Vista and DirectX related Q's

[Sicca]

Hi guys.

I was hoping for some answers to a few questions i have about Windows Vista and their new DirectX Legacy and DirecX 10 that is coming out soon. I apologize if i am asking questions that are not even known to you guys, but you all seem pretty into this stuff and if anyone knows more about it, this would be the place for it.

1. What changes will DirectX Legacy bring to those with 79XX series GPU's.

2. What changes will DirectX 10 bring to those with Windows Vista that have a GPU designed for Dx10.

3. What changes to gaming will Windows Vista bring in general, will older games become more stable/enhanced in anyway, etc etc.

Well thats it for now, been wondering about those subjects for awhile, i hope some of you may have the answers to them, i have been checking out Vista on the web, but i don't really see any straight answers to those questions.

I appriciate the info i can get, so thank you in advance.

[Meran]

>1. What changes will DirectX Legacy bring to those with 79XX series GPU's.

I don't know a lot about DirectX Legacy ~ I would assume that there won't be anything new, just support for "Legacy" stuff on the new platforms.

>2. What changes will DirectX 10 bring to those with Windows
>Vista that have a GPU designed for Dx10.

Not a whole lot right off. There is a lot of academic stuff like unified shader units and a new shader step (yay object shader...). But this tech won't make it into games for a while. The DX10 GPUs will be complient with these specs, and will be able to do any of this stuff + SM4.0, but their real selling point will be that they're a lot faster than previous gen cards.

>3. What changes to gaming will Windows Vista bring in general,
>will older games become more stable/enhanced in anyway, etc etc.

Vista really won't bring anything at all to older games. Newer games will be able to take advantage of 64-bit architectures and use > 2GB of RAM.

[rabb1t]

Search is your friend (http://www.silkyvenom.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4259&highlight=directx) :D

There are already games in development that will use DX10, and are using DX10 now. This article, posted yesterday, discusses how Crysis is getting DX10 code builds on an almost daily basis, and is working with prototype DX10 hardware (http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200608/N06.0830.2058.31148.htm). Apparently there is also footage of actual DX10 code on DX10 hardware in action. (Probably due to the early nature of both they have not released this mainstream for comparison to DX9.) So no, games will be out when Vista and DX10 GPUs hit the shelves that do take advantage of the hardware. How many besides Crysis? Well, I can't really say. The only ones I know for sure, due to the press surrounding them, are Crysis and the enhanced Halo 2.

Many of the changes we won't even see. It is very possible that a game uses the DX10 code but doesn't use any new features that DX9 can't run. However, by doing that the coding work is a lot easier on the developer and the game will run faster and smoother due to the way DX10 communicates with the OS.

Some of my memory is getting rusty on this, but it's all right there in my DX10 thread.

Also, I’m sure more and more news will start to surface very quickly as the nVidia DX10 GPUs are rumored to be set for a September launch.

[Sicca]

That answers it pretty much, gracias senor!

Ok while i am here, if any of you read this please let me know what i should get.

Ever since i upgraded my pc, i have been using AVG free edition, and now i just downloaded Adaware to remove any malicous things, are there any other programs i should get that is really needed, like spybot or spyblaster or something, could anyone give me some advice on that?

[Fozzik]

Check out the sticky! :D

http://www.silkyvenom.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3284

If you have any questions after reading that, don't hesitate to ask.

I'd say (just as a summary) if you have a router, the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are probably all you need. If you don't use a router (or if you want some extra protection), you might try a software-based firewall, like the free one from ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com).

AVG is free...but if you decide you want slightly better anti-virus and are willing to pay a bit of money, I recommend checking out NOD32.

[Sicca]

And some glasses right ? :p

Thanks Fozzik, i think i am all set, should be clean as a whistle :D