GDC 06: Microsoft talks Direct3D

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Windows Vista may be delayed, but that isn't changing Microsoft's game plan for Game Developers Conference 06. Microsoft is in full force at the conference with leading representatives from the Xbox, DirectX, XNA, Microsoft Games Studios, and Microsoft Casual Games groups present at the event running tutorial sessions to get programmers up to speed on the latest Microsoft developments and to share best practices for programming across all of Microsoft's platforms.

Windows Vista is one of the largest challenges facing PC game developers this year. The new Microsoft operating system now slated for a January release includes Direct3D 10, a brand-new version that introduces a new hardware model, a revamped graphics pipeline, and new rendering features that let developers get closer to the hardware than previous Direct3D versions. The DirectX team is on hand at GDC to help programmers prepare for the transition from Direct3D 9, the current graphics API for Windows XP and the Xbox 360, to Direct3D 10 for Windows Vista.

GameSpot caught up with Microsoft's Sam Glassenberg, program manager for Direct3D 10, to get his thoughts on what Windows Vista will do for PC gaming.

GameSpot: Can you give us an update on the current status of Direct3D 10 game development?

Sam Glassenberg: In the shorter term you're going to see Direct3D 10 titles that are going to be next-gen quality and incrementally better [than Direct3D 9 versions]. One of the things D3D10 enables game developers to do from a content standpoint, shader authoring and other things, is that it's a great design point to target because it has so much flexibility. You can target D3D10, then specialize and bake down your games to work on other platforms that have more restrictions like consoles and older D3D9 platforms.

GS: Would you say that the first Direct3D 10 games will only take advantage of performance gains to pack in more graphics per frame?

SG: We're going to see people take a lot of advantage of incremental features, add a lot of clutter, and add a lot more materials. Beyond that, people are going to start doing really heavy-duty algorithmic stuff, procedural content generation--basically producing stuff on the fly, doing dynamic detail and a lot more exciting things in the shader. When you look up close to objects you're not going to see aliasing right away. With geometry, things are going to have a lot more diversity in content. There's going to be a lot less repetition, a lot less of the really big triangles with the same stuff on them. There's going to be a lot more detail.

It's a clean break, a major redesign. It enables game developers to scale for future hardware, so as the [hardware] performance gets better, it's much easier to take advantage of it through [D3D]10 because you're no longer gated by things like CPU performance, which might not be improving as quickly.

GS: Will we see new mind-blowing D3D10 games right when Vista ships?

SG: Windows Vista will be like any new platform. You're going to see some stuff that blows your mind, just like you do with any new platform ship, whether it's Windows or console. As time goes on, after these guys have final hardware, after that first generation, it's just really going to change the way everything gets done similar to any other new platform launch.

GS: Will we see Windows Vista games that will require DirectX 10 hardware, or will most DirectX 10 games also have DirectX 9 fallback codepaths to support older video cards?

SG: That's a decision individual developers and publishers make based on their audience and based on what they're trying to achieve visually in their game and where they're willing to compromise. We see this even now--there are some developers that will set a Shader Model 2.0 min-spec (minimum specification). Vista makes that easier for these developers because Vista takes a Shader Model 2.0 min-spec to render the desktop--it's raising the bar for games by requiring Shader Model 2.0 just for the desktop.

In [D3D]10, it's going to be a similar thing. There are going to be cutting-edge developers that push the limit, and their audience is really demanding the best visuals and the best effects. These are the guys that want to have machines and play games that blow the next-gen consoles away. There are going to be titles that are fully exploitive [of Direct3D 10 hardware], and there are going to be titles that are going to span much farther back and reach a broader audience of hardware, and those are going to have fallback codepaths.

GS: Is Microsoft planning any Windows Vista-specific announcements for E3?

SG: As far as Microsoft at E3, I'll defer you to the marketing guys. I'm all about getting this product shipped and getting D3D10 out the door, making sure that the games get built and that they're looking great and exploiting the hardware. What gets announced at what time is up to the marketing guys.

GS: Thanks, Sam!