Windows Vista … Windows 10 – it uses Direct2D/DirectX hardware accelerated graphics backend.Windows XP – it uses GDI+ graphics backend.Desktop operating systems Microsoft Windows Just don't complain when you don't reach the mass-market - because you weren't making a game for them in the first place.At the moment Sciter works on all actual desktop platforms.

Most of the people in your target market are indeed going to be upgrading early and often. A developer whose main concern is which shaders they can use is not one whose game I am going to buy, as they sound more interested in technology than gameplay.īut if that's the sort of software you want to make, that's entirely your decision - people like me are not in your target market, and you don't need to care about what I think. You talk about cool shader fx I absolutely do not care about cool shader fx. Personally I'm on Windows XP, and won't be upgrading for a year or two, as XP does what I need. Weigh up what you want to make against the number of people you want to be able to experience it. Is there any point, as a game dev, in migrating to the newer technology while you still have to support the old technology and provide a similar gaming experience?Įmphasis mine: if you have to, then no. My point is, if I write code for D3D11, and then I'm going to have to double-up and dupe the rendering code on D3D9 and work extra hard to manually reproduce the stuff that APIs like DirectWrite do for me so easily, why should I bother learning D3D11 at all? UPGRADE YOUR SYSTEM SO YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME! Microsofts refusal to support D3D 11 on XP means there are some cool shader FX that are only supported on Windows 7 machines, such as geometry shadersīut its generally not that acceptable to say something like 'Hey those cool geometry shader FX only show up if you're running Windows 7!' Suddenly you as a game developer are part of the angry microsoft upgrade push. There's a lot of cool stuff in these API's! My question is is there any point, as a game dev, in migrating to the newer technology while you still have to support the old technology and provide a similar gaming experience? (2006) Windows Media Foundation / replaces DirectShowīut 66% of Windows users are still on Windows XP as of Oct 2010.

Over the past 5 or so years, Microsoft has released APIs / that is intended to replace older APIs:

Direct2d api windows xp