I use this website http://www.hardocp.com/ for keeping up to date with computer hardware and gaming technology related stuff, others might find it handy too.

If you search around there you'll find some info on what DirectX 11 brings over previous versions. There's an interesting bench-marking program around somewhere that people have made video's of to show what's going on...

Okay, here's one, but I'd suggest turning the volume down and jumping to about 1min in, and there's more to DX11 effects than what's shown here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR40GwRtFyw

Just had a quick look in the forums and saw links to these two short video's as well. These are clips from a real-time simulation someone made using DX11 -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ubIvvzl7HY&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_7DgpJK-eI&hd=1

There'll be fire and smoke in SOW right? Well...

How about water?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNPJK...eature=related

Is it possible? Who knows, who knows...Shrugs shoulders, moves on...

As far as choosing between a DX11 capable card or not, I would, but not just for DX11.

All the latest 5XXX series ATI/AMD cards are DX11 capable anyway (but not the 4XXX series) and the new as yet unreleased nVidia cards will be too, so by the time SOW comes out (later this year?) DX11 capability will be the default, even if hardly any game designers use it.

At the moment, I think there are only one or two games out that actually use DX11 effects, so as usual, it's one of those wait and see things. And as usual, in the meantime there's a lot of hype spun around it all. I've heard that technically speaking all the DX11 effects can be done in DX9 and 10, but it takes more work behind the scenes and would kill your framerates, while at the same time, the DX11 way of doing it is still pretty hardware intensive (thus requiring the latest cards).

From what I've seen, SOW could make use of DX11 in ways that would almost add up to something like the 'perfect' mode we have now in the IL-2 series, only more so, and I kind of hope they do, even if just as an option, as something we'll be able to switch on in the future when the hardware catches up. (Sound familiar?)

Les.

I agree. DX11 support should be considered for SOW.

Didn't Oleg already say it's in there and all the screenshots we've had were in DX9 and thus the lowest quality rendering?

Yeah, that's my understanding. From my point of view it just remains to be seen what they do with it in SOW, and so therefore whether it'll be worth upgrading to a DX11 capable card or not. I'm hoping it will be, and I'm assuming too I'd be wanting one anyway just for the more general performance increases the latest cards are giving compared to the one I've got.

Les.

Dirt 2 and the new Aliens V Predator are two of DX11 capable games I know of. Heres a video for DX11 Tessellation at work in AvP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVo_5VCWIzM

This would be great for LOD in aircraft for SoW, particularly when viewing aircraft from the pit or external camera. It would also simplify the game engine somewhat as the LOD is handled by the hardware, not the game engine.

thanks for contributing
 

I too make a regular stop at HardOCP. Lot's of good stuff there. Thanks for the comparative, and demonstrative videos. I assume I'll be using a DX11 card once I can finally build a new gaming PC. Anyone have any idea about how much horsepower it's going to take to drive DX11 versus DX10? I've seen where the ATi-XFX5870 is going for $425.00 over at Newegg.
http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail...-Player#Player

I'm depending on Nvidia to release it's competitor and drive that price down, especially if the performance trumps the ATi piece. Also, I was going to buy another Asus VK246H 19x10 monitor (2ms gtg), but I saw this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E1D-_-24236080

Imagine SoW_BoB on this baby (also 2ms gtg). Owner reviews look great so far. Wife probably will reign me in, but I might as well dream big. :D Maybe she'll have sympathy for me.

Anyway, DX11 or bust. But what about 64bit? I mean I know SoW will support multi-core processors, and I assume they are all 64bit. But does that mean the sim is coded for 64bit? It's confusing to me. Need a little help.
This is Flyby. Out.

That sure looks like one sweet monitor for $350. As for the vid card, I'd wait as long as possible for the prices to come down, on maybe even new architecture. Nvidea is due for a new one......

Yeah, I intend to wait for the Nvidia offering. I've read March is the date for it's new line to hit the stores. I've also read that SoW may be out in March too (can't believe everything you read, eh?). I'd bet Nvidia's Fermi will cost way more than ATi's 5870. Then it's going to be a bang-for-the-buck comparison, and maybe time to consider Crossfire or SLi, though I tend towards single GPU usage. Really hard to know what to do without knowing the system requirements of SoW_BoB. The sim has been in development for so long I can only that hardware has had a chance to close the gap with it. Imagine SoW taking full advantage of at least three cores (leave one core to handle background processes). BTW, I found this article on 64bit games. Might be of interest to someone: http://www.start64.com/index.php?opt...190&Itemid=116
Flyby out