Valve grabs DirectX11 :O

[joe_rogers_11155]

so i took a look at when directx 9 was released...2002. I am beginning to suspect that maybe Valve could be the source of the holdup. Valve focuses so hard and prides itself on creating games that can be played on a huge range of hardware and software. Perhaps when Valve finally decides to jump forward with their own high standards of what "bare minimum specs" are, the rest of the industry will mysteriously click right alongside them - to include consoles.

btw, is Battlefield 3 just not going to have a console version? Because that would be fucking great...

EDIT, no I guess it will be on the consoles as well...hmm

[Kosire]

btw, is Battlefield 3 just not going to have a console version? Because that would be fucking great...

EDIT, no I guess it will be on the consoles as well...hmm

yep, but battlefield 3 is being developed mainly for PC. There will be no dx9 support (no windows xp).

[Gary]

[...]There will be no dx9 support (no windows xp).

Sucks for XP users. I'm for keeping support for older computers as long as it doesn't ruin it for others, some people just enjoy gameplay and don't care about graphics(not me).

[Gary]

This is the first 1/8 of "dxsupport.cfg" from Portal 2, look at the last option:

Code: Select all

// DO NOT EDIT!!  GENERATED BY dxsupport.pl
"dxsupport"
{
   "0"
   {
      "name" "90"
      "setting.mindxlevel"   "90"
      "setting.maxdxlevel"   "90"
      "setting.dxlevel"   "90"
      "setting.centroidhack"   "0"
      "setting.nouserclipplanes"   "0"
      "setting.preferzprepass"   "0"
      "setting.prefertexturesinhwmemory"   "0"
      "setting.preferhardwaresync"   "1"
   }
   "1"
   {
      "name" "92"
      "setting.mindxlevel"   "90"
      "setting.maxdxlevel"   "92"
      "setting.dxlevel"   "92"
      "setting.centroidhack"   "0"
      "setting.nouserclipplanes"   "0"
      "setting.preferzprepass"   "0"
      "setting.prefertexturesinhwmemory"   "0"
      "setting.preferhardwaresync"   "1"
   }
   "2"
   {
      "name" "95"
      "setting.mindxlevel"   "90"
      "setting.maxdxlevel"   "95"
      "setting.dxlevel"   "95"
      "setting.centroidhack"   "0"
      "setting.nouserclipplanes"   "0"
      "setting.preferzprepass"   "0"
      "setting.prefertexturesinhwmemory"   "0"
      "setting.preferhardwaresync"   "1"
   }
   "3"
   {
      "name" "97"
      "setting.mindxlevel"   "97"
      "setting.maxdxlevel"   "97"
      "setting.dxlevel"   "97"
      "setting.centroidhack"   "0"
      "setting.nouserclipplanes"   "0"
      "setting.preferzprepass"   "1"
      "setting.prefertexturesinhwmemory"   "0"
      "setting.preferhardwaresync"   "0"
   }
   "4"
   {
      "name" "98"
      "setting.mindxlevel"   "98"
      "setting.maxdxlevel"   "98"
      "setting.dxlevel"   "98"
      "setting.centroidhack"   "0"
      "setting.nouserclipplanes"   "0"
      "setting.preferzprepass"   "1"
      "setting.prefertexturesinhwmemory"   "0"
      "setting.preferhardwaresync"   "0"
   }
   "5"
   {
      "name" "100"
      "setting.mindxlevel"   "92"
      "setting.maxdxlevel"   "100"
      "setting.dxlevel"   "100"
      "setting.centroidhack"   "0"
      "setting.nouserclipplanes"   "0"
      "setting.preferzprepass"   "0"
      "setting.prefertexturesinhwmemory"   "0"
      "setting.preferhardwaresync"   "1"
   }

Code: Select all

"setting.dxlevel"   "100"

Looks like Directx 10 to me.

[nub]

Well I was curious about how Valve did the blobs of gel in Portal 2, so I turned wireframe mode on and it looks like they use some form of tessellation (a very primitive form maybe). If two separate blobs get near each other, they connect and create a larger blob, and it's pretty smooth looking. I also think the further they are, the less polygons they're rendered with. It's like a LOD system, but it's smooth and gradual rather than model swapping. The gel isn't a normal model either, it seems to be rendered dynamically. It uses some kind of tool called "Blobulator." I saw errors in the console about rendering issues as I played that mentioned it. Whenever there was a lot of gel blobs being rendered, the game would stutter a bit, or the blobs would flicker some, generating the console errors.

Also, just a side note, but it could be possible that Valve has P2 running with the DX11 API (software). Dragon Age 2 does this, and I'm able to run it with the DX11 software using my DX10 card. All it really does is let me set the graphics to maximum (aside from the high res texture pack). It's like DX10, but with the optimizations of DX11, minus all the goodies of DX11. Another example would be the Dolphin emulator for Wii and Gamecube. The newest version allows you to run it with the DX11 API so long as you have a supported DX10 card and Vista or Win7.

Anyway, just thought I'd toss that out there for discussion. I don't really know if it's even accurate, just something that occurred to me.

[stoopdapoop]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaball

There are several real time implementations in different engines/modeling packages.

[Mr. Happy]

It's interesting they haven't said much about the tech in Portal 2 (as far as I've seen?). Especially with the metaballs which are brand new for the engine.

[stoopdapoop]

oh shit, I forgot about this.

http://www.valvesoftware.com/publicatio ... erflow.pdf

The third to last page mentions using hardware tessellation to displace water surfaces using flowmaps.