First post, by retro games 100
- Rank
- l33t
Take any DirectX game. It will have a minimum DirectX version requirement. Eg Jedi Knight requires DirectX 5 as a minimum. I install the game, install DirectX 5, and use a video card capable of using DirectX 5. What happens if I then increase the DirectX version by installing DirectX 6 or 7 or 8 etc.. For the purposes of this discussion, please assume that the video card is capable of using these higher versions of DirectX. Will the game look any better? Would any DirectX game look better, not just Jedi Knight.
I vaguely remember reading about "Crysis" looking a bit better on Vista, compared to Windows XP because Vista used DirectX 10, and XP can only use DirectX 9.
The other day I installed "Arx Fatalis", a game originally published in 2001 when XP was released. I guess it was geared up for either Win98 or XP. It's probably a DirectX 8 game. When I installed it the other day, I used Windows 7. I'm still a bit new to Win7, and I'm guessing it uses DirectX 11. I couldn't help but notice that it looked very good, from a general image quality point of view. I wonder if somehow DirectX 11 made it look better somehow, compared to how I remembered playing the game on Win98 many years ago. Perhaps it's just to do with the graphics card and its driver, rather than what DirectX version or Operating System you're using?
Edit: I have been a bit vague when I use the phrase "image quality". I do mean the general overall appearance of the game, but I also mean effects - such as smoke, fire burning torches, etc...
