Using Direct3D 9 for ongoing XP support is absolutely fine. Just dropping support would be a huge "f___ you!" to the customers, and losing hundreds of users for a new API without any visual improvement would be a stupid decision.

D3D 10+ may not be an improvement for the users, but for the programmers: D3D 10+ programs tend to have less code because
1) you don't need to handle corner cases like losing GPU context ("lost device" is impossible),
2) there is far less control flow (because a minimum feature set is guaranteed, no capability checking or workarounds for old GPUs or broken drivers), and
3) there is less code in general (instead of setting hundreds of render states one at a time, state blocks must be used).

So while I agree that D3D 10+ is currently useless for LFS and sticking with D3D 9 is totally right, I disagree with Scawen in that it's just a hype – if you don't have XP users, it can significandly reduce your code base and your test cases, which is a blessing for any programmer. It's sad that they had to drop XP support for D3D 10, but the decision was absolutely reasonable.

Quote from Scawen :

I did try that before in Windows 7 but was unable to get any kind of debug output. Selecting the debug version as shown in those instructions had no effect. Also, closing that control panel and opening it again, it was always switched back to the retail version. Other people tested and got the same result. So it is amazing that PeterN has now got debug output. Was there a Windows 7 patch that enabled DX9 debugging again? Peter, which version of Windows were you using?

The reason for no D3D debug output in Windows 7 is the Platform Update which had been released via Windows Update some months ago. It lifted the DirectX Graphics Infrastructure and DirectWrite to Windows 8 level, but sadly it disabled debug output for any D3D 9 version before the current Windows 8 SDK (which I suspect is useless for you because there is no XP compatibility). If you want to get your debug output back without moving to Windows 8, either try to uninstall the platform update or reformat your system and install Windows 7 SP1 without Updates. There may be a way to remove the Update, but that's a risky thing always.

I'm having the same issue here For more information, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2670838/en-us : "If you are a Windows 7 DirectX developer who uses the June 2010 DirectX Software Development Kit (SDK), you'll have to update your development environments after you install this platform update."

(I didn't have the time to read through the whole two threads, so sorry if I'm repeating something here.)

Last edited by Krishty, Mon, 10 Mar 2014 15:59.

@AndRand: Try another mirror than RapidShare – for some reason, RS limits to 10 downloads … :/


@Shadowww, DiSCiPuLo, thisnameistaken, Tomba(FIN): Thanks If you have any wishes or suggestions, just post them here. I'm currently fine-tuning (removing eye-catching patterns and other minor changes), so the final version should be up in the next few days.

Quote from blakehoo88 :

looks good, but in MY opinio it could be a little more rough and worn

Ensure that the "texture filtering / AF" option is set to > 4x. Additionally, try this extra worn-out version:

http://www.multiupload.com/2FOQIOK6Q3
This is as much roughness as I will give you – Fern Bay still is a raceway, not a field path

http://www.multiupload.com/K99JC7QG3A

Have fun!

Fern Bay is a rough raceway, but its tarmac always seemed to "clean" to me … so this is what I did last night:





Download: http://www.multiupload.com/K99JC7QG3A (~4 MiB).

Last edited by Krishty, Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:50.