Microsoft reportedly ending Direct X development

[Kodeen]

If true, OpenGL has some catching up to do. Maybe a Linux-based Steam box isn't such a non-starter after all.

http://www.i-programmer.info/news/14...d-directx.html

[Smashbox]

Some confusion, perhaps. We don't know if a) it's really true b)they're referring to Direct3D c)they're renaming/rebranding/bringing it under the auspices of Windows.

We shall see, certainly, but ...

Wouldn't it be Fucking Insane of them to abandon development on Direct2D/3D? It's kind of a key component of that crazy technicolor OS they keep banging on about.

[Tei]

I have read negative news about this. People saying Microsoft will not abandon DirectX.

Anyway Microsoft successfully managed to make game devs slave of anything Microsoft release. If Microsoft move to a new api (something that can happends anyway), most game devs will follow Microsoft, and will jump... there.

This is not interesting, the interesting thing to do would be for everyone to learn multiplatform tools, like OpenGL, SDL, OpenAL, and others, but game devs are a type of dev that always optimize for the short terms, and rush to end, and Microsoft capitalize that to create a lock-in, so if you want to be a gamer, you need a Microsoft OS.

This is a war everyone lost, and Microsoft win, and for it, the gaming world is worse. With less games for every platform and lots of "exclusives". The idea of exclusive games sould not exist at all, but all games released in all platforms.

[trjp]

What Tei said - except for almost everything he said - such as

iOS gaming
Android gaming
PS3 gaming
3DS gaming
Wii-U gaming
HTML5 gaming
Flash gaming
...

and all those tools which can export 'games' to all those platforms and more including

UDK, Unity, Gamemaker, Construct and 100s of others...

In fact the only people who are in ANY way 'locked into' Microsofts development model, are those using actual Microsoft tools and technologies - people who dont' want to target anything other than MS platforms...

It's not even necessary to use them even then - frankly...

[Kaira-]

Abandoning XNA is yesterday's jam, but stopping DirectX-development seems... infinitely stupid, even by MS-standards. Not that I would complain if it would bring cross-platform to the front, but it still seems very very unlikely.

[ambing1]

it's highly unlikely that MS will leave the development of DirectX. It's a critical piece in today's game-making industry as well as to other related fields.

[Lukasz]

So they stop directx and will instead make Xbox tools for windows.

wouldnt a brand new start be good for everyone?

[His Master's Voice]

wouldnt a brand new start be good for everyone?

If they go with their traditional model of fucking up every other idea or product, it will mean alternative platforms like OpenGL will gain in popularity. So yeah, it could be good.

[Heliocentric]

wouldnt a brand new start be good for everyone?

If it means less developers are likely to use them then yes, they could be playing right into valves "steam OS's hands.

[Sic]

Anyway Microsoft successfully managed to make game devs slave of anything Microsoft release. If Microsoft move to a new api (something that can happends anyway), most game devs will follow Microsoft, and will jump... there.

They already did that with WinRT in Win8.

[Shooop]

DirectX isn't just the graphics API. It's almost the entire collection of code that handles how your hardware talks to a Microsoft OS.

Unless they stop making OSs I don't see this happening ever.

[Kaira-]

DirectX isn't just the graphics API. It's almost the entire collection of code that handles how your hardware talks to a Microsoft OS.

Eeeeh, not excactly. It's more of an abstraction layer for developers instead of using straightly the API provided by OS, and DirectX can and has been replaced with other things easily (SDL, SFML, OpenGL, Allegro etc).

[Sic]

Eeeeh, not excactly. It's more of an abstraction layer for developers instead of using straightly the API provided by OS, and DirectX can and has been replaced with other things easily (SDL, SFML, OpenGL, Allegro etc).

I think what he's getting at is that DirectX isn't just D3D. You can't replace DirectX with OpenGL, because that's two completely different things.

[mashakos]

this sounds like nonsense: if you end directx development, you end most PC and xbox game development. It's that simple.

[Tei]

this sounds like nonsense: if you end directx development, you end most PC and xbox game development. It's that simple.

I understand what you are tryiing to say, but the way you say it is confusing. Writting games for the PC will never end,.. development with DirectX may change in the future? maybe. Microsoft can always create a new API and act like a mafia boss "It will be sad if something bad happends to your DX game" to try to force people to move to this new API.

[pakoito]

There’s actually a fair bit of information packed in there, and I think some of it is poorly worded. The most stunning part of it was this: “DirectX is no longer evolving as a technology.” That is a phrase I did not expect to hear from Microsoft. Before going to “the sky is falling” proclamations, I don’t think this is a death sentence for DirectX, per se. It conveys two things. Number one, DirectX outside of Direct3D is completely dead. I hope this is not a shock to you. Number two, it’s a reminder that Direct3D has been absorbed into Windows core, and thus is no more a “technology” than GDI or Winsock.

From the original source. But journos need adclicks.

[TixyLixx]

I like it when people quickly google the subject and post about it like they know what they're talking about. It always ends up with a load of idiots with different opinions arguing about something they know nothing about and they're all wrong.

[Kaira-]

I think what he's getting at is that DirectX isn't just D3D. You can't replace DirectX with OpenGL, because that's two completely different things.

And that's why I mentioned SDL and such, since SDL is especially used for reading input from devices (see for example: Penumbra).

[trjp]

this sounds like nonsense: if you end directx development, you end most PC and xbox game development. It's that simple.

Bear in mind they may have something completely different in mind for their XBOX replacement - which we'd expect to see within 2 years (at which point, 360 development will stop-dead if it follows the model of the original XBOX) - so that might not be the big thing it sounds like...

[Zephro]

Well it would be a stupid move from MS as it would just leave the gap for OpenGL to assume (It's used on Mac, PS, mobile, the web and Linux) the crown. The email just sounds like it is badly worded rather than actual business strategy.