Some DirectX 11.1 Features Confirmed for Windows 7

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Right after reports went live focusing on a Microsoft Answers Q&A about DirectX 11.1 being a Windows 8 exclusive, Chuck Walbourn from Microsoft said on the Games for Windows blog that portions of the DirectX 11.1 runtime will be made available for Windows 7 after all.

According to Walbourn, Windows 8 includes an updated 'DirectX 11.1 Runtime' that supports Direct3D 11.1 (opens in new tab), updates Direct2D (opens in new tab) and DirectWrite (opens in new tab), DXGI 1.2 (opens in new tab), and a revision of the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) (opens in new tab).

"Portions of the 'DirectX 11.1 Runtime' are being made available on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 via the Platform Update for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB 2670838) (opens in new tab) included with the Internet Explorer 10 Release Preview for Windows 7," he writes. "This includes the updated components above, but is limited to WDDM 1.1 drivers on Windows 7."

According to the update notes, the patch improves the features and performance of Direct2D, DirectWrite, Direct3D, Windows Imaging Component (WIC), Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP), Windows Animation Manager (WAM), XPS Document API, H.264 Video Decoder and the JPEG XR codec.

Walbourn's blog adds more detail to the update:

* ID3D11Device1, ID2D1Factory1, IDWriteFactory1, IDXGIFactory2, IWICImagingFactory2, ID3DUserDefinedAnnotation and related APIs are available. Methods that depend on WDDM 1.2 drivers or new Windows Store app APIs are not supported.
* Improved Direct3D 11 device interoperability via ID3DDeviceContextState, including the improved interop with Direct2D/DirectWrite
* D3D11_FEATURE_DATA_D3D9_OPTIONS feature detection
* In addition to the new Windows 8 WIC features, this update also fixes decoding of 96bpp floating-point TIFF images.

For more information, read the blog here, and the platform update notes here (opens in new tab).

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Kevin Parrish
27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer
    It seems to me that this is in Microsoft's best interest, overall. I'm betting that the next Xbox will use DirectX 11.1. Any game developer that wants to release games for both the next Xbox and for PC will have to contend with the fact that Windows 7 is the most popular OS in the world (and will probably stay that way for a while).

    If the lowest common denominator between the two systems is DirectX 11.0, that's what developers will shoot for. If Microsoft wants developers to use the latest and greatest features, they'll need to back-port them.

    Reply
  • mace200200
    So what exactly does this mean for people one Windows 7 in terms of installing it? Are they putting out a new version of service pack one to be downloaded from windows update, or will graphics drivers be able to include it without us doing anything else?
    Reply
  • dozerman
    Sigh. What will all of the tin foil hat wearing windows8 haters have to worry about now?
    Reply
  • Not that big a difference in games to matter anyway. Should be working on DX12 in my book. The next crapbox is a joke btw. Already outdated by my current PC hardware which I upgrade annually cause I can, its a hobby.
    Reply
  • gerchokas
    They already forgot about the still modern, very-similar-under-the-hood Windows Vista... With the platform update we already have DX11 in that OS, why not keep upgrading it?
    And BTW, porting "portions" of the runtime to Win7 is BS... Are they that different that they can't port the whole thing??? (I dont think so..) They'd love to forget everything before Win8 right now if they could
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    I got a feeling that DirectX 12 will not be part of win7/vista. But these days new directX adoption rate is slow thanks to consoles.
    Reply
  • wemakeourfuture
    soldier2013Not that big a difference in games to matter anyway. Should be working on DX12 in my book. The next crapbox is a joke btw. Already outdated by my current PC hardware which I upgrade annually cause I can, its a hobby.
    You do realize the price difference in a console and how much you have spent on your PC right?
    Reply
  • The-Darkening
    lostmyclantime to move for linux instead =) microsoft with direct X killed the 3dfx wich uses Open gl.I still have a voodoo 2 and a voodoo 4. i miss that times. when i play turok and quake series and the first unreal...
    I still got the Voodoo 3 3000 box in my room. It was really world changing for me at the time, switching from Software render to OpenGL.
    Reply
  • mpioca
    Old_Fogie_Late_BloomerIt seems to me that this is in Microsoft's best interest, overall. I'm betting that the next Xbox will use DirectX 11.1. Any game developer that wants to release games for both the next Xbox and for PC will have to contend with the fact that Windows 7 is the most popular OS in the world (and will probably stay that way for a while).If the lowest common denominator between the two systems is DirectX 11.0, that's what developers will shoot for. If Microsoft wants developers to use the latest and greatest features, they'll need to back-port them.
    The consoles use a different API from DirectX since it does not make hardware-specific programming possible. DirectX is the best solution for the vast array of GPUs we use in PCs but for the consoles you don't need it when you can "directly" program for them. This is why none of the consoles use the DirectX API, it would be wasteful of the computing resources. It might be possible that the Microsoft consoles use a modified version of DirectX but I'm not sure about that.
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    MS realizing hardly anyone is upgrading to windows 8 so they need to focus more on Windows 7.
    Reply