No matter whether we've got a low end or high end system, we all expect the realtime 3D revolution to continue until we achieve near parity with reality. The push forward is backed by many factors including pure hardware performance and brilliant advances in techniques for better approximating what we see. But there's another side to the equation beyond just hardware and developers: there is the graphics API.
Unlike CPUs, graphics hardware (GPUs) do not have a common instruction set upon which tools and software can be built. In order to get the power of the hardware out to the public, we need a common interface that works no matter what GPU is underneath. It's left to the graphics hardware designer to take the code generated by this application programming interface (API) and translate it into something that their chip can use. Because it's the developer's single point of contact, the graphics API is incredibly important. It defines how much flexibility programmers have in using hardware and shapes the world of high performance realtime 3D graphics.
Some of the key work done through the graphics API is taking descriptions of 3D objects in a 3D world, sending those objects and other resources to the hardware, and then telling the hardware what to do with them. There is sort of a step by step process that needs to be followed that we generally call a pipeline. Graphics API pipelines have stages where different work is done. Here's the general structure of a 3D graphics pipeline:
First vertex data (information about the position of the corners of shapes) is taken in and processed. Then those shapes can then be further manipulated and re-processed if needed. After this, 3D objects are broken down from 3D shapes by projecting them into 2D fragments called pixels (this step is called rasterization), and then these pixels are each processed by looking up texture information and using lighting techniques and so on. When pixels are finished processing, they are output and displayed on the screen. And that's the mile high overview of how 3D graphics work.
For the past dozen years (it seems longer doesn't it?), we've seen makers of 3D graphics hardware accelerate two very prominent APIs: OpenGL and DirectX.
We recently touched on advancements tangential to OpenGL in our OpenCL article, but today our focus will be on DirectX. Microsoft's DirectX graphics API is much more heavily used in game engines than OpenGL, in a large part because DirectX tends to move much more quickly and sets the bar for both the hardware and DirectX in terms of feature set and flexibility. That always makes upcoming versions of DirectX exciting to talk about: they define the future capabilities of hardware and expose improved tools to developers. Upcoming DirectX versions are glimpses into our graphical future. Currently we have a lot of DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games available and in development, but DirectX 11 looms on the horizon.
As usual, Microsoft will be trying to time the release of their next DirectX revision with the release of compatible graphics hardware. As with last time, DirectX 11 will also be released with Windows 7. With the Windows 7 Beta already under way, we expect the OS to be done some time this year.
Microsoft has been rather aggressive with Windows 7 scheduling in light of the rejection of Vista, so it appears they are stepping up to the plate to get everything out sooner rather than later. There was a little more than 4 years between the release of DirectX 9 and DirectX 10. As it hit the streets with Vista in January of 2007, DirectX 10 has just turned 2 and we are already anticipating it's replacement in the very near future. As we will learn, this speedy transition should be very good for DirectX 11 adoption as DirectX 10 hasn't even become pervasive yet: many games are still DirectX 9 only.
But let's take a closer look at what we are talking about before we go any further.
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ssj4Gogeta - Saturday, January 31, 2009 - link
oh ok. thanks. :)PrinceGaz - Friday, January 30, 2009 - link
I was aware of the idea of the Tesselator in AMD's DX10.1 hardware, but this article was excellent in putting everything together in how it will (or might) function in the DX11 pipeline, and everything else associated with the additions DX11 builds on top of DX10, and the reasons behind what has been done and the implications of it.This is definitely up there with the best of the articles Anand himself posts here; well done Derek. It was the sort of article that first made AT my favourite site to visit first for reviews-- in depth and written by someone who knew what he was talking about. Thankyou.
PrinceGaz - Friday, January 30, 2009 - link
Just because you don't use like it doesn't mean that lots of people are using it day-in day-out on PCs it was pre-installed on. Admittedly I dual-boot Vista and XP, and 99 times out of 100 it is XP (the Vista installation is only used either to help my father when speaking on the phone and who bought a laptop with Vista last year, or to run 3DMark Vantage), but Vista is very popular with most people who use it. My father hasn't any complaints with it (okay so he hasn't used any other O/S, but does that matter).Personally, I intend to jump from XP to Win7 SP1 when it is released. My current Vista installation is 64-bit Ultimate SP1 and it works, but with only 2GB of RAM, I find that XP does everything just as well or better. I would say Vista is very successful though, as almost all computers sold with Windows today have Vista installed rather than XP. There are probably more computers now sold with irrelevant OS's like Linux or OS/X, than there are those that come shipped with XP (netbooks excluded).
PS: actually I like some Linux distros, so if you found the previous paragraph at all offensive, I apologise. But the average user isn't going to want a PC with a Linux distro, unless it comes fully pre-configured with every app they need pre-installed.
ameatypie - Tuesday, February 3, 2009 - link
sorry, but i completly disagree with this. Vista is RUBBISH. If you use it on your average comuter, it is slow. If you use it on a computer worse then that, it is worse then slow - it is useless. If you use it on a fast computer, it wastes half the reasorces that get thrown at it and it doesnt use the other half efficantly enough.The only reason people now days are using vista is because they are forced to with new computers - espically laptops.
I have seen the windows 7 beta, and THAT is going to be pretty good........ But vista is still RUBBISH. :P
just4U - Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - link
No one is FORCED to use Vista and it's certainly NOT rubbish. It is definitely a step way up from XP. I am using the Win7 Beta right now and it's a improvement but why anyone would say its pretty good and Vista is not is beyond me as they are very similiar.I really do think all the Vista bashing has come from people who just don't use it or never really gave it much of a chance. NO instead they go back to (what one user said..) That Bastion of security and stability ... Windows XP. Note the sarcasm. Xp was good for it's time but Vista blows it out of the water.
nilepez - Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - link
By average, do you mean a processor slower than a Athlon 64 3000+ and a 4 year old graphics card?Just curious, because I've got a machine like that that has no problems running Vista (and gets an Vista Experience score between 4 and 5).
Clearly your idea of average is a machine that was, at best, average 4 years ago.
Zoomer - Monday, February 2, 2009 - link
Well, if you throw lots of ram (8GB), fast new graphics card, and use nLite to remove/disable crap like UAC, Defender, firewall, readyboost, and make programs run with administrator privileges by default, it's usable.Nothing like Ubuntu though. However, Ubuntu doesn't run games, or rather, developers don't write mainstream 3D games for it, so I just use VMs or remote connections.
One thing I have not figured out is to change the mouse behavior in windows to more closely resemble linux: mouse wheel should scroll the window the pointer is hovering over, regardless of the active window. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible. Therefore, Vista sucks. ;p
gochichi - Thursday, February 19, 2009 - link
Ubuntu is also bloated. I mean, I can't get my hard drive to stop making noises on Ubuntu.. NOR on Vista... which annoys me to no end. I was finally able to stop the noises in Vista but Ubuntu still grinds it away.Ubuntu is the stuff though. I run Office 2003 on it using Wine and that runs great. But the truth is that Office 2007 is actually better and so Vista is better. you start taking games into account and Windows is clearly the best period... consoles and everything... I'll take a Windows box anyday.
Ubuntu is here to stay, it's getting better every six months. Because Windows XP hasn't died and refuses to die... it gives the open source community time to play catch up. Like Wine, it can reach Windows XP status and if it does (when it does, hopefully before Windows XP is totally dead) it'll be a great option.
Ubuntu is always a great option, the problem is that Microsoft OSs are as "free" money-wise because they come preloaded on 99% of PCs. They only people buying separate versions of Microsoft OSs are Apple users (the irony! OH THE IRONY!) and the handful of people builiding their own systems.
The typical case is like my laptop. By default Vista Home Premium... and it does dual boot to Ubuntu sometimes mostly for my Unix class. I think it's a joy to use it either way, but Ubuntu doesn't have any price advantage at all. And it never will because it's cheaper for Dell (in this case) to pay Microsoft the OEM fee for Vista (or Windows 7 in the near future) than it is to offer the technical support on Ubuntu. Vista (even Vista) also gives the system synergy and enhances the value of the hardware which more than justifies the OEM fee. I like dual booting, and I know that I'd get better at Ubuntu if I didn't have Vista but I find dual booting too irresistible.
So Ubuntu is great, it can't be denied. And one of these days Wine (the windows "not" emulator) might catch up enough so that productivity software can run better on Ubuntu than on Windows XP. Windows XP is Microsoft's Achile's Heel.
Because if new Macs didn't run Windows XP in a virtual machine as well as they do, they wouldn't be so widely adopted.
Windows XP symbolizes the overall lack of progress in the industry, and other companies are approaching its usability or swallowing it whole (like through a VW like with Macs and Fusion etc).
Overall, the computer industry has stagnated. Windows 7 might help, and DirectX11 might help, but I think it'll just keep things from slowing down so rapidly. So they'll continue to slow down, just less quickly.
ameatypie - Tuesday, February 3, 2009 - link
but then, how many people apart from myself and a few select others are going to throw 8GB of RAM, an 8800GT or higher series graphics card, and a beefy quad core at it? not many, if any.nilepez - Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - link
1. You don't need that for Vista.2. 8GB of ram can be had for under 100 bucks
3. Vista would run fine on a $20.00 PCI-e card
4. Vista ran fine with a 6600gt or a X800 card (both over 2 years old by the time Vista was generally available).
If you're talking about a card for gaming, well that has little to do with Vista and most tests now show that games run about the same on XP and Vista. This is no different htan XP upon release. It took a year or 2 before games ran about as well on XP as 9x.