DirectX 11 Support

[cowtrix1]

Hey guys. Just wondering what the general consensus is on DirectX 11 support - is it safe to assume that most gamers have cards that can support it? What kind of market share does D311-supported cards have right now?

[lorenalexm]

It might be worth a visit to this page - http://stats.unity3d.com/web/gpu.html

Also a fairly lengthy discussion on dropping DX9 support, which touches on points of DX11/DX12 that might also give some insight on other developers views.

Edit: Forgot to post second link - When will we finally be rid of dx9? - Industries - News & General Discussion - Unity Discussions

[angrypenguin]

GPUs are fairly common now, but GPU support doesn’t mean full system compatibility. It really comes down to your target market - if you’re aimed at the typical PC gaming crowd you’re probably ok, if it’s a more casual game or one which people might be playing on older systems the story could be different.

As @lorenalexm suggests, check out hardware surveys as close to your target market as possible. Steam also has published results.

[Cogent]

@angrypenguin

GPUs are fairly common now, but GPU support doesn’t mean full system compatibility. It really comes down to your target market - if you’re aimed at the typical PC gaming crowd you’re probably ok, if it’s a more casual game or one which people might be playing on older systems the story could be different.

As @lorenalexm suggests, check out hardware surveys as close to your target market as possible. Steam also has published results.

Like @angrypenguin says check http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=pc
and other hardware surveys to get an idea.

Good luck.

[ippdev]

@cowtrix1

Hey guys. Just wondering what the general consensus is on DirectX 11 support - is it safe to assume that most gamers have cards that can support it? What kind of market share does D311-supported cards have right now?

OSX does not. Most gamers does not consist of PC only.

[IcyPeak]

@ippdev

OSX does not. Most gamers does not consist of PC only.

Definitely wrong. The vast majority, in fact most any gamer, playing a 3d game, will either be on a Windows pc (somewhere around 90 percent of all consumer computers) or dual boot Windows for gaming if using a mac. For example in the steam hardware survey, not the end all of course but a good representation of Gamers likely to play more than Web games, Osx accounts for around 3 percent. Don’t kid yourself about Osx being particularly prevalent as a gaming platform.

[angrypenguin]

It really depends on what you call a “gamer”. In fact, it might be helpful to drop that term from your vocabulary. It doesn’t describe anything useful. Do you think that television writers use the term “viewers” to describe their targets? Or that authors go no further than to describe their audience as “readers”? Heck no. They’re aimed at “stay-at-home mums” or “car enthusiasts” or “DIY home improvers”. You need to do the same. Don’t think “gamers”, think “strategy wargamers” or “bus commuters” or “competitive FPS players”.

If the target audience description you’re using doesn’t have enough detail to make design decisions then it’s useless and you should get a new one.

[ippdev]

@IcyPeak

Definitely wrong. The vast majority, in fact most any gamer, playing a 3d game, will either be on a Windows pc (somewhere around 90 percent of all consumer computers) or dual boot Windows for gaming if using a mac. For example in the steam hardware survey, not the end all of course but a good representation of Gamers likely to play more than Web games, Osx accounts for around 3 percent. Don’t kid yourself about Osx being particularly prevalent as a gaming platform.

Gimme a frikkin break pal. I stand by what I said and no amount of blitherfesting gonna change what i stated in truth.

[IcyPeak]

@angrypenguin

It really depends on what you call a “gamer”. In fact, it might be helpful to drop that term from your vocabulary. It doesn’t describe anything useful. Do you think that television writers use the term “viewers” to describe their targets? Or that authors go no further than to describe their audience as “readers”? Heck no. They’re aimed at “stay-at-home mums” or “car enthusiasts” or “DIY home improvers”. You need to do the same. Don’t think “gamers”, think “strategy wargamers” or “bus commuters” or “competitive FPS players”.

If the target audience description you’re using doesn’t have enough detail to make design decisions then it’s useless and you should get a new one.

Oh, of course… but he specified desktop gamers, so Steam is a pretty good source for a generic statement without knowing any more specific target.

@ippdev

Gimme a frikkin break pal. I stand by what I said and no amount of blitherfesting gonna change what i stated in truth.

There’s no room for opinion here… numbers are what they are. It’s a fact that for PC gaming, OSX is a statistically small minority of the market compared to Windows as a platform.

[Metron]

@ippdev

Gimme a frikkin break pal. I stand by what I said and no amount of blitherfesting gonna change what i stated in truth.

http://stats.unity3d.com/web/os.html

nuff said

[angrypenguin]

@IcyPeak

Oh, of course… but he specified desktop gamers, so Steam is a pretty good source for a generic statement without knowing any more specific target.

Yeah, I think I was writing that as you were writing your post. It was meant in response to ippdev talking about “most gamers”.