DX8.1 vs. DX9, My Real Observation

[Nebor]

Alright, Midnight Club II is a DX9 game, DX9 is required for install, and it's supposed to make limited use of pixel shaders. At 1280x1024, 4xAA, 8xAF, the game looks like CRAP. It runs EXTREMELY fast, with no slowdowns. And yet, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, which uses DX8.1, run at the same settings, is GORGEOUS. And it causes some slow downs on my intel machine. (3ghz, 9800pro, 1gb3500)

I'm thinking the difference is the amount of work (maybe money) that went into the games. THe main difference seems to be that the textures in MCII are just awful, and repetetive, and while the cars seem "shiny" they don't have the amazing effects of NFSHP2 that allow you to see the reflection of overhead treebranches\clouds\bridge supports on the roof\trunk\hood of your car. Also, water in MC2 looks flat, plain, and matt. Whereas in NFSHP2, it looks very fluid and dynamic.

Anyone else have these games? Or noticed something similar with other DX8.1\DX9 titles?

 

[Mitzi]

Ever thought that the differences are not down DX8 and 9? You can't look at 2 DIFFERENT games to see the differences between DX8 and 9...its like comparing apples and oranges. You would need a game which can run in both DX8 and DX9 to make a fair comparision.

Edit: Spellnig sucsk

 

[DaFinn]

Like anything you said would have anything to do with DX8 nor 9???

Anybody can launch a DX9 game, with bad engine and textures and terrible gameplay... even without ANY DX9 features. Just "support" for DX9!

 

[skace]

Nice idea, bad test. You'd need to have 2 seperate computers, 1 with DX8 and 1 with DX9. Then take a game with the ability to run in both modes and test it on both systems, noting the differences.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: skace
Nice idea, bad test. You'd need to have 2 seperate computers, 1 with DX8 and 1 with DX9. Then take a game with the ability to run in both modes and test it on both systems, noting the differences.

What if I just ran it on a comp w/ a DX9 vid card and a comp w/ a dx8 vid card.... That would show the difference, right?

 

[Cat]

You don't need two different computers. Just because a card supports DX9 doesn't mean that it's always running the features exposed by DX9.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Alright, Midnight Club II is a DX9 game, DX9 is required for install

Flawed Logic there.
Just cos a game require DX9 to run doesnt make it a DX9 game. For example, Splinter Cell also require DX9 to run, but is primarily a DX7/8 game.
The only forseeable game that we`ll be able to compare "apples to apples", "DX8 to DX9", is going to be HL2.