Quote:Original post by circlesoft
Where did you hear this from? The next version of DirectX (called DX10/DirectXNext/Whatever-is-catchy-this-week) will ship after Longhorn is released. This is because Avalon is being developed on an enhanced DX9 (they need something stable to build it on - building betas on other betas doesn't work [lol])

It's now called the WGF (Windows Graphics Foundation)... aka, DirectX 10!

Really, as if MS is going to completely ditch all the work they've done on DX and start from scratch. It's just being rebranded and most likely reorganized and refactored to remove all the crud they've probably been wanting to remove but couldn't for compatibility reasons, and most likely adding better 2D support since it'll also replace GDI as the workhorse. But I imagine most of the underlaying code will be the same.

Hi,
I used Windows98 for my first fame Engine. And I was comfortable and didn't want to change. But then I had to install my engine in a NT environment and it was a disaster. Many memory errors appeared.

So, I decided to switch to Win2K and I loved it. I debbuged lots of memory bugs that never appeared with Win98. I got so used to W2K than when XP came out I didn't wanted to install it. Even when a friend had tested it (he used 3DStudioMax a lot) and had a very high opinion on it I simply refused to install it.

One day I has a Lan Party and my W2K collapsed. There was no W2K install disc available so a friend told me to install a XP just for that night. So I did so and... I used and used it and now theres no way I get back to W2K.

Same with Visual Studio. I used VC6.0. About the time I switched to XP I won a contest and the prize was a new VStudio.Net. I installed it just to test. And I wanted to uninstall it after an hour of testing (really hated it), but don't know why I kept it. I recently installed a VC6 at work just to fix a DLL... and now I hate VC6. Leave me with my .Net.

So whats my point? I have learned that old tech is that... old. So no point sticking with it. When Longhorn comes out... I'll run and but a copy, and a copy of the net VStudio, and install any new SDK and adapt my engine to it. I won't look back to XP.

And about XNA. Its not DX. XNA is a standard and tools to support that standars. Microsoft is trying to create a standard that may be adopted by all hardware and software manufacturers. Say... all joysticks/joypads use a USB interface so they can be used in XBox or in a PC or in PS2 or in Gamecube so the player can use his/her preferred control.

Same in software. All physics engines should expose the same functions with the same names and parameters that will do the same calculations. All math libraries should expose exactly the same functions. But the standard wont tell HOW to program or optimize it, so each developer can decide the internal way to handle everything.

The idea is not new. Sun has the so called Reference Documents that describe each new java API and which functions it should expose. Each document is discussed by many people for a long time in order to define an architecture able to handle each task. That way anyone can develop that library but it should comply with the reference document. As a developer, I think this would be a great idea if applied to game development.

The idea behind XNA is that engines can work as plugins. So, if I need a physics engine in my game, I can switch from Havoc to Newton Game Dynamics because they both will have the same interface. I can switch from the FarCry engine to the Doom3 engine and my game will still keep running. I can recompile my code in an engine specific to GameCube and then in an engine specific for PS2 and my game will run.

Unfortunately other houses haven't answered to the MS call (and that has logic as I don't think MS will propose a standar without some way to control it legally) and thats why now we have GLSL and HLSL and game programmers have to create shaders for each API instead of working on the same standar (even the nVidia CG initiative has freezed on this point).

I think this unification requires a lot of investmentin time ans resources, but MS isn't called M$ for nothing.

Luck!
Guimo