Importance of DirectX 9 compatability

Steve wrote:
I'll be ordering a system with the ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro
(http://www.ati.com/products/radeon90...pro/index.html). I
like the card because it is relatively cheap, has on screen TV
viewing capability, and enough memory (64 MB) to drive the somewhat
low-fi games I plan on using (Sim City 4000, Age of Empires) but I am
worried because it only states having DirectX 8.1 capability. Is this
something I should worry about or is DirectX 9 not an issue for most
users? I do plan on doing some basic home video editing if that is an
issue. Thanks for the help, Steve.

Not having Dx90 support doesnt matter, you just can't use all the special
effects in the games to come, like Halflife 2. With a budget videocard,
thats not advisable anyway ;-)

Thomas.

"Icarus ^i^" wrote:
Steve wrote:
:: Hi,
:: I'll be ordering a system with the ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro
:: (http://www.ati.com/products/radeon90...pro/index.html). I
:: like the card because it is relatively cheap, has on screen TV
:: viewing capability, and enough memory (64 MB) to drive the somewhat
:: low-fi games I plan on using (Sim City 4000, Age of Empires) but I
:: am worried because it only states having DirectX 8.1 capability. Is
:: this something I should worry about or is DirectX 9 not an issue for
:: most users? I do plan on doing some basic home video editing if that
:: is an issue. Thanks for the help, Steve.

Well, compability with dx9 is more of an issue for people who want to play
the next generation of games. I for example just bought a 9800pro so I'll be
able to play Halflife2 and Doom3 when they arrive, but the games you
mentioned won't benefit from dx9 anyway. I've never worked with video
editing so I don't know if directx matters in that case.

Is Carmack going to start using DirectX for Doom3? I thought he was going to
stick with OpenGL.

Jon

Jon Danniken wrote:
Is Carmack going to start using DirectX for Doom3? I thought he was
going to stick with OpenGL.

He will probably use DirectX for a few things... possibly not Video though.

Ben
--
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

"Icarus ^i^" wrote in message
...
Steve wrote:
:: Hi,
:: I'll be ordering a system with the ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro
:: (http://www.ati.com/products/radeon90...pro/index.html). I
:: like the card because it is relatively cheap, has on screen TV
:: viewing capability, and enough memory (64 MB) to drive the somewhat
:: low-fi games I plan on using (Sim City 4000, Age of Empires) but I
:: am worried because it only states having DirectX 8.1 capability. Is
:: this something I should worry about or is DirectX 9 not an issue for
:: most users? I do plan on doing some basic home video editing if that
:: is an issue. Thanks for the help, Steve.

Well, compability with dx9 is more of an issue for people who want to play
the next generation of games. I for example just bought a 9800pro so I'll
be
able to play Halflife2 and Doom3 when they arrive, but the games you
mentioned won't benefit from dx9 anyway. I've never worked with video
editing so I don't know if directx matters in that case.

It appears that Half-Life 2 and DX9 don't work so well with DX9 cards.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ha...s_6072313.html


Too_Much_Coffee ®

/Icarus

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I'll be ordering a system with the ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro
(http://www.ati.com/products/radeon90...pro/index.html). I like the
card because it is relatively cheap, has on screen TV viewing capability,
and
enough memory (64 MB) to drive the somewhat low-fi games I plan on using
(Sim
City 4000, Age of Empires) but I am worried because it only states having
DirectX 8.1 capability. Is this something I should worry about or is
DirectX 9
not an issue for most users? I do plan on doing some basic home video
editing
if that is an issue.
Thanks for the help, Steve.

AOE (and Morrowind and GPL) are my favourites and my 9000 Pro handles them
just fine.

I suspect that the DX issue is a marketing ploy to get us to buy the latest
(and most expensive) - There is even one little game that _requires_ DX9 to
run
http://www.spiritedtechnology.com/pokemonpc.htm
and that is entirely happy running on this (only) DX8 compatible card.

Maybe I'll be locked out of the latest and most demanding software in 2-3
years, but I'm sure other aspects of pc hardware will have changed as well
by then.
Eg AGP cards will be obsolete, you gotta have UltraGP graphics cards,
running on 0.5 volts (But will the games really be better, i wonder?).

Video-editing - be careful about taking marketing at face value - I never
got Pinnacle Studio 8 (ATI version) to capture at all from the ATI card it
was bundled with, and even if import a previously saved file I found it
hopelessly laborious for video editing. Much prefer to use totally free
TMPGEnc http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html

HTH,

Laurence

I for example just bought a 9800pro so I'll be
able to play Halflife2

I went one further, I bought an entirely new system for HL2 (with a Radeon
9800)
Is this on the "are you a dork?" self-test?









Icarus ^i^ wrote:
Steve wrote:
Hi,
I'll be ordering a system with the ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro
(http://www.ati.com/products/radeon90...pro/index.html). I
like the card because it is relatively cheap, has on screen TV
viewing capability, and enough memory (64 MB) to drive the somewhat
low-fi games I plan on using (Sim City 4000, Age of Empires) but I
am worried because it only states having DirectX 8.1 capability. Is
this something I should worry about or is DirectX 9 not an issue for
most users? I do plan on doing some basic home video editing if that
is an issue. Thanks for the help, Steve.

Well, compability with dx9 is more of an issue for people who want to
play the next generation of games. I for example just bought a
9800pro so I'll be able to play Halflife2 and Doom3 when they arrive,
but the games you mentioned won't benefit from dx9 anyway. I've never
worked with video editing so I don't know if directx matters in that
case.

/Icarus

"Pluvious" wrote in message
...

That article was posted on 7/24 and since then they have fixed the AA
issues for
HL2. It's a non-issue at this point.



That's a good thing, otherwise they would have been sunk.

Video-editing - be careful about taking marketing at face value - I never
got Pinnacle Studio 8 (ATI version) to capture at all from the ATI card
it
was bundled with, and even if import a previously saved file I found it
hopelessly laborious for video editing. Much prefer to use totally free
TMPGEnc http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html

HTH,

Laurence



yeah Laurence, i started using TMPGenc awhile back to convert my .wmv(movie
maker file) to mpegs.

works great for me.

"Thomas" wrote in message
news:QmP3b.21241$tK5.3378633@zonnet-reader-1...

Not having Dx90 support doesnt matter, you just can't use all the special
effects in the games to come, like Halflife 2. With a budget videocard,
thats not advisable anyway ;-)



It blew me away to find out that my ATI Xpert 2000 32MB AGP video card that
I bought three and a half years ago for $150 Canadian will actually be
supported by Half-Life 2. I shudder at such a thought though. :-)