DX10 in compatibility mode?

[Heartborne]

Hello all.

I have noticed that 64-bit vista likes to install some games to the "Program Files (x86)" folder and wants to run them in compatibility mode for XP SP2.

My question is this: are these apps still using DX10 or is it some kind of DX 9.0c emulation?

Also, can Mass Effect be run out of compatibility mode? What about NWN2?

thanks!

[saphalline]

Vista only has DX10, so technically everything runs in DX10. For non-DX10 games/rendering calls, Vista uses a DX9c-class emulator (DX9L or whatever you want to call it) that runs inside of DX10.

The peformance hit isn't too severe since the emulator has access to DX10 goodness, but it's still a healthy 10% drop in most cases. For current hardware, however, this performance hit is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Vista 64-bit versions are more efficient at using gobs of hardware (4GB+ of RAM, for instance) and the latest hardware (better thread allocation for quad-core CPU's) so it's a bit easier to swallow.

But yes, ANY non-DX10 game runs inside this DX9 emulator. If you can get it to run...

[Heartborne]

Thus far I've been successful with running NWN2 whose manual specifically shows Windows XP as the required OS; but I am sure that patches have helped that along somewhat. I did get a few error messages during installation and I still get a couple of error messages concerning a .dll file on startup but it doesn't seem to affect the game in any way. The performance does suffer a tad, since when I turn the AA up to 8x the framerate plummets. 4x seems okay, though.

Another point of contention is Mass Effect, which appears to have issues no matter what you try to do with it. I was able to run it in compatibility mode, but I have not yet tried running it outside of compatibility mode... but isn't the game written with DX10 in mind?

I haven't played around with gaming too much in Vista yet, since I don't want to fill up my hard drive with games I never play. I have decided to only install games if I plan on spending some time with them and *gasp* uninstalling games when I've finished them.