Word would have it (well, specifically word from tech website Neowin) that Windows 8 is getting an update in the form of Direct X 11.1—which is developed exclusively for videogames, as you can imagine.
The biggest feature that the update is set to offer is stereoscopic 3D, so game developers will be able to implement 3D without too much hassle. The stereoscopic imagery will be viewable with compatible glasses.
Unfortunately, Direct X 11.1 is being limited to Windows 8, so users on Windows 7 and Vista won't be able to use the new features.
“DirectX 11.1 is part of Windows 8, just like DirectX 11 was part of Windows 7. DirectX 11 was made available for Vista …. but at this point there is no plan for DirectX 11.1 to be made available on Windows 7," said Daniel Moth, an employee of Microsoft on the Microsoft Answers forum.
Like a moth drawn to flame, gamers will be encouraged to update to Windows 8 if they want to experience the benefits of Direct X 11.1, which includes the following features:
- Shader tracing and compiler enhancements
- Direct3D device sharing
- Check support of new Direct3D 11.1 features and formats
- Use HLSL minimum precision
- Specify user clip planes in HLSL on feature level 9 and higher
- Create larger constant buffers than a shader can access
- Use logical operations in a render target
- Force the sample count to create a rasterizer state
- Process video resources with shaders
- Extended support for shared Texture2D resources
- Change subresources with new copy options
- Discard resources and resource views
- Support a larger number of UAVs
- Bind a subrange of a constant buffer to a shader
- Retrieve the subrange of a constant buffer that is bound to a shader
- Clear all or part of a resource view
- Map SRVs of dynamic buffers with NO_OVERWRITE
- Use UAVs at every pipeline stage
- Extended support for WARP devices
- Use Direct3D in Session 0 processes
