DirectX 10.1 Not Compatible With Current-Gen DX10 Cards

The Inquirer has once again sparked up some controversy, but for good reason. At last weeks Siggraph conference, Microsoft announced DirectX 10.1 and it’s various upgrades, alongside a mention that 10.0 video cards would not be compatible with the new updates. That’s the bad thing. The good thing is that the various are not likely to matter to anyone, including the game developers themselves. Still, what’s up with this Microsoft? We don’t even have good DX 10 games yet, and we need a newer version already? Hell, focus on fixing Vista first.

We suspect that the spec is likely to be ill-received. Not only does it require brand new hardware, immediately creating a miniscule sub-set of DX10 owners, but it also requires Vista SP1, and also requires developer implementation. With developers struggling to justify including DX10 features in their games (see the recent comments by John Carmack and Mark Rein), they’re going to be about as likely to further limit their product’s market as they are to start developing NES games again.

Source: The Inquirer