably improved frame rate in large population areas. (Org fully packed for example).

To clarify, in 2012 Bioware should of at least supported Direct X 11 from launch.

MMOS are meant to be played for a considerable amount of years, so the biggest point I am trying to make is that why not future proof a game instead of relying on old technology that continues to have limited support. I would of thought they could have implemented a DX9 version along with DX11 to assist with people who still have not upgraded.

DX11 cards have been on the market for 3 years.

Wow...a must even....

I guess someone needs to contact all the developers of every game that isn't directX 11 compatible and tell them the are no longer viable.

:|

haha no.

This game has no need at all for anything dx11 related. It could use a few dx10 shaders, but thats purely my own preference.

there are many strange decisions Bio made. tbh i was suspicious when they moved their offices from canada to texas... i mean from the beautiful and democratic VAncouver, to the messy and dangerous Houston... really? why? no idea

They didnt move. They created a brand new studio in AUSTIN texas used solely for this game. Biowares HQ is still in edmonton canada.

In first place they should add sharp textures.

Than we can think about DX11.

In first place they should add sharp textures.

Than we can think about DX11.

They said a few weeks ago after that huge thread was posted, that they are introducing some texture changes into 1.2/1.3

DirectX 9 is attached to Windows XP, DirectX 11 is attached to Windows 7. I'm guessing that a significant number of people may still be playing on Windows XP, so they are still supporting it.

It's a decision they made, and no amount of yelling and taunting them to "just do it" will convince them to drop potential customers. You could do the research and come at them with a number, like Bioware, less than 1% of your playerbase uses Windows XP, and you're losing 2% of your playerbase per year because you don't improve your graphics, and here's my research and my sources to prove these numbers. and maybe that'll convince them...

But it's doubtful any of us will do all that work.

Render more than 20 chars on a screen without a mesuarble frame drop then we can talk DX11

They already can. Our guild events are up to 125 people with no problem, unless you start fighting then that is lag city, but just rendering was no problem. I didn't see much affect on the FPS and my machine stinks, it is 4 year old hardware.

DirectX 9 is attached to Windows XP, DirectX 11 is attached to Windows 7. I'm guessing that a significant number of people may still be playing on Windows XP, so they are still supporting it.

 

It's a decision they made, and no amount of yelling and taunting them to "just do it" will convince them to drop potential customers. You could do the research and come at them with a number, like Bioware, less than 1% of your playerbase uses Windows XP, and you're losing 2% of your playerbase per year because you don't improve your graphics, and here's my research and my sources to prove these numbers. and maybe that'll convince them...

 

But it's doubtful any of us will do all that work.

Thats not how dx works. The OS might support it, but the player would need to have hardware that also supports it.

Going by most of the posts on the CS forums since beta, most people have dx9 or low end dx10 cards.

unless you start fighting then that is lag city,

That was kinda the point I was trying to make; unclear I know

LoL. OP is comedy gold and has no concept of why an mmo wouldnt launch with state of the art graphics lol.

LoL

Please let the game put a little pressure on my 9800GTX then Ill think about buying a DX11 card

That's easy.

Start clicking i quickly (hotkey for opening inventory)

Your FPS will drop below 5 no matter how good PC you have, especially with 9800GTX (which isn't very impressive in a first place).

That's easy.

 

Start clicking i quickly (hotkey for opening inventory)

Your FPS will drop below 5 no matter how good PC you have, especially with 9800GTX (which isn't very impressive in a first place).

I know my card isnt impressive, but it isnt underload from this game, and until they improve the graphics it wont be , so there is no point in slapping a DX11 card in

I know my card isnt impressive, but it isnt underload from this game, and until they improve the graphics it wont be , so there is no point in slapping a DX11 card in

True... very true.

I wish they would double the textures resolution for the beginning (and I mean textures visible in cut scenes, not only these in gameplay), especially for the background objects and fat/tall&wide body type armors.

Cause right now it hurts my eyes.

DX11 would be a nice thing to have although there's so much to do even on field of DX9c that I just can't believe this game was released (almost) in 2012.

True... very true.

I wish they would double the textures resolution for the beginning (and I mean textures visible in cut scenes, not only these in gameplay), especially for the background objects and fat/tall&wide body type armors.

Cause right now it hurts my eyes.

 

DX11 would be a nice thing to have although there's so much to do even on field of DX9c that I just can't believe this game was released (almost) in 2012.

Just look at the textures on AoC in comparison, that was released ages ago now. I understand the need to make compatible but my card and PC are 4 year old now, and I would have expected it to have been just about to run this on low settings, I get away with high settings and it has no problems

Here's some interesting stats from the Steam Hardware survey.

43% of all users have a DX10 capable system (i.e. OS is Vista or greater and DX10 card present)

31% of all users have a DX11 capable system (i.e. OS is Vista or greater and DX11 card present)

26% of all users have a DX9 capable system (i.e. OS is XP or video card is DX9).

So adding DX11 support would benefit about a third of the user base and eliminating DX9 support would alienate a quarter of the user base.

Thats not how dx works. The OS might support it, but the player would need to have hardware that also supports it.

That's not how DX works either.

The only thing that matters (for game use) is whether the given level is installed on the OS. You can absolutely have DX11 installed with only a DX9 card. However, when you try to use some advanced parts of DX11, it will either require the CPU to do the work (slow, and less reliable) or will just fail (if, say, the game tried to use tessellation on a DX9 card).

In most cases, though, DX11 will auto-select the best (highest) API for the requested task. DirectX11 supports Shader Model 5.0, and that's what it will use if you have a DX11 card. If you only have a DX10 card, then it will downgrade to Shader Model 4.0. If you have a DX9 card, it will use Shader Model 3.0. You only really have problems if the game declares that it requires SM4 or SM5.

Ignoring that, though, the better question is this: Why use DirectX 11?

Beyond the OPs "bigger numbers are obviously better" argument, what benefits would SWTOR really see from DX11? Larger textures? While fun, those will cause even worse technical hurdles than the high detail textures people are asking for now. Shader Model 5? It's mostly a convenience upgrade of Shader Model 4, which doesn't add all that much onto the capabilities of DX9. Multithreaded rendering? Sounds good, but on a game that is already CPU-hungry, this isn't actually attractive. Tessellation? ...

Okay, yeah, tessellation might be nice. And it would only take a year or so for them to take advantage of that. Hopefully, within that year everyone using any card older than the ATI 5xxx and nVidia 5xx series would upgrade. That sounds worthwhile.

there are many strange decisions Bio made. tbh i was suspicious when they moved their offices from canada to texas... i mean from the beautiful and democratic VAncouver, to the messy and dangerous Houston... really? why? no idea

Huh? Bioware is from Edmonton not Vancouver. And if I remember the new story correctly, they didn't move they open a new office in Texas for a new division that was working on an undisclosed MMO.

Wow...a must even....

 

I guess someone needs to contact all the developers of every game that isn't directX 11 compatible and tell them the are no longer viable.

 

 

:|

Considering how abysmal the fps in this game can be at times even on all low. I would highly suggest they get their game on and go Dx11. And a 300M budget and Dx11? This BW Austin is a dishonor to BW.

They already can. Our guild events are up to 125 people with no problem, unless you start fighting then that is lag city, but just rendering was no problem. I didn't see much affect on the FPS and my machine stinks, it is 4 year old hardware.

Where do you hold these events?

We tried to have a community event on the Nar Shaddaa Promenade a few weeks ago that didn't go so well. First it wouldn't allow people to change to instance 1 unless grouped together, then about 10 minutes later it was hard capped and even that didn't allow them to change over. Total planet population was about 120-140 at the time.

Also:

You could do the research and come at them with a number, like Bioware, less than 1% of your playerbase uses Windows XP, and you're losing 2% of your playerbase per year because you don't improve your graphics, and here's my research and my sources to prove these numbers. and maybe that'll convince them....

It's pretty easy:

Steam Hardware Survey

That shows ~19% of gamers using XP. That is sampling 15-20 million people, by the way, and not just computer users, but customers who bought and play video games.

Oh, and only 2 of the top 10 video cards support DX11 (GTX 560 & ATi 5770).

So, yeah, you can do the research and come up with numbers. It's just not going to support the conclusion you want it to.

Where do you hold these events?

 

We tried to have a community event on the Nar Shaddaa Promenade a few weeks ago that didn't go so well. First it wouldn't allow people to change to instance 1 unless grouped together, then about 10 minutes later it was hard capped and even that didn't allow them to change over. Total planet population was about 120-140 at the time.

These were level 1 chars starting in Hutta (around 80-90 players) and Ord Mantell (around 125 players). Most everything we did was outside. We couldn't get everyone in instance 1 for the Ord Mantell one so we all switched to instance 2 and got in.