by the way,
of course DX11 will be on its way, and probably be around by
the time windows 7 comes out...
so all this talk about porting back support will probably be
a moot point at that time..
i don't do low-level device programming, but i have worked
in the pc graphics industry, and the only way they can continue
to profit, is to work with the hardware vendors on continous
upgrades for both..
so you're always going to be forced to get new hardware
to support the new features, and write new software to
support them......
yeah, you can stay a few generations behind, but then
most new games won't work....
I HATE XP'S SUPPORT FOR OLDER GAMES>...... i have a ton of
games that ONLY WORK in windows 95 with the WinG library,
and games that ONLY WORK with windows 98, and most of
them NEVER worked properly or at all using the compatibilty
settings on XP..or running in the Command window..
yeah, i know dosBOX works great for stuff now, and there
are other emulators, but i found it easier just to use an older
computer, and older graphic card with a dual boot windows95/98..
XP's support for graphics and games was TERRIBLE until at least
service pack 2 came out.. SP3 isn't much of an improvement..
yeah, so i'm now stuck with new games THAT only work with VISTA,
so my new computer dual-boots XP/VISTA when i want to run games
on that... most newer games work better with VISTA and terrible with
XP....even with the same graphics card... i have an NVIDA 8600 w/256Meg RAM,
and the effects/framerates are better in VISTA for most of the games i've played
(arcade simulation / racing / lego star wars / virtua tennis 3 / etc etc )...
i'll NEVER go back to XP for games, unless i'm forced too..
later
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