Vista and DirectX 10...are we screwed?

[beretta9m2f]

What's up fellow gamers and enthusiasts, I have a few concerns over the future of PC gaming. I was thinking to myself, PS3 will be expensive as hell hey, at least i still have my trusty ol' pc. Then i realized, DirectX10 will only be available on vista. Does this mean that those who don't upgrade will be left in the dust? or will companies make their games backwards compatible to XP? I know its difficult to say if every company will cater to those left behind, but does anyone know if ANY company is going to make their games backwards compatible? (sort of like how in FEAR you can play in older directx modes via the gfx options) If games aren't backwards compatible we're gonna have to shell out money for a new OS and Gfx card, which combined is probably somewhere around the price of a PS3. :crying:

 

[Marcus_X]

I think most games will be backwards compatible, as most games nowadays can run on Windows 98 / 2000 / Me / NT and XP anyway.

Windows Vista isn't 64 bit only right? If so most game developer companies will be forced to make 64bit patches for their current products, some companies already have. But since I understood Vista also comes available as a 32 bit version, I don't forsee many problems.

If you play DirectX 9 games with DirectX8 card there aren't many problems, only the absence of newer graphical effects. The game simply doesn't look as well as it should be.

I'd say wait a little before buying new hardware, gaming console and pc hardware don't come with such an impressive release list that you'll be convinced into buying them directly upon release. Not too mention flaws;

I bought the ps2 at day 1 of it's release, it had a lot of flaws and costed me a serious amount of money sadly. I'm talking about disc read errors and the dvd function not working properly anymore within several months after purchase.

 

[Addis]

I'm also having problems with the PS2, DREs after about 3/4 years.

Most games should be backwards compatible. But another thing, DX isn't the only graphics API. We always have OpenGL, not proprietary and I'd use that if the game had the option for it.

 

[Big B]

ID-based game engines are OpenGL, however, Unreal-based engines go with Direct X, as 3dfx's Glide support would be asinine.

 

[beretta9m2f]

Yeah i remember older games let you chose which format to play under. I think i remember counter strike 1.5 let you choose between d3d or open gl. Personally i like Open GL, my games always seemed to run smoother that way.