"zx"
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Posted on:
Sep 1, 2007, 1:54 PM
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Point sur FSX - SP2 - ca devrait plus tarder
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http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/archive/2007/08/08/fsx-dx10-3rd-progress-report-just-another-wednesday.aspx
is time to update everyone on the progress we have made on the
FSX-SP2(DX10) release.
First, we have a name change. We have a set of fixes that we want to widely
deliver, and that means installing on XP and Vista, for DX9 and DX10. So
with that being the case, the name FSX-DX10 isn't accurate and we are now
calling the release FSX-SP2(DX10) to indicate that while DX10 is the main
feature, this is really SP2.
Second, I am not going to be able to talk to either the bug fixes in SP2 or
the DX10 features until early September. I know, I know. I promised
mid-August, what is up with that? Well, I am going on 3 weeks of vacation
starting August 14th, and we will not be fully baked by then. So any feature
discussion would be speculative and not authoritative. If I wait until I
return, week of September 4th, the features will be done or cut and I can
make an authoritative post.
So that's when I will perform the analysis of the "magic screenies" to
showcase what features we intended by those screenshots, what the real DX10
feature set is ( hint, it isn't what was in the "magic screenies" in all
cases ), and what DX9 improvements we are delivering.
With that said, on to the progress discussion. As I said in the last post,
the phases of the project are:
1)Device and Infrastructure bring-up
2)Geometry Pipeline bring-up
3)Pixel Pipeline bring-up to "rough DX9-level comparability"
4)DX10-specific feature work.
The 1st post on FSX-SP2(DX10) here covered Phase 1 and 2. The 2nd post on
FSX-SP2(DX10) here covered progress on phase 3, and this post will continue
the coverage on Phase 3 progress.
One feature that was obviously not working in the previous posts was clouds.
You did get to see the geometry we used to make the clouds effect, but now
we have working clouds in DX10 as shown below. I include both an "in-town"
shot here as well as an "in-air sunset" shot here because I really enjoy the
sunrise and sunset effects in FSX. One thing that might not be obvious is
clouds require alpha. In the previous post the trees had textures but no
alpha, so the clouds work actually helped with the trees.
Next on the implementation bring-up was the emissive textures which meant
the cities now look proper at dusk and dawn as shown here. At roughly the
same time, we brought up bump map support which meant the aircraft models
started looking right, as shown by the Bell here.
It's not all about the world, though. Our in-game UI, known as XUI, is all
rendered using shaders. So we had to convert that. For quite a while, there
was no in-game UI. Now there is, as shown here. It is now no longer
necessary to memorize the shortcuts for the feature you want to test, you
can just use the menu. Nice, if not earthshaking. And solid progress.
Here is another shot with Water 1.x working. As well as fog in the distance.
Those are two key features and they were a long time coming. It's nice to
have them done.
So where does that leave us in Phase 3? Well, we are done. Here are 2
screenshots, DX9 and DX10 to show what the 2 pipelines look like side by
side. Do you see a difference? Hint, look at the top left. Yes, ta-da, that
is correct. DX10 is running faster than DX9. By 17% or so. So see, there is
proof that DX10 might actually be ok. That is the only difference you should
see! Being done with the 3rd milestone, "DX10 looking like DX9", means all
DX9 rendering features are now operational in the DX10 pipeline and look
identical. That means the engine is fully flyable in DX10, but no new
features are enabled.
That puts the team fully into the "DX10 feature" phase or milestone. On to
the finish line!
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