I forgot to add that DX10 is not the be all for gamers. OpenGL 2.1 is out and stronger than ever. Vista doesn't play well with OpenGL right now and MS is making it more difficult to use on Vista. We saw this coming when years ago MS started pushing D3d as a replacement for OpenGL. And a lot of upcoming games will make use of OpenGL due to its portability to the console world. How does OpenGL compare with DX10 ? Hrm, ask Sony, its what the PS3 uses for graphics. But then its a free solution and MS can't have that.
The sad thing is that having talked with lots of programmers and looked at DX10 myself, there is NO reason it could not be run on XP, other than the MS line of " it really needs Vista".
Notice they also don't deny that it couldn't work on xp, just that "we are not willing to discuss that", just buy Vista and shutup.
I hate to say it but the pc gaming market is going to continue to shrink. The things that made pc gaming are no longer exclusive to the pc.
I started in this industry way way back. My first projects were on a bbs with 300 baud modems ( thats about .03k per second transfer rate.) . The bbs was unique then, you could dial up a persons home phone that had there pc connected and was running software so other users could connect and leave messages, play games , etc. If they wanted to have text based multiplayer they had to order more phone lines from the phone company, more modems, etc and that was really expensive , BUT, it was something unique that couldn't be done any other way.
Things improved. You got the internet with dialup and dos, maybe even windows 3.1 . I worked with the kali for dos programs and getting warcraft to work over dialup with 300ms pings. Constant disconnects, packet drivers, BUT, it was again something that couldn't be done any other way. Consoles were just not up to snuff.
Next you got the 3d revolution with the voodoo cards from 3dfx. Consoles had nothing like it. Hardware 3d mechanically switched through the 2d card. It was expensive, but again offered something the consoles couldn't.
Present day. Consoles that are more than adequate to display 3d to the masses. Multiplayer that is simple. Plug and play gaming. The pc has going for it that it can improve quicker , faster upgrades in hardware. But it lacks one thing. It needs to innovate to survive. The average joe is not going to spend a grand on a pc to play games that come with driver issues, bugs, hardware incompatibilities just to see better graphics. They would rather plop down 300.00 on a xbox and come home , plug it in and play. The pc has lost its edge. It needs something that the consoles can't offer.
What that is I don't know, if I did I would quit my work now and form my own company. As it is, I see many friends in the industry moving to console only development. They still love the pc , but its just not where the money is anymore.
I don't own a single console that I develop for, I still prefer the pc, but I am the minority now.
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