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What is this new Direct3D 9ex option, and is DX11 No Longer in Beta?
thedoctorbluebox
Member Posts: 749 Arc User
I assume this is new as of the Season 8 patch.
I now have the option of a new rendering mode, Direct3D 9ex. What is "ex" referring to? I have never heard of this before, and I'm very familiar with DX APIs. So what is this new rendering pipeline all about? I still have regular DX9, no EX option as well.
Second, the Direct3D 11 pipeline no longer says "Beta". Are we now to assume DX11 support has been finalized and is completely fine to run in? Should we run in DX11 now?
These are the available DX modes I have available per STO graphics options right now:
Direct3D 11
Direct3D 9ex
Direct3D 9
Thanks for any devs input, I do prefer a technical answer to what the benefits of DX9 EX are, and DX11 for this game now. I am very knowledgeable on GPUs since I review them for a living.
I now have the option of a new rendering mode, Direct3D 9ex. What is "ex" referring to? I have never heard of this before, and I'm very familiar with DX APIs. So what is this new rendering pipeline all about? I still have regular DX9, no EX option as well.
Second, the Direct3D 11 pipeline no longer says "Beta". Are we now to assume DX11 support has been finalized and is completely fine to run in? Should we run in DX11 now?
These are the available DX modes I have available per STO graphics options right now:
Direct3D 11
Direct3D 9ex
Direct3D 9
Thanks for any devs input, I do prefer a technical answer to what the benefits of DX9 EX are, and DX11 for this game now. I am very knowledgeable on GPUs since I review them for a living.
Brent Justice
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Post edited by thedoctorbluebox on
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Ok you may want to be sitting for this, it's shocking I typed in directx9ex into google and found
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee890072(v=vs.85).aspx
Amazing.
Short 10 sec trailer for Cube 571
The one good thing about being Borg you never need tech-support
Before you post in the STO tech support forum
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Twitter - https://twitter.com/Brent_Justice
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As for DX11, its NOT out of beta. They messed up something with LoR that increased DX11 CPU dramatically, giving worse FPS then DX9 (and now 9ex)
I wouldnt call that finalized.
Furthermore nothing helps increase UI speed as its the scripting behind it that makes FPS do crazy amount of drops, the more UI TRIBBLE on the screen the worse it gets. Only way to fix that is to improve the way the UI scripting is handled, or make it run on a seperate CPU thread.
D3D9Ex is for Vista and up and gives some memory usage benefits because of the new (as of Vista) video driver model. (There are other advantages too.) It's basically D3D9 plus some extra niceness for people running something more modern than XP. You should probably use it instead of D3D9 where possible, unless you're having issues with it.
DirectX 11 should provide better performance. We don't (yet) use any of the advanced DX11 features (like hardware tessellation) in STO, though artists have been experimenting with them for a while now.
Thank you for for this insight.
Two Question of my own:
#1 Could we expect a feature set overview in regards what DX 11 makes use of DX9 does not and how this is improving Performance or responsivnes?
#2 As some already mentioned and more in other Posts is the Goal for the DX11 renderer to reduce certain strains that are CPU related as it stands now no matter the System specs you run FPS are restrained heavily by CPU and this also effects real powerhouse CPU's aswell. Drops from 60+ FPS to below 20- FPS are not to uncommon at all.
Thank you for your reply in advance
Tried it today, and it does!
I was impressed. Well, first I was frustrated because the game would get stuck on the STO: LoR screen, but I apparently picked the wrong DX11 mode. I got two options for DX11, numbered #1 and #2, but with the same video card name; one prevented my game from starting, the other worked fine. I suspect that's got to do with my peculiar GPU situation, btw, rather than the game itself. I'm running a laptop with adaptive GPU switching between an on-board Intel HD 4000 and a dedicated AMD Radeon HD 7700M (2gb) - when more GPU power is needed the AMD one kicks in automatically, but I can't select it manually. Booted the game in safe mode, changed the setting to the other DX11 and things worked after that.
I got the feeling the DX11 version makes much better use of my 2gb VRAM, tbh, though I don't have the usage figures to back that up. Things also looked smoother and nicer, I think. Much improved, overall! I'd tried the DX11 version a long time ago, and that didn't work so well, then, but you clearly did a whole lot of tinkering under the hood (the various driver updates on my side might also help for compatibility, btw).
Interesting. I get near daily CTD's when moving to or moving about on New Romulus (usually out of memory when laoding texture errors).
I wonder if switching to dx9ex or even dx11 will alleviate that? I will try them later
I really hope you guys make some strides and eventually one day make a serious push of tessellation.
Right off the top of my head, Tessellation would make borg ships just look absolutely epic!
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
With this in mind and the issue of crashing before getting to the loading screen issue. In this new season 8 patch, did cryptic add features which DX 9.0c needs to be upgraded for XP users? Hence may be a reason or another puzzle piece as to why we can't log in?
Thank you for your time.
Update: I guess XP users can't upgrade higher then 9.0c. With the different situations players are having with the logging issue still baffling.
And it did, but since launch of LoR something you guys changed decreased performance and increased CPU usage by roughtly 30/40% in some areas while using DX11.
Did clear tests on both my PC's, FPS drops considerably especially in spots like New romulus where you beam in. massive FPS loss with DX11. (Both also tried lowest setting in game and highest, makes zero difference.
Could it be something to do with the textures you guys replaced in LOR? Or some other deep level tweaks? Its pretty bad at the moment, the longer you guys wait the more difficutl it will become in the future to ever get this straightened out again. Just sayin.
There was actually a bug in the DX11 code causing high CPU usage. We've got a fix for that, and I'm working on getting it into the build right now. DX11 performance should be back to normal afterwards. And yes, it was a bug that was introduced in with some changes for LoR.
Centurion maximus92
12th Legion, Romulan Republic
12th Fleet
=\/= ================================ =\/=
Well that is some good news, thanks!
Another tiny question if you dont mind, after I did some research it seems that the game is not optimally using all my available video memory (670GTX with 2GB of vram) both on auto and 1024+ the /showmem 1 command shows the memory filling caps out on around 800mb~
Its highly noticable also when I use /rendersize 3840 2160 to emulate 2x supersampling (unfortunately this is the only way to get Ordered Grid Supersampling working as using 2x2 Supersampling in Nvidia inspector settings has always bugged STO's graphics with shaders and shadows apparently.)
Anyway it is noticable as because of lack of accessible video memory the textures go all blurry and stuff.
I could only imagine this artificial limitation will become quite problematic as 4K resolution TVs and monitors are getting more common too.
Thanks in advance!
Ok I went crosseyed 3 paragraphs into the page...
***Disenchanted***
Real Join Date: Monday, 17 May 2010
Is this fix live yet? or in the tribble patches? I want mah fps back!!
I think it should be live on Tribble. I haven't heard back about it yet, but I've verified that a couple of other fixes from last week are in Tribble but not on Live yet. Give it a shot?
Mhh I tested it, although I will be honest its hard to compare especially because on tribble all zones are pretty much dead.
Tried both DX11 and DX9(ex) on various testspots, set all graphic settings on low which should only affect gpu usage, DX11 still seems to draw like 20% more cpu usage or so.
Both tests done on 60fps limit, whearas actual fps measured with fraps was indeed 60 on all testing done.
DX11 is topping at like 65% of my i7 quad core at 4.5GHz whereas DX9 on the same setting, same spots, only maxes at like 45%
I guess Ill wait to retest once the next patch hits holo
No real problem render wise.
However in DX11 mode the game is determined to always start in windowed mode. and the minimise/restore buttons when in full screen after switching to and from the game a few times no longer show so have to alt-tab instead.
Will try DX9ex next to see if there's any difference.
I too am having some windowing issues. I had my old video card blow recently, the new one came in the mail the same day S8 launched. The old one only supported DX9.
Launch day I started using DX11, and every time I alt tab out of full screen the game forces itself to maximized window. Even pressing Alt-Enter doesn't always bring it back right (and is a hassle anyhow) sometimes it'll do weird things like put the game full screen, but only in a rectangle half the monitor size in the middle of the screen.
After some tests, I've found that fullscreen stays working fine in DX9 and DX9Ex, but DX11 always does this.
I can confirm the DX11 performance is still lower then DX9 on holo.
On new Spire space the FPS is roughly 20 lower, in Mirror Invasion same story.
on New Romulus ground same problem.
Just wanting to let you know.
CPU usage under almost all circumstances 20/30% higher.
It has done this ever since the first day they introduced it in beta.
My name is Isabella. I love playing this game, however, when i had to reinstall it after my computer formated, i keep getting this message once i hit engage: Direct3DCreate9Ex(D3D_SDK_VERSION=x20) failed. Get LastError() = 5 "Access is denied."
Does anyone know what this means?
I spoke to microsoft and they said that i should post it on the forum and see what others say. SO PLEASE HELP!!!
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109