"Is it live?" - The difference between DX9 and DX10 is pretty striking, in our opinions.
If you've been anxious to see the difference between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10, we don't really blame you. The tech demos have been great, but they don't really show us what is "live" gameplay...at least not in a way we can double-check. But now, there are
some videos of some real-world differences in
Crysis.
Two HD videos were released from the guys over at Crytek, illustrating two different areas of actual gameplay inside the hotly anticipated title. Each of these videos has two versions in it - the DX9 version and the DX10 version, so you can make an easy comparison.
The differences aren't exactly a reason to buy the game, or Vista for that matter. The DX9 code path is still one of the most attractive games I've seen - but DX10 does have quite a few improvements. You can really see the particle effects and volumetric lighting, providing an almost cinematic experience to the DX10 version. In comparison, the DX9 version looks like you're playing with the gamma cranked and detail way down.
Each video is only about 50MB, so there's little reason not to grab them. If you'd like to take a look yourself, here are the links:
Alternate bit-tech mirrors for video files:
After you get a gander, feel free to
shoot into our forums and tell us your thoughts.
Are they basically saying they have disabled certain effects from DX9? I refuse to believe that DX9 cannot render the rain the second video in any way shape or form. Many other games already have rain.
Seems a little cheeky to me.
I agree completely! Shame that cant have a rolling demo of exactly the same thing with one showing DX9 and DX10. Also the server second from bottom was working at over 900KB/S for me!
Anyways.
The hunter video was obvious crap. The settings were lowered, no doubt.
Wasn't the first video that crytek even luanched for this game, in dx9?
Sam
Crysis will surely require a beast to be watchable/playable...so I'm out.
hehe, yea, i thought that as well.
edit- holy poop that was fast! 1mb/s download for me! I just went with number 2 and number 4 servers.
I don't really beleive that, considering all the effects done in dx10 could have been done in 9 without a performance hit.
Take the Lost planet demo's for instance.
...so maybe I missed the full explanation of the videos somewhere, but I'd be interested in knowing how they chose settings (and what video cards they used) for the DX9 and DX10 tests.
For example, if they're trying to show the greatness of DX10, I'd ask:
1) Did they use the same video card for both tests?
If not, they may have chosen a "top of the line" DX9-only card (I guess this would be an Nvidia 79xx or an ATI 19xx model) and used max possible settings to keep a given framerate for the DX9 test , and then used a "top of the line" DX10 card (ie: 8800GTX Ultra) in a similar way for the DX10 test-- obviously, this would result in much better video for the DX10 test, both because of the differences in cards/settings and because of the use of DX10....This sort of test sounds "fair" on first glance, but ends up really being a test of the hardware, and not of the software differences.
2) If they used the same video card in both tests, was the GPU utilization the same in both tests?
So, say they used an 8800GTX Ultra, and they used the max settings possible while keeping 30fps while forcing either DX9 or DX10. I'd wonder if the DX10 version might use ~100% of the GPU, while the DX9 version might only be able to use, say, ~75% since it can't utilize DX10-specific hardware. On one hand, this would show that with DX10 hardware, you get much better performance on DX10 games....but on the other hand, maybe you could have done the same if you just made it all DX9 hardware so parts of the GPU weren't left idle during the DX9 test -- in which case, couldn't games and hardware companies (and consumers) have saved some time and money by just advancing DX9 technology instead of making a bigger revamp for DX10?
3) As others have pointed out, might they have used different AA, etc. settings to make the video look different as well?
Also, the footage on those videos is very old. Both scenes were shown in May 2006 during E3. I don't know why NVIDIA put the videos online. I mean, the development of Crysis has gone forward so much since those videos were released that, as far as I know, it's highly likely that they don't even reflect the state Crysis is in now and, heck, the differences might even not be that great as shown in those ancient videos.
I'm willing to bet that the "proper" comparison videos will be released when Crysis is nearing completion and that, I think, is when we'll see the true differences.
a) More graphical enhancements than DX9
b) Better use of rendering these enhancements leading to improved framerates overall
Of course, a lot of those gains come in terms of visually stunning effects that you can only see/experience when you are actually gaming, not just looking at a screenshot. Of course, once the internet speed increases it'll be easier to download videos that will help show off these enhancements. I mean just d/l the DX10 SDK and you'll see of the enhancements for yourself and why DX10 is on its way.
Anyways, just wait for Crysis to hit the shelves before you start judging whether DX10 is worth it or not, or else you're doing yourself a disfavor by basing it on 'aged' E3 Demos.