Direct X 11.1 is Windows 8 exclusive, no plans to retrofit

You'll excuse me if I don't really believe the official statements on the matter. Had Ballmer and Sinofsky traded blows, would you expect the announcement to say "I kicked his ass and he deserved it, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer"?

so do you think he was onboard with the evil plan or not? what kind of heads do you think are rolling and why?
 
I know all about Green and her role in the design of the Metro UI. Metro is a pretty cool UI for tablets, I've tried it on one and it's smooth and relatively intuitive. With some more work it would be even better. Metro's integration with the rest of Windows 8 is the real travesty.
 
And I have no plans to buy Windows 8. I didn't have plans to buy Windows 7, but the new computer I bought came with it. I don't see the need to buy an OS every single year. Get it right the first time, any updates or anything else should just be that, updates you download.
 

Yeah... try again.... from this very page.

Please note that this patent licensing program does not cover video or audio compression patents (including, without limitation, MPEG-2 video compression, or AC-3, Dolby Digital or DTS audio compression) that may be applicable to DVD products or “CSS” (Content Scramble System) patent, “CPPM” (Copyright Protection for Pre-recorded Media) patent, or “CPRM” (Copyright Protection for Recordable Media) patent that may be applicable to DVD products, which are licensed through separate entities. Please also note that this patent licensing program does not cover Blu-ray Disc (“BD”) products, irrespective of whether they include DVD functionality.

It's $2 per unit JUST FOR mpeg2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-2

According to the MPEG-LA Licensing Agreement MPEG-LA, any use of MPEG-2 technology is subject to royalties.

Encoders are subject to a royalty of $2.00 per unit.
Decoders are subject to a royalty of $2.00 per unit.[40]

This doesn't cover (as mentioned above) AC3, DD, DTS, or CSS licensing. All of which Microsoft would have to get because everyone would expect that much from microsoft if it allowed for DVD playback.
 
Yeah... try again.... from this very page.



It's $2 per unit JUST FOR mpeg2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-2



This doesn't cover (as mentioned above) AC3, DD, DTS, or CSS licensing. All of which Microsoft would have to get because everyone would expect that much from microsoft if it allowed for DVD playback.

Is this why you had to register for Mpeg or something on PS3 and PSP? So they only had to pay for the units who registered for it?
Clever way to save a bit of cash, Microsoft should do the same.
 
Win8 still includes MPEG-2 filters, just not actual DVD support.

Then from the site you posted...

DVD-Video Player


The greater of:
(i) 4% of the net selling price (up to a maximum of US$8.00 per player) or
(ii) US$4.00 per player;
US$2.00 per player on or after the effective date of the New DVD6C License Agreement

Still $2 plus the associated dolby codecs and anti-scrambling technology licenses ;) Still closer to $5 than $.50


(edit) never mind, I read the wrong part. It is .50 for the disc, but it still requires the patents related to anti-scrambling.

DVD Decoder


The greater of:
(i) 4% of the net selling price or
(ii) US$1.00 per decoder;
US$0.50 per decoder on or after the effective date of the New DVD6C License Agreement
 
Then from the site you posted...



Still $2 plus the associated dolby codecs and anti-scrambling technology licenses ;) Still closer to $5 than $.50


(edit) never mind, I read the wrong part. It is .50 for the disc, but it still requires the patents related to anti-scrambling.

CSS is a flat $15,000 a year, IIRC; most of the money comes from per-disc rather than per-player licensing. Which leaves Dolby AC3 which is a huge mystery by internet standards, because it involves picking up the phone and talking with a salesman.

It's still definitely a serious chunk of change when factored out across the half-billion units Win8 is likely to ship, especially if the MPEG-2 codecs present on install are stubs there for compatibility that check for a license key before returning any video (unlikely, but possible.) I don't think there's anything wrong with trimming support out of Starter or out of particular volume licensing packs. I just think it's kind of disingenuous to get up and tell the home consumer how great paying extra will be for them because of hypothetical savings that may someday be passed onto their employers.
 
CSS is a flat $15,000 a year, IIRC; most of the money comes from per-disc rather than per-player licensing. Which leaves Dolby AC3 which is a huge mystery by internet standards, because it involves picking up the phone and talking with a salesman.

It's still definitely a serious chunk of change when factored out across the half-billion units Win8 is likely to ship, especially if the MPEG-2 codecs present on install are stubs there for compatibility that check for a license key before returning any video (unlikely, but possible.) I don't think there's anything wrong with trimming support out of Starter or out of particular volume licensing packs. I just think it's kind of disingenuous to get up and tell the home consumer how great paying extra will be for them because of hypothetical savings that may someday be passed onto their employers.

Agreed, and sorry if I came off snide at first, I do actually appreciate the info.
 
If Valve has enough muscle to get developers to support Open GL, then it will work. And Hallelujah.

My fear is that developers won't want to give up the easy Xbox to PC ports.

Its a valid fear, and it would definitely take some sway to convince developers to go back to open gl (after how many years?), but wouldn't be a better proposition in the long run? Its easier to go to the other gaming platforms as well as the other OS's. I would think with all the crying about Windows 8 being locked down from devs they would start to consider OpenGL. I really haven't been following OpenGL development though
 
If Valve has enough muscle to get developers to support Open GL, then it will work. And Hallelujah.

My fear is that developers won't want to give up the easy Xbox to PC ports.

That's not the only reason why devs may not want to switch APIs. IIRC OpenGL still hasn't caught up to DX.
 
Its a valid fear, and it would definitely take some sway to convince developers to go back to open gl (after how many years?), but wouldn't be a better proposition in the long run? Its easier to go to the other gaming platforms as well as the other OS's. I would think with all the crying about Windows 8 being locked down from devs they would start to consider OpenGL. I really haven't been following OpenGL development though

I would think so. I ask this all the time, and the response is always that Open GL isn't as good as Direct X. I would hope that a renewed interest in Open GL would lead to better tools. Maybe that's what Valve is working on?
 
Exactly. And DX11 works just fine on Win7.

I think the next xbox will be DX11.1, but I agree that 11 will be the standard for next gen. If not 11 then at least 10. Video cards are being built to do more efficient geometry shader work. Devs will want to make use of that. If not for tessellation(which will be a boon for LOD) then for shadows, better reflections, deformation and destruction, procedural generation, and for whatever other advantages there are for using the geometry shader.
 
The beauty of Windows is that whatever usability issue or incomplete feature that bothers you can most likely be remedied by using a 3rd party program. For search, use Everything, which indexes much faster than both XP and Windows 7 and gives you full text search of the entire disk content. It also monitors disk changes, so you can get newly created files in your results as soon as they hit the disk.
While this is true, and I already mentioned a workaround that I found and use, my point is that there isn't a NEED for Microsoft to actively break things. The text search box already worked in Windows XP. It was obvious what it did, it gave you the choice between searching in files or in file titles, and it checked everything. Even if you weren't familiar with the interface it should be really simple to see what it does and how it does it.

Likewise, the Windows XP calculator had everything on the same page, without needing to switch between programmer and scientific views (losing the current calculation in the process).

Was there a need to make each of these features worse, requiring third-party workarounds? Not that I can see. Paint, in contrast, was improved as far as I know. I just think they did a poor job with those particular features, and I'm suggesting that Microsoft sometimes does what's practically a needless feature/user interface regression, even aside from dramatic changes like desktop or Aero or Metro.
 
I think the next xbox will be DX11.1, but I agree that 11 will be the standard for next gen. If not 11 then at least 10. Video cards are being built to do more efficient geometry shader work. Devs will want to make use of that. If not for tessellation(which will be a boon for LOD) then for shadows, better reflections, deformation and destruction, procedural generation, and for whatever other advantages there are for using the geometry shader.

The Xbox 360 has a higher tech level than DX9 (but still below DX10) and it didn't matter.
 
9ltP5.gif

lol
 
Likewise, the Windows XP calculator had everything on the same page, without needing to switch between programmer and scientific views (losing the current calculation in the process).

I knew I wasn't imagining that! The newer one (pre 8) is so annoying for that despite adding some extra options.
 
The Xbox 360 has a higher tech level than DX9 (but still below DX10) and it didn't matter.

It was far enough away from DX10 that's why DX9 was still a popular pipeline. The next xbox and PS will have DX11.1 level cards. So I can see a lot of games that are released a year into that gen being DX10+.
 
ZDNet's Mat Baxter-Reynolds writes about Steven Sinofsky's Windows legacy:

And on the second axis we have the problem that WinRT and Windows Store apps are fundamentally closed. In this instance, the WinDiv team are both out of kilter with their own developers (Microsoft's engineers want to be more open) and with the community at large.

Sinofsky's choices with regards to the developer story in the new world of the ridiculously named "Windows Store apps" have been nothing short of disastrous. Effectively deprecating .NET for native Windows 8 and Windows RT development, obfuscating the message throughout on Windows Phone, obsessing over running Office on tablet, and by stopping the "open web" philosophy bubbling up from the Microsoft developer rank and file has devastated Microsoft's chances in the post-PC market.
 
Likewise, the Windows XP calculator had everything on the same page, without needing to switch between programmer and scientific views (losing the current calculation in the process).

The new calculator is infuriating. I have to do hex calculations all day and I lose a lot of the scientific functions when working in hex. Terrible design.
 
The beauty of general purpose computing platforms that can run unsigned code is that whatever usability issue or incomplete feature that bothers you can most likely be remedied by using a 3rd party program. For search, use Everything, which indexes much faster than both XP and Windows 7 and gives you full text search of the entire disk content. It also monitors disk changes, so you can get newly created files in your results as soon as they hit the disk.

fixed that for you.
 
You'll excuse me if I don't really believe the official statements on the matter. Had Ballmer and Sinofsky traded blows, would you expect the announcement to say "I kicked his ass and he deserved it, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer"?

Wouldn't that be awesome?
 
Then from the site you posted...



Still $2 plus the associated dolby codecs and anti-scrambling technology licenses ;) Still closer to $5 than $.50


(edit) never mind, I read the wrong part. It is .50 for the disc, but it still requires the patents related to anti-scrambling.
In a HD world, mpeg2 is worthless. Just don't include it and point everyone to K-Lite pack.
 
Most of the changes in 11.1 have more to do with Metro than anything else. Hell the article even says it. But no, we've gotta sit here and whine and complain. The only 'important' thing in 11.1 is 3D. Most people don't even care about 3D. And I'm saying that as a proponent of 3D.

Quote:

PCGamesN has added that while the move seems to lock out owners of older Windows operating systems, Direct X 11.1 doesn’t add that many features to get green-eyed about – unless you’re a fan of stereoscopic 3D.


This doesn't matter at all. Hell, 11.1 is even less important than 10.1 was, and he saw how useful that update was.
 
not really surprising .... nothing new under the sun.

However I doubt that it will be much effective as incentive for the upgrade .... I mean .... we are bearly taking advantage of Dx10 and 11. Unless the new consoles will be Dx11.1 (and they will not), I doubt this will impact us much.
 
none. It is a speculation, however high probable as the design phase is finished by now (we are by all accounts getting close to the launch) and console never went for the most expensive and most recent hardware in terms of graphic chips.


This is Microsoft here.
 
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