Hi,
more or less occasionally I got my hands on a german book about directx 11 development, and thought I wanted to stick with directx 9 I got rather curious. I already heard about how advanced directx 11 is, but except of tessalation I didn't really knew anything worth switching. But now I somehow took it into near consideration. So know I wanted to hear your opinion as advanced/expert developers: Is it really worth using directx 11 instead of 9? Not talking about directx 11 just being "the furture" and it is better to use it "in advance", but really about hard facts I could use for developing a game today.
Also, are there any disadvantages? I know that there are no x-meshs anymore, which is kind of annyoing as I didn't want to write a custom model format for know, so are there any alternatives? And are there any other things not supported in directx 11 anymore (except the fixed function pipeline which I won't need anyhow)?
Also, I would like to have support as well for directx9 as for directx11. Is it easily possible to support both version of directx in one application? I somehow have an semi-abstraction for directx right know (creation of directx 11 and rendering happens in a class, while I still store LP...9-elements where it is needed), so would it be to difficult to manage and on-the-fly-switch between this two modes in the same code, or do I have to have different versions of my game (like if some parameters I need to pass externally are totally different..)?
I would really like to know your mind on the topic directx9 - directx11. The latter seemed a bit more complicated looking at the code in my book, and I would only like to switch if it is really worth it and not so hard to figure out that I am busy for two months only getting it to work..
Swtiching to direct x 11 / Parallel development of directx9 & 11
I actually had my engine running both D3D9 and D3D11 in separate windows simultaneously - so it is possible. In fact, it wasn't too hard to get set up, but I was using the community tech preview version back then.
The benefits of using D3D11 are native multithreading abilities, as well as the ability to use feature levels. This lets you target the hardware levels ranging from D3D9 all the way up to D3D11, all with the same API to work through.
If your German book seems to complex, you could always pick up a copy of our book (which should be coming out next month) and is written in English
Plus you can start out with the Hieroglyph 3 engine (linked below in my signature) to get over the initial hump. I find the D3D11 API much cleaner than the D3D9 version, so if you have the time and will, then I would recommend making the switch.
The benefits of using D3D11 are native multithreading abilities, as well as the ability to use feature levels. This lets you target the hardware levels ranging from D3D9 all the way up to D3D11, all with the same API to work through.
If your German book seems to complex, you could always pick up a copy of our book (which should be coming out next month) and is written in English
Plus you can start out with the Hieroglyph 3 engine (linked below in my signature) to get over the initial hump. I find the D3D11 API much cleaner than the D3D9 version, so if you have the time and will, then I would recommend making the switch.
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