Dubious marketing: Microsoft makes DirectX 9 look REALLY bad

by Xav de Matos on May 22nd 2009 1:00AM

Microsoft has been caught using misleading images to promote the power of DirectX 10. Digg user, LtGenPanda, has spotted a Games for Windows Live DirectX 10 product page featuring the dubious marketing images. In order to easily characterize the power of DirectX 10 versus previous versions, Microsoft compared pre-release rendered screens of 2007's Crysis (using DX10) against the 2003 PC release of Halo: Combat Evolved (running DX9). Considering Crysis can also be played using DirectX 9 (albeit at lower quality), we call shenanigans!

If the misleading images weren't enough, Microsoft adds some choice words to spin its web of deceit. In regards to the OMGness of DX10, the page reads: "The facial expressions, details of the face, the handle-bar moustache and the glazed looking eyes all add to the realism." Kids, the harsh truth is that handle-bar mustaches will only lead to a loss of friends and respect.

Source

Tags: directx, directx-10, directx-9, directx9, microsoft, shenanigans

Reader Comments (66)

Seems like a good enough reason to call shenanigans

I don't own a broom...can I bring my swiffer?

Hey, OLDMIKE, why not let Microsoft suck it and buy a Mac?

/A joke.

But you know I'm right.

Because Miscrosoft is not cool enough for a Mac.

"Hey, Farva. What's the the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the wall and the mozzarella sticks?"

Not news. It's been there forever. My mods on eBay are bigger news, but they get no coverage.

Note: This post has been edited because this commenter is something, too rude for us to say in public.

You're kidding me with this.

they were pretty cool mods, but still, the whoriness of your post even made activision feel shame.

Okay then lets have a looHUUUUURRRGCK

You owe me a sandwich.

He's right in saying that it's old. Microsoft has a newer comparison between FSX in DX9 and DX10 which is much more realistic.

What comparison in FSX? The last I saw were RENDERS and were VERY dubious in their own right as well. Have they finally updated it with actual screenshots?

There's better lighting but the renders glorified it beyond its means.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/directx.aspx

Can't say this really matters though. It's not as if you have a choice of either or. If you have DX10, you've got DX9. There's nothing wrong with pushing people to upgrade. Besides, something like this is geared more towards parents with no idea who hear their kid talking about "DX10".

They do some research, get them a mobo and card that'll do DX10 and thats it.

We'll all have to make the jump some day.

so in your book lieing is ok as long as its a upgrade?
vista can suck it i use XP a better OS

Unless you have Vista, it's not like you have a choice at all.

I used to get outraged that people are so accustomed to being lied to that they will at times even defend the liar. I guess I've become jaded. It's sad, really.

Not to mention that is in fact not a handlebar mustache, but a horseshoe mustache.

This is sort of old news though, this page has been up as long as they've been talking about DX10.

So I wasn't the only person who saw this page like two years ago.

Yeah, right. Halo. Which didn't even utilize DX8 fully. Go along, nothing to see here.... -_-'

...and regardless was still a terrific game.

that everyone loves to hate

No where did Vivi say anything about the quality of Halo. All he said was Halo did not ultilize DX8 fully.

No one denies that Halo is a great game, but are you that much of a tool that you need to bring up the greatness of Halo for no reason?

this article was robbed off digg.com

Uh.... you didn't read this article or the source links that all point to digg, didja?

Digg is an article posting site - meaning that digg essentially "robs the article" or aggregates it to their website. Much like reddit. So it is a blog of a blog of an article. Just bad taste in my mouth when people can't think of their own stuff. It's one thing to get all the info at once and race against kotaku to post it, it's another to snipe articles. Especially since these guys are paid by the article and comments.

also, he scoured the comments and cherry picked the choice ones to base his article. it's pretty much crap. Maybe you don't read digg and it is new for you, despite being a couple years old. But this is not why I come to joystiq.

Microsoft is clearly toying with the evidence; one look at the picture shows us that there's something really interesting to the left that they're not showing us.

That picture is at least 2 years old. This is hardly news.

Seconded. I saw this ages ago and went "wtf" then but didn't think enough about it to expect it to make front-page news...

Digg users are not exactly known for their observational abilities or intelligence. It's sad that Joystiq decided this was worthy of a post, though.

What's even more funny is that most of the features in "DX10 mode" are actually DX9 features. Theres plenty of mods which enable nearly every feature in "Very High" on XP, and its very difficult to tell the difference. DX10 isn't so much of a graphical upgrade as it is a different model for programmers.

wicko,

While it's true that you can enable most of Crysis's Very High features in XP, the one thing you absolutely cannot do (and never will be able to) is to enable object based motion blur without having a character model in third person artifact as it moves. There are dozens of forums dedicated to that specific issue and the answer is always the same; if you want proper object motion blur without the hideous distortions, you need to play the game in DX10 or settle for screen based motion blur. Playing around with the game's CVARs confirms as much as well. Setting r_motionblur to anything higher than 3 causes problems in XP; not so in Vista. If you've never played the game with object motion blur, you're [probably not going to see a compelling enough reason to update to a different OS just for one graphical feature. However, for those of us who actually have played the game with proper object motion blur, there's basically no going back.

One more thing should be noted about Crysis in DX10; the HDR lighting is just a tad bit bright and more vibrant than it is in DX9 (it's a subtle but semi-noticeable difference if you're comparing two screenshots or videos of the same scene head to head).

Guess they should have equipped the 360 with DX10 then. Not that I care, but if they are going to draw attention to their own products...

9.5 rounds up to 10....close enough

They called shenanigans, I CALL MULLIGAN

I'm offended by how old this "news" is. This was on the first brochures for Windows Vista, and it's been on the DX10 site since launch.

well so you all know, some guy has enabled DX10 in windows XP. just google DirectX 10 for XP. and it'll show up. It works. Been playing Crysis win XP using DX10, same with HL2 and STALKER.
Or if you're lazy you can just read it here : http://www.techmixer.com/download-directx-10-for-windows-xp/

This DX10 deal is sketch as hell. Got me all excited that I might get some DX10 without upgrading, but from looking around it doesn't seem too many are having a good time with it. I'd go so far to say I'm almost entirely sure it's bullshit, and the only similarity between your DX10 and Vista's DX10 is a registry edit that shows up as DX10 in dxdiag. I can't find any legitimate sources backing up their claims and I'm not in the mood to screw with my OS at the moment.

That site totally gives me the hoax/virus feeling. Seeing as this is your one and only post, it seems even more likely.

DX10 >>>>> DX9!!! It is no secret that DX10 is more superior in every way. I Develop games, and the power that comes with DX10 shadows that of DX9.

All parts of its design has been improved. The amount of hard work involved in such a project is massive. If you did something revolutionary (even if most of it is only seen by developers), wouldnt you want to stress how revolutionary it is?

These guys work extremely hard to provide you with the best experience possible, be gratefull and stop hammering them.

so blame M$ for using this great api to market Vista, and fucking the XP developers ;)

I'm sorry, but if you can look at the above screenshot and call that anything less than complete douchebaggery, then there's something wrong with you. Or you're one of the people who wrote that bullshit.

Stephan, people are not contesting that DX10 is more capable than 9. People are contesting the fact that their example is not an apples to apples comparison. Crysis has far higher polycount on their models than Halo 2, as well as normal maps and shaders, many of which DX 9 even supports, that aren't in the models for Halo 2. If they wanted to show a fair comparison, they would show Crysis running in Vista with DX10 vs Crysis in XP with DX9 as done in this comparison here http://www.gamespot.com/features/6182140/index.html .

As you can see though, the difference is not nearly as dramatic as MS's advert would have you believe.

[Tech talk]

DX is a tool for developers. DX9 has the same capabilities, but DX10 looks like a better API...

for people that plays the games, this doesnt matter.
Is something that the DEVELOPERS, not consumers, would benefit more.

Too bad that M$ used it to fuck up devs and market vista do final cosumers... ¬¬

The ease of development that DX10 offers to developers is directly linked to the consumer!

If we the developer doesn't have difficulties developing stunning graphics, fluent input systems and awesome sound (all of which is a portion of the full api), they have more time to spend on interesting ideas and ground breaking design. And that is what the consumer wants.

you didnt understand...

DX10 is great for both... but VISTA is NOT ;)

they fucked up devs because the adoption of DX10 would be MUCH better if they chose to release a windows XP version.

WHAT?!? ... misleading advertising ... surely you must be mistaken!

My gramma was born AFTER these screenshots were up for their DX10-DX9 comparison. lol.

Is this even news? This is MS, right? Still remember hearing from different "sources" about how the PS3 SPUs were useless for gaming, the RSX could not do good graphics, the cell could not do AI, the PS3 had inadequate RAM, etc etc. Funnily enough all the talk now is about "sales", though that might cease as well when Forza 3 and GT5 release and GT sales beat Forza 1/2/3 combined!

GT5 won't be beating anything. Too little too late at this point.

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Dubious marketing: Microsoft makes DirectX 9 look REALLY bad

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