At its GamesFest event in Redmond today, Microsoft shared the first details of DirectX 11 – the numerically superior successor to DirectX 10.1 – which will feature full support for Windows Vista, as well as future versions of the popular operating system. Worried about hardware? DirectX 11 won't just ignore your fancy DirectX 10 or 10.1 cards – nope, it offers support for both of those standards, as well as for new DirectX 11 hardware.

But what's new and exciting about DirectX 11, you ask incredulously. How about a "new compute shader technology" that gets your GPU ready to do more than just boring old 3D graphics – instead "developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor"? Not doing it for you? How about "multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines" since, y'know, most every computer nowadays has multiple cores? Or "support for tessellation" which allows "developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close"? Something in there has to tickle your fancy.

What it probably means for most of you is this: as hardware manufacturers develop new chipsets to take advantage of DirectX 11's new features, you should be able to snag some of that older 10.1 gear for a song.

If you can geek out to API advancements, we salute you. Today's video picks compare DirectX 9 and the messiah DirectX 10 with Crysis footage. Yes, we can actually see a difference in the clips, and GameTrailers provides big, non-embedable HD files on its site.

Will Crysis be the best-looking game ever, and will it require a DX10 system -- and, of course, Vista -- to earn that title? We've seen "best-looking game ever" mugs at a mall kiosk and will set one aside for the game's release later this year. (Don't let us down, Crysis. We could end up taunting you by giving it to the Wii.)

See the videos after the break.

Capcom signaled its self-described return to more frequent PC releases by officially announcing a PC version of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for June. The Windows XP and Vista game will support DirectX 10 for gamers with those shiny video cards, but DirectX 9 players are also invited into the snowy world.

The PC version will run at resolutions up to 2,560x1600, making the console war's "True HD" sound like a tired marketing slogan. (Oh wait, it already did.) While the graphic effects beyond resolution will also be improved, little else is certain to change.

Capcom told us at its Gamer's Day event that the PC game may include new multiplayer maps and even increase its 16-player online cap, but both updates are still pending. However, multiplayer matches between Xbox 360 gamers and PC players will not be supported.

According to a Famitsu report released earlier this morning (translation), Capcom and Nvidia are jointly announcing that the platinum-selling Xbox 360 title Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is coming to the PC. Visuals have been improved and the title will utilize DirectX 10 (with resolutions up to 2560x1600). The report cites a June 2007 release in North America and Europe with no date listed for a Japanese release.

We're left wondering if Lost Planet PC is going to be Vista-exclusive, and if there are similar PC plans for Capcom's other Xbox 360 "exclusive."

[Thanks, Rob]

Crytek occupies a medium-sized booth space at this year's GDC show floor. The company, showing its CryENGINE2 to developers, announced that it found its first customer in Avatar Reality, Inc. Hoping to land more interest, the company is hosting a series of rotating presentations about its level editor, sound system, character animation, engine, and other features.

Harald Seeley, Development Director for Crytek briefly spoke with us about the engine and its outlook, saying that it's at alpha now for the PC, and they'll ship the SDK to AVI in four to six weeks. Seeley said that Crytek is working to bring CryENGINE2 to the PS3 and Xbox 360, but those plans don't mean that Crysis will be released on those platforms.

Modders and indie designers should look for a PC version of the development environment bundled with Crysis. Seeley said that the consumer tools offer nearly all of the features of the fully licensed engine, and that modders may be able to work out terms to release commercial software created with the free editor.

Seeley thinks that the commercial version of CryENGINE2 will lead other middleware engines because it was developed for DirectX 10 instead of being prettied up from an older version of the API. He said, "This will become the standard. ... [Gamers] won't be willing to settle for titanium trees any longer. If it looks breakable, if it looks like you should be able to pick it up, [you will.]"

As Crysis looms, anxiety levels are high. The perceived demands of Crytek's DirectX 10 showcase present a financial burden to those with dated PCs. Speaking to Next-Gen, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli assured gamers that Crysis will be playable on 2- to 3-year-old gaming rigs, but warned that if you do plan to rely on aging hardware, avoid those who have the game running on DX10 -- it might be hard to go back to your scaled-down DX9 experience.

Yerli also seemed to express Crytek's approval of Vista, telling Next-Gen, "Most likely we will upgrade all dev stations to Vista and move to Vista-only titles". This apparent commitment to the new operating system stands in stark contrast to comments issued by id Software's John Carmack, who isn't pleased that Microsoft has "artificially" tethered DX10 to Vista.

DirectX creator Alex St. John says Windows Vista "breaks" casual games. The WildTangent CEO recently described the arduous process of patching his company's network of games to ensure Vista compatibility. The effort reportedly took a year of working closely with "nearly every major casual game developer."

"Parents who choose to use Vista's parental controls are likely to accidentally block access to hundreds of very popular family friendly games that happen not to have ESRB ratings," explained St. John. Casual game networks hosted by Yahoo, AOL, RealArcade, and even Microsoft (MSN Games) could all be affected, according to St. John. Microsoft has yet to comment on the allegations.

It should be noted that WildTangent's software is often denoted as spyware by antispyware applications. While the software is generally regarded as harmless, it's often installed without express consent (and remains self-updating); WildTangent also reserves the right to collect personal information for use in tuning its products.

EA has shot down recent claims that a version of Crysis is headed to Xbox 360. The publisher described 1UP's discussion of the game (via podcast) as a "miscommunication." The gaming site claimed to have spoken with Crytek developers who confirmed an Xbox 360 title was in the works. Miscommunication? Color us suspicious.

EA might not be ready to make an announcement, but the hype surrounding this to-be franchise demands that Crysis games appear on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Wait for it.

Xboxic reports that an unnamed developer, speaking to 1UP, has revealed details about a Crysis game headed to Xbox 360. Allegedly, the console version will not be a direct port of the PC title that's currently in development. Like Far Cry before it, Crysis will be stripped down for its console debut.

The Xbox 360 version will supposedly incorporate similar story elements to its PC brethren, but will feature different gameplay aspects (physics, environments, etc.) that better utilize 360's DirectX 9 technology (the PC version is being built using DirectX 10). Expect full details if and when Crytek finally (and officially) announces this much-anticipated console installment of its high-profile franchise.

See also:

• Crytek says 360 and PS3 can't handle Crysis
• Crytek revises claim: Crysis could be ported

id Software's John Carmack isn't ready for his studio to make the jump to Windows Vista. "Nothing is going to help a new game by going to a new operating system. There were some clear wins going from Windows 95 to Windows XP for games, but there really aren't any for Vista," Carmack recently told Game Informer during a lengthy interview, which also featured id colleague Todd Hollenshead.

While Carmack remains keen on Xbox 360, he thinks the Vista initiative is bogus, accusing Microsoft of using the new OS's "artificial" tie with DirectX 10 to lure consumers (and developers). "They're really grasping at straws for reasons to upgrade the operating system. I suspect I could run XP for a great many more years without having a problem with it," concluded Carmack. Good news for those content with XP.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

See also: Games for Windows Vista: how the new brand & OS will change PC gaming

Alex St. John breaks Washington State laws by smoking onstage
Alex St. John, the creator of Microsoft's DirectX API and founder of Wild Tangent, delivered a bizarre, and borderline unbelievable, PAX keynote yesterday. With equal parts alien spaceships, hostage negotiations, enormous 10' vaginas (courtesy of GWAR), Bill Gates embarrassing promotional video career and, of course, Microsoft's Julia Child's Wine Guide CD-ROM, I'd be doing a serious disservice to Mr. St. John if I attempted to encapsulate his performance.

What a performance! The keynote began with St. John tossing out large balls (that later took on an infamy all their own), mini glow-in-the-dark frisbees, and ping pong balls before he began his sordid tale. St. John began playing with decaptitated moose heads in Alaska as a child and ended up being the creator of DirectX at Microsoft as they entered the increasingly lucrative video game space. Of course, this journey was wrought with crazy situations (see aforementioned 10' vagina) and a fair amount of trepidation on the entire software community's part (a Windows blue screen at a developer's event was met with chants of "DOS, DOS, DOS!"). Despite these difficulties, the successful launch of the DirectX-Box means that Alex St. John has left an indelible impression on the gaming industry.

Here's our question: instead of doing keynotes and running software companies, why isn't this guy writing a tell-all book to prove that gaming has its own wild, rockstar tales?

[Thanks to Philip Palermo for the classy pic]

Macworld's Peter Cohen (author of the magazine's recently vanished GameRoom column) has posted an online idolatry to Apple's new Mac Pro workstation, in which he praises the G5 successor's potential as a gaming tour de force.

Cohen summarizes, "With Leopard coming next spring, Universal Binary games here today and Cider-wrapped games coming within the next couple of months, Mac gaming is on the upswing, and the Mac Pro is a rig that should really be able to take advantage of everything that's offered."

Do you agree? Some of the comments we received for our original post on the Mac Pro raised issues with the Xeon's shortcomings as a gaming chip (which Cohen also addresses), while other Joystiqers engaged in a healthy debate on cost comparisons with similarly configured PCs.

If you've got more important things to spend your hard-earned cash on than PC hardware, GameSpot has compiled a list of ten best selling games that can co-exist comfortably with outdated rigs. Both Athlon test systems were equipped with only 256MB of memory, but one system used an AGP Radeon 9250 video card, while the other had a PCI Express GeForce 6200 installed.

Games that you would expect to see on a list of low-tech wonders (by today's standards) are here, such as StarCraft and Half-Life: Counter Strike. However, I was more than a little surprised to see resource hogs Heroes of Might and Magic V and Civilization IV included, even at lowered texture and shader settings. Indeed, the review team experienced framerate problems with Heroes V on the PCI Express system.

Still, each game performed admirably on at least one of GameSpot's test configurations, and with entries like Sid Meier's Pirates! and GTA: San Andreas included on the list, there's something for everyone. We'd like to hear which PC games (ancient and current) you've been enjoying on older setups.

In a lengthy interview with ExtremeTech, David Blythe and Chris Donahue of Microsoft divulge some of the intricacies inherent in the tenth iteration of DirectX, the API powering much of Vista's gaming OS aspirations. Interestingly, there are several features being implemented that aren't even present in next-gen consoles yet, though the interviewees are quick to point out that, aside from the PC version of Halo 2, there will be very few games in the next few years that specifically require DirectX 10 to run.

If talk of unified shaders and procedural rendering gets your heart racing (those vertex buffers are hawt), you'll find the interview pleasing in a multitude of ways. Even if you don't particularly care for the technical jargon, you may still find some merit in pulling back the curtain and seeing just how much thought and effort go into creating the tools necessary for a game developer to realize a specific vision. Of course, that often leads us to wonder which aspect of game design holds the greater influence -- do technical features come about because of the needs of the graphic designer, or does the artist gain new ideas as technology improves?

[Via ars technica]

Here's the bag of schwag they're handing out when you claim your badge. Liberally adorned with Microsoft's various X-brands (DirectX, Xbox 360, and XNA), just like the entire convention is (more on that later), the bag is omnipresent at the show thus far. Read on for some shots of the magical trinkets inside the bag.