While browsing this great site (where I've been a lurker for a long time) a few weeks ago I bumped into a few posts which caught my eye, as a number of questions were being asked about DX10, and seemed to repeat many of the questions I've seen on other sites. I had a bit of a dialogue going with this nice fellow named RogerA, who is for sure, another DX10 enthusiast, and he expressed he "was happy to see me here, on this site"! Wow!! Well, I thought - that was quite an honour from a relative stranger, but it has got me out of the lurker mode, and has encouraged me to see if I can't add something to the forum which will help many of those folks who really want to try DX10, but have no idea where to start.
As lots of you may now be aware, a talented programmer named Steve Parsons has been actively researching - and repairing the DX10 side of the FSX shader system, aiming at eliminating the left-over DX10 issues. These are the ShadersHLSL files which ACES were unable - through time constraints or other reasons - to complete in time for the release of SP2.
The initiative, enthusiasm and work output which Steve - on his own - has displayed in taking on the job of actually finishing that development, is an incredible achievement. There is no such thing as "never intended as a finished product" - they were simply left in that state, a conscious decision, likely pegged as a low-priority item by the Project, Business and Marketing management of Microsoft's Gaming Studios.
It is one thing to 'better' a product with an improvement, or to fix a known issue - but it is quite another to knowingly allow a product to market, and label something like DX10 as a "Preview" with that "Preview " programming barely functional, and not at all representing a true preview of "what's coming with DX10".
Steve's work-in-progess shader repair patch, currently at version 3.2.2, has been successful to the degree that I reckon that a wholesale move for many "simmers" to DX10 is now quite practical. There are now several hundred FSX users - and growing daily, who have completed this transition, and I believe it has somewhat created a new and exciting experience for that avid flight-simmer: an alternate to P3D, a new and smoother FSX, while also creating an extra opportunity for forward-thinking commercial FSX developers to play a role in furthering this change by virtue of making sure their products are DX10-compatible.
If you want to have a shot at DX10, here's a bit of a (constantly updated) guide, started back in August, 2012, which will give you the basic "How-to"'s to get it going. It's available here as a Word doc, or here, as a pdf. I suggest reading it through a couple of times before doing anything!
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to ask away here, or I can also be reached at the email addy at the bottom of the doc.
Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year,
Good luck, and All the Best - especially RogerA!
pj
As lots of you may now be aware, a talented programmer named Steve Parsons has been actively researching - and repairing the DX10 side of the FSX shader system, aiming at eliminating the left-over DX10 issues. These are the ShadersHLSL files which ACES were unable - through time constraints or other reasons - to complete in time for the release of SP2.
The initiative, enthusiasm and work output which Steve - on his own - has displayed in taking on the job of actually finishing that development, is an incredible achievement. There is no such thing as "never intended as a finished product" - they were simply left in that state, a conscious decision, likely pegged as a low-priority item by the Project, Business and Marketing management of Microsoft's Gaming Studios.
It is one thing to 'better' a product with an improvement, or to fix a known issue - but it is quite another to knowingly allow a product to market, and label something like DX10 as a "Preview" with that "Preview " programming barely functional, and not at all representing a true preview of "what's coming with DX10".
Steve's work-in-progess shader repair patch, currently at version 3.2.2, has been successful to the degree that I reckon that a wholesale move for many "simmers" to DX10 is now quite practical. There are now several hundred FSX users - and growing daily, who have completed this transition, and I believe it has somewhat created a new and exciting experience for that avid flight-simmer: an alternate to P3D, a new and smoother FSX, while also creating an extra opportunity for forward-thinking commercial FSX developers to play a role in furthering this change by virtue of making sure their products are DX10-compatible.
If you want to have a shot at DX10, here's a bit of a (constantly updated) guide, started back in August, 2012, which will give you the basic "How-to"'s to get it going. It's available here as a Word doc, or here, as a pdf. I suggest reading it through a couple of times before doing anything!
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to ask away here, or I can also be reached at the email addy at the bottom of the doc.
Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year,
Good luck, and All the Best - especially RogerA!
pj
I toyed with the possibility of creating a Dx10 forum here but for now I believe the best idea to to keep the energy concentrated over at your home site. As it continues to grow it might be worthwhile setting up a Dx10 forum here, if only to help promote Dx10 with Steve Parsons shader mods.