Vista and DirectX10 - Today the internet, tomorrow the world
Microsoft's done it again, they've found some way to strangle computer geeks one more time and make them wince uncomfortably.
How you ask? the Lynch pin is DirectX 10. The reason I only ever stayed with windows over the years was games. Linux does everything ELSE that windows does, MUCH better. I could go on at length how better programmed Linux is as an OS! The problem is that there's not enough market in the Linux for game developers to try and make Linux ports of their games. Furthermore I'm sure Microsoft hands them a briefcase of money and a contract that says "NO LINUX SIGN HERE" to boot.
But aside from my conspiratorial ramblings here's the facts of what's going to happen:
as you may or may not know Microsoft's idea of security is over-using the "Genuine Windows Authentication" (anyone notice the acronym is the sound you'd make every time it comes up?)
According to experts and analyst, windows vista has a time-limit where it will re-ask for authentication on software you have legitimately installed, let's not forget that it will undeniably bar any pirated software from running properly on your system (and knowing Microsoft and their "we have the right to violate your privacy" policy, notify the local authorities as well). I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd like to be scrambling for CD-keys every two or three months just to satisfy Microsoft's needs to ensure my software isn't being shared. It doesn't stop there. If you extract audio from a legitimately owned Audio CD it will purposely record the quality as "radio level" or possibly lower and this is done through manipulation of the hardware's DRIVERs not the software.
ALL of these headaches asside the reason why we should start looking for alternatives is because windows has Stopped supporting DirectX9 and has ONLY DirectX 10 available for Vista. The crying shame is that DirectX 10 ~IS~ better than 9. By a long shot and this has partially to do with the fact that it's deeply integrated with the OS this time around and WILL be much faster and support Pixel shader 4.0 and beyond although in my opinion we've barely learned to use Pixel shader 3.0 but that's just me. What this means is that the enticement of a smoother running DirectX is going to pressure gaming companies to start producing titles for Vista sooner than normal because of all the speed bonuses they will get but in turn Microsoft hopes this will force gamers to upgrade. Sadly it's a tactic that I feel admitting WILL work. as much as I would like to say "FUCK MICROSOFT" I am also saying "FUCK NEW AND EXCITING GAMES!" as well.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
One of two things will happen for geeks like me. 1) Someone comes out with a slick Hack for Vista that disable authentication to sate the needs of geeks that "try before they buy" a lot of software. Lest we forget that some of us like to actually SAVE the CDs and keep the content on our HD so that it's easier and faster to load the content from a 3GB/s SATAII drive over a DVD drive. This will constitute piracy in the eyes of Microsoft, but whatever.
OR the plausible alternative with HDD drive prices falling like stones, to have a hot-swap OS drive, XP for everything else and Vista for gaming. Especially with SATAII being hot-swap friendly, it's not a bad idea.
Mind you this is years away, with many of this summer's hot PC titles already being completed for DX9, but in a year you can bet their going to be optimized for DX10.
Microsoft has gotten a head start on it's very snooty "must have Vista for games" attitude, try downloading the free copy of Bizarre game's Geometry wars (a very fun game first released for the Xbox360) it'll tell you it can't install because you don't have vista. After finding a hacked version of the game (no crime there, the game is otherwise free) it runs like crap, obviously optimized for DX10.
so as much as I'd like to say fly the flag of freedom and rise up against microsoft, You'd have to be giving up all the new and interesting PC games and I'm just not prepared to give in.
Some say they'll go to consoles. Good for you. have you seen what's available lately? The PS3 has terrible game support and Sony has always had a "Screw the gamers, we'll do what we want" attitude, the Wii which is fun, focuses too much on it's wiimote action and makes casual gaming rather difficult. it's more of a party system and none of the really gritty games ever make it to the happy-fun-time Nintendo platforms anway. The Xbox360 is the best bang for the buck, It has a lot of good games and stellar graphics, but to say "Screw windows" and then turn around and buy and Xbox 360 sounds rather blasphemed to me.
And there's my lil' rant on the state of things to come :S
How you ask? the Lynch pin is DirectX 10. The reason I only ever stayed with windows over the years was games. Linux does everything ELSE that windows does, MUCH better. I could go on at length how better programmed Linux is as an OS! The problem is that there's not enough market in the Linux for game developers to try and make Linux ports of their games. Furthermore I'm sure Microsoft hands them a briefcase of money and a contract that says "NO LINUX SIGN HERE" to boot.
But aside from my conspiratorial ramblings here's the facts of what's going to happen:
as you may or may not know Microsoft's idea of security is over-using the "Genuine Windows Authentication" (anyone notice the acronym is the sound you'd make every time it comes up?)
According to experts and analyst, windows vista has a time-limit where it will re-ask for authentication on software you have legitimately installed, let's not forget that it will undeniably bar any pirated software from running properly on your system (and knowing Microsoft and their "we have the right to violate your privacy" policy, notify the local authorities as well). I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd like to be scrambling for CD-keys every two or three months just to satisfy Microsoft's needs to ensure my software isn't being shared. It doesn't stop there. If you extract audio from a legitimately owned Audio CD it will purposely record the quality as "radio level" or possibly lower and this is done through manipulation of the hardware's DRIVERs not the software.
ALL of these headaches asside the reason why we should start looking for alternatives is because windows has Stopped supporting DirectX9 and has ONLY DirectX 10 available for Vista. The crying shame is that DirectX 10 ~IS~ better than 9. By a long shot and this has partially to do with the fact that it's deeply integrated with the OS this time around and WILL be much faster and support Pixel shader 4.0 and beyond although in my opinion we've barely learned to use Pixel shader 3.0 but that's just me. What this means is that the enticement of a smoother running DirectX is going to pressure gaming companies to start producing titles for Vista sooner than normal because of all the speed bonuses they will get but in turn Microsoft hopes this will force gamers to upgrade. Sadly it's a tactic that I feel admitting WILL work. as much as I would like to say "FUCK MICROSOFT" I am also saying "FUCK NEW AND EXCITING GAMES!" as well.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
One of two things will happen for geeks like me. 1) Someone comes out with a slick Hack for Vista that disable authentication to sate the needs of geeks that "try before they buy" a lot of software. Lest we forget that some of us like to actually SAVE the CDs and keep the content on our HD so that it's easier and faster to load the content from a 3GB/s SATAII drive over a DVD drive. This will constitute piracy in the eyes of Microsoft, but whatever.
OR the plausible alternative with HDD drive prices falling like stones, to have a hot-swap OS drive, XP for everything else and Vista for gaming. Especially with SATAII being hot-swap friendly, it's not a bad idea.
Mind you this is years away, with many of this summer's hot PC titles already being completed for DX9, but in a year you can bet their going to be optimized for DX10.
Microsoft has gotten a head start on it's very snooty "must have Vista for games" attitude, try downloading the free copy of Bizarre game's Geometry wars (a very fun game first released for the Xbox360) it'll tell you it can't install because you don't have vista. After finding a hacked version of the game (no crime there, the game is otherwise free) it runs like crap, obviously optimized for DX10.
so as much as I'd like to say fly the flag of freedom and rise up against microsoft, You'd have to be giving up all the new and interesting PC games and I'm just not prepared to give in.
Some say they'll go to consoles. Good for you. have you seen what's available lately? The PS3 has terrible game support and Sony has always had a "Screw the gamers, we'll do what we want" attitude, the Wii which is fun, focuses too much on it's wiimote action and makes casual gaming rather difficult. it's more of a party system and none of the really gritty games ever make it to the happy-fun-time Nintendo platforms anway. The Xbox360 is the best bang for the buck, It has a lot of good games and stellar graphics, but to say "Screw windows" and then turn around and buy and Xbox 360 sounds rather blasphemed to me.
And there's my lil' rant on the state of things to come :S