I am faced with a dilemma that may cause me to start over with my current project. Currently, I am using DX9.0c.
Would there be any reason/advantage to use DX11? or 10?
Would there be any reason why I should stick with 9?
Trying to find this info through a Google search results in plenty of useless info and none pertaining to programming using C++....
... C++ really has nothing to do with this.
I know. It was only a matter of what language I'm using....
The target OS is 7/8. Would there be any reasons why I should/shouldn't use 9 or 11 for 7/8?
It's really going to depend on if you think the improved feature set of DX11 is worth the extra system requirements you'll be adding and the time you'll spend converting it over to DX11.
Your time is by far the most valuable resource when developing a game, so the time required to convert is an incredibly good reason to stick with DX9. You'll also catch all WinXP users if you stick with DX9, and more customers is always a good thing.
So is there no advantage to using 11?
Maybe not for your specific case at this specific time.
Learning Direct3D 11 is still important for the future, and there is no reason you cannot start a secondary project on the side to start understanding it. At some point your current project will end or you will realize it is spaghetti or get bored with it and move on to another project. It would be handy by that time to know Direct3D 11.
L. Spiro
So is there no advantage to using 11?
Less overhead than d3d9, geometry shader and hw tessellation, a draft of multi-threading, less cRap-bits, feature levels... Yes, MS was able to mess around with feature levels, braking its own rules and adding a pair of cap bits, but nothing comparable with d3d9...
My project is already spaghetti.
I currently have no plans to implement hw tessellation, but the geometry shader sounds like something that could be useful--not necessary, but useful.
I ported me small project from dx9 to 11 almost a year ago, i use almost nothing from the new features, but overall i am very satisfied with dx11. Texture2Darray was a big enough reason to move, heightmapping is a couple of lines of shadercode now, and making the same thing in dx9 costed me more time than learning all the new stuff.
