That works in World of Warcraft. NOT in EVE. Supporting two graphics pipelines requires more staff. As otherwise you end up spending valuable dev time trying to figure out why some feature works in DX9 but not DX11 or vise versa. Such issues can affect the sandbox.

Not everything in gaming can be a checkbox. WoW gets away with it because that game brings in brazillions of dollars.

When it's a choice between having what are already pretty good graphics and making the game unplayable for a large number of people (and not necessarily just those people running XP) then the answer is quite obviously "no you aren't getting your tesselation, now get over it."

personally I find it sort of ridiculous that we are still being dragged down by XP, I admit it was one of the best OS ever made, but now a days windows 7 works just as good if not way better, and a DX11 card is worth what? 50$. last I hear only 5% of the people is sticking to XP on eve.

maybe CCP could risk sacrifying those and in return become more modern and get a new influx of players that have been put off due to performance and shiny issues, lets admit it... EVE runs on a DX engine that is stone age old by now...

That doesn't sound right, as our Win XP users would have issues.

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.

People latched onto XP as a finally stable version of Windows like it was a life preserver in a sea of stormy OS's.

It's easy to overlook how buggy and more importantly how insecure it is when it runs halfway decently.

Note: I haven't run XP for a loooong time. Too many programs I use won't run on it as it is so out of date.

Nvidia had DX11 hardware in 2010
AMD had DX11 hardware in 2009

It is now May 2013. It is likely to be next year before CCP would even announce a switch to DX11. (A good time with XP finally being dropped by Microsoft)

So what?

EvE has a ton of oldschool players. Unfortunately, they are unwilling and/or unable to upgrade from XP. I think the saying "you can't teach a old dog new tricks" definately applies. Even though the differences between XP and windows 7 are virtually non-existant. I wouldn't recomend windows 8, as the difference would likely blow their minds. They don't even release service packs for XP anymore, its so outdated. They're literally leaving their systems vunerable to modern advancements, all because of their attachment to what they are used to.

Seriously, XP people, upgrade your rigs. You're holding all of EvE back from sweet modern graphics. We don't want to have to wait for you to all die off before it happens!

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.

Indeed. Though if money for those people is seriously that tight, maybe they should reconsider their budget and stop playing anyway. MMOs subs should always come last in a budget for a responsible person.

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.

Do the following things, CCP:

1) Switch certain game graphics assets to DX11 (Shaders, Tesselation)

and

2) Release the High Resolution Texture pack


I guarantee it will bring many more players to the game.

GǪat the end of the day, there's simply not much of a reason for them to go for DX11 at this stage.

Sure, they will work on it internally, but rushing it out before DX9 dips below, say, 5% of he install-base is just pointless.

I guarantee forcing both of these changes will force many players away from the game.
If they're introduced now they need to be optional.

I guarantee forcing both of these changes will force many players away from the game.
If they're introduced now they need to be optional.