Windows XP WAS an amazing OS. Well ahead of it's time and it's stability was what propelled entire industries forward.

However recently it is doing little more than slowing everything down.


The issue is more to do with the fact that for hardware such as sound and graphics XP and modern windows systems are completely different. Forcing drivers to be written for those who simply refuse to upgrade. When XP support is fully dropped next year it will mean that there will only ONE overall driver system that has to be supported and that ought to do a great deal to improve PC gaming.

For DX11 it get's complicated. WoW has had a DX11 rendering system for years now. Simply because it is faster. For EVE however an issue caused by supporting two graphics systems can affect the sandbox for a time. An example can be looked at as the update that caused first generation Intel Atom based netbooks to be unable to open EVE. At first it did not seem like much but many were using the inexpensive hardware to do EVE activities at work.

The point I am trying to say is that when the time for DX11 comes.. It needs to be a complete switch in my opinion. And the timing of such is crucial. People are going to have to buy new laptops (desktops can be upgraded with a 20-40 USD card for DX11 these days) And doing it to speed things up like WoW will not convince them of the worth. it has to involve massive visual improvements in my opinion.



Please educate yourself about the difference between Direct X 9 and Direct X 11.

DX11 is more efficient than DX9 so I personally don't think it is about multiple clients.

I'm saying that a lot of people are unable to upgrade, and you wanting your shinies isn't enough justification to force people to spend money they may not have or simply stop playing.

That's a bit of a false dichotomy, though. There's nothing to suggest that they gained any more subscribers just because they upgraded to a DX9 path, and the reason they didn't go under was exactly because they didn't just go DX9 GÇö they offered it to those who wanted it and could use it, and retained the old path for those who could not until the number of people in that category was so small that it was lost in the noise of other lost subscribers.

Also, trying to shore up (short-term) numbers by wowing people with graphics that, in the end, don't matter much when hidden behind all those windows (or when zoomed out to give a good tactical perspective) and which are not a long-term source of retention, at the cost of people who have invested lots of time GÇö to say nothing of multiboxing alt accounts GÇö is a pretty bad idea. The notion that you can exchange your old customer base for a new one GÇö even partly GÇö is fairly well disproven these days.

Anyway , the main lesson from Trinity was that dual rendering paths suck. Doubly so if it means you have to duplicate every effort in adjusting or adding graphical assets. In fact, it was rather amazing how long they kept the classical client going when you consider the added workload.

Does improving visual quality require switching to a version of DirectX that a significant number of players are unable to run?
If not, then CCP isn't at the point where this is actually a serious issue.

Right now all you people are really saying is that you're upset you don't have tessellation because your ultra powerful gaming computer automatically entitles you and you want everyone who can't run DX11 to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars upgrading their machines or buying new ones just so you can have it.

GǪand the many people who will judge a game on its DirectX version rather than on its gameplay won't stick around for the long haul of EVE anyway.

GǪwhich is why it's so common. Oh wait, it's not. You upgrade if it provides an advantage; DX11 offers some performance, but only two visual enhancements (that aren't even required in DX11 hardware) in the form of SM5 and tesselation. The former is a stronger reason than the latter, but it's the latter (rather unspectacular) part that everyone assumes will be a selling point.

It already is, and moving to DX11 wouldn't change it much. That's the whole problem: the visual benefits aren't really there, and especially aren't big enough to justify alienating a still-sizeable chunk of the player base.

The SM3 requirment pushed me out of EvE for 6 months I think a further grapics requiement would push me out longer

Just yesterday I have read that as of now Win XP accounts for 30% of the Windows installations worldwide.

another thing to note why they might not update to Dx11 right away if at all is not so much windows xp users Linux & Mac users would be completely cut off and forced to go out and buy windows and or vmware + windows to play the game. Sense wine does not support all of Dx 11 functions actually it supports very little.

Ya i said the same thing. Actually if they dropped DX support completely and went to open gl it does also support tessellation and all those little DX features that people want. Not to mention they dont screw 1/3 there player base (not sure how many actual mac and linux users there are.) out of playing the game. If they did move to full Dx 11 without a way for mac and us linux users to play id just quit subbing. Cause i sure ant paying for windows.