*******************************************EXCERPT*************************************
B3an - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Err what do you expect MS to do here?
DirectX is a high level API, and it needs to be in order to work with all the different GPU's for PC. MS couldn't make something to compete with Mantle, as it is a low level API specifically designed for AMD's GCN architecture.
Neither DX or OpenGL could ever compete with a low level graphics API when it comes to performance and getting the most out of a GPU.
Even if games use Mantle, they will also HAVE to continue having DX support as well, in order for them to work on Nvidia and Intel GPU's.
MS already made improvements in Win8 to the desktop, including new DX versions in both 8 and 8.1, with 8.1 having the same DX 11.2 version as the Xbox One. So don't mention that typical uninformed BS about MS focusing just on Metro, because Win8 has more desktop improvements over Win7 than 7 had over Vista.
****************************************EXCERPT******************************************
klagermkii - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
There have been some improvements to the desktop in Windows 8, but it's clearly being treated as a legacy environment and Microsoft sees the future as being Modern/Metro. That's why we have Surface, why all of their platforms are taking their interface cues from Modern/Metro (X1/WP/W8). That's where the focus is. The traditional PC desktop is no longer seen as a growth market.
"Neither DX or OpenGL could ever compete with a low level graphics API when it comes to performance and getting the most out of a GPU."
Sure, and that's always been the case. So how did interoperability win out before, when performance would have been more important when it was older, weaker hardware?
"Even if games use Mantle, they will also HAVE to continue having DX support as well, in order for them to work on Nvidia and Intel GPU's."
Yeah, so you have Mantle and DX, one of those two ends up being the primary platform it gets developed towards and it gets ported to the other. If you played Glide and DirectX games you remember how rubbish the DX versions were. I remember Wing Commander: Prophecy when I sold my Voodoo 1 to get a TNT2, and it looked terrible afterwards. Part of that is how immature DX was, but also the developer is only going to go to put in so much work to support a less popular platform.
"Err what do you expect MS to do here?"
What I expect is for them to have developers for the Xbox One write to DirectX rather than writing to Mantle just like they have for all their previous consoles. It allows for easier ports to standard Windows and gives DirectX traction over Mantle. They certainly have control over that as part of their certification process, but from the tone of this article it sounds like they're making Mantle a core API on the console itself.
You say developers would "HAVE to continue having DX support", but that DirectX support could get pretty poor. Sure of the total game playing market on PC, AMD and NVIDIA may be 30% of the market each with Intel being the other 40% (thumb suck numbers), and based on that the developer would split their resources between DX and Mantle. But if they're targeting Xbox One, PS4 and PC the non-AMD portion of that starts looking very small and the amount of work they do on the DX path could correspondingly suffer.