Isn't directx an Nvidia only thing?
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Isn't directx an Nvidia only thing?
All of the technobabble pertaining to graphics hardware/software goes over my head. All I know is that the DX11 client is sure gonna be pretty.
Personally I'm a tad worried about the DX11 client's reliance on nVidia's Gameworks and how it will affect AMD cards.
Overall visually they are some nice improvements. Nothing groundbreaking though - as I was expecting when I heard there would be new lighting.[1] But that said, the game currently already looks pretty good.
A little disappointed too there aren't better AA options. FXAA ... you will get used to it but SMAA T2x (like they use in Infamous: Second Son) would be nice.
[1] Was kind of expecting more accurate physically based lighting.
Actually DirectX is a graphics Application Program Interface (API).
Basically it's a standardized method of talking to different GPUs, so games can be written once and run on any DX compliant GPU - in theory.
Nothing is "free" of course, there are downsides to abstractions such as this, mainly that it saps performance. This is why consoles despite having weaker hardware can look as good they do, as they use a much lower level API designed specifically just for their hardware.
Aww to no textures, I swear once they said they were working on decompressing and examining some textures and while it was an arduous process they were at it and then a month later they were like 'nope'.
Other changes are nice though, the little things can add up (zoomed out quick shots may be hard but large screen slow passing eyes can mean a lot). Improvement is an improvement, so yay :D.
It will be fun to revisit some locations after this just to see the changes (beaches, marble Ul'Dah maybe, Limsa stone walls?).