In case you didn’t know, Vista comes with a new version of DirectX. DirectX 10 promises whole new levels of graphic reality in games that support the new technology. Provided the computer has DirectX 10 capable graphics in it, currently, only nvidia supports DirectX 10 with their line of the 8 series graphics cards.  You must have both Vista and the hardware support for DirectX 10 in order to be able to take advantage of it.

The 8 series comes in three forms, a $600 768MB 8800GTX, a $450 640MB 8800GTS and the “bargain” of the bunch a 320MB 8800GTS for $270 to $300 which isn’t too bad considering it manages to pack in DirectX 10 support.

Anyone who has Vista and who has a DirectX 10 capable video card may now gloat. Some say it is difficult to tell the difference between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games but it is VERY obvious which games make use of DirectX 9 and DirectX 10.

Sadly, there aren’t many games currently on the market that supports DirectX 10 but one game that currently supports DirectX 10 is Microsoft Flight Simulator X which almost looks like an entirely new game when running with DirectX 10. There are many more games coming out that make use of DirectX 10 which I am going to summarize below.

Crysis is probably the most recognizable title which is set to be the next best First Person Shooter since Far Cry came out and is made by the same company. Crysis pits you against the North Korean army trying to salvage an alien space craft but you have to beat them to it. The game is topped off by the lush jungle environments, shadows and fog effects.

Alan Wake places you in what is a murder mystery story and it is up to you to solve it. What makes this game interesting is that depending on the position of the sun, shadows change, thus changing the way you must sneak around. It also features real time weather and fog effects, similar to what Crysis does.

Hell Gate London, another first person shooter. I’m almost tempted to compare this to Doom 3. A gate to Hell has been opened both ways, someone must close it. In this game you play one of the few Templars that are fighting the demons and other creatures coming out of the gate but if there is to be any end, the gate must be closed. It may not have the graphical nuances of the other games but more than makes up for that in the number of weapons, attacks and enemies that you will face in the game.

Unreal 3 may not be a true DirectX 10 title, it was developed using DirectX 9 but the developer claims that it will be able to take advantage of DirectX 10. The Unreal series has its fans but I’m not one of them. It appears to be a good title but unless it has a good story mode to go with it, I will be turning it down.

A few screenshots of the aforementioned games can be found here.

DirectX 10 makes games that support it look gorgeous but games that don’t will still run under a DirectX 9 environment but won’t look nearly as good. Windows XP users will not get the advantage of DirectX 10. There will be a DirectX 9L revision but it does not appear that this version will be for Windows XP, instead it seems that it will be used to make DirectX 9 only games backwards compatible with DirectX 10 through emulation so they will still be playable.

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Related:

Windows Vista fails to win over gamers

PC gamers will need new hardware for Vista SP1

Is DirectX 10 on Vista a ripoff?

Valve Software: Offering DirectX 10 exclusively for Vista was a mistake

Windows 7 already getting features cuts and becomes Vista "plus"

Entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 12:48 pm under Vista.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.