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This don't seem to fit anyplace else so I'll post it here.

Micro$oft may call it progress but they do some funny things. Direct X 9 came out in 2002. XP users have enjoyed it for 7 long years. 4 years later in late 2006 came Direct X 10 for Vista then just 2 and a half years later here comes Direct X 11. It will ship with Windows 7 and is in the Windows 7 RC now.

To me it seems because all the trouble a lot of people have had with Vista the public hasn't quite had its fill of Direct X 10 and all it has to offer. I wonder if coming out with Direct X 11 now is a good idea. What about applications like FPSCx10 ? Many people who have purchased it are still trying to get all the functionality they paid for. By the time they get that functionality will Direct X 10 be obsolete? Will TGC have to make a FPSCx11 version just to keep up?

Direct X 11 will run on Vista. You know it is always recommended to upgrade to the latest Direct X and Windows Updates will do this for many people automatically. Thus more people using Direct X 11.

Here's the Kicker. I don't know about the standalone games made with FPSCx10 but Direct X 11 is NOT backward compatible with Direct X 10. For example if you want to install and run FPSCx10 on a windows 7 or Vista machine that's shipped with Direct X 11, FPSCx10 will not run. You can always install Direct X 10 on top of Direct X 11 to solve the problem. Lucky for FPSCx10 users Direct X 10 comes with the installation DVD. I wonder how many people in the future are going to run into this problem not knowing about the incompatibility issue.

The last thing is not true,I have Windows 7 RC with all direct X installed,9,10 and 11,and all works.Different versions of direct X dont overwrite others.

I didn't say installing Direct X 10 would overwrite the Direct X 11. I said 'on top of' True, perhaps I should have said ' along with '.

Anyway the point is that Direct X 11 is not fully backward compatible with direct X 10. A direct X 10 app will not run in a Direct X 11 only environment. You just have to install the Direct X 10 into the system also to solve the problem.

Direct X11 isnt actually much better at all than DirectX10 except for bug fixes and a few new small technologies. The main aim of DirectX 11 is to make X10 and X9 work together which X10 failed to do causing many issues with gaming visuals.

There will most likely be NO FPSC X11 seeing as it doenst offer much at all and in fact the newest beta of FPSC X10 uses the Vista version of DirectX 11 you spoke of called X10.1.

So in short NO FPSC X11 will be seen im sure of it

I don't think that is what he was getting at. He is saying that DirectX 11 cannot run DirectX 10 on it's own (without an install of DX10). The same goes for DirectX 9.

However, I thought it had always been this way?

Yeh it has you have to have Direct X9 first to have X10 except that when you install it it does X9 automatically thats why most users don't realize.

Right Bozzy that's what I'm saying.

In the past some version of Direct X were a lot more backward compatible. If you had an older app you could be sure the newer direct x would handle it.
But at times that is not the case. I think the technology is changing so fast now that its hard for developers to keep up with all the backward compatibly aspects, so they just concentrate of making the newer direct x preform the tasks they wish to see it preform.

Its an interesting point but you can always distribute a directx which works with your game.

Microsoft had to make a point with Windows 7 after the feedback they got from Vista. Things will likely slow down if its well received.

Next gen consoles are still on directx 9 and everyone is still happy with those. The PC space for games is a bit more demanding.

FPSC X10 will be fine providing TGC actually give it some proper updates sometime soon.