Found here on page three of a game developer's article about DX10.http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1989817,00.aspNote that the second picture of Glacier park (when maximized) indicates that it is being rendered in DX9. The third picture of Glacier Park (at the bottom) is what the developers believe they'll be able to accomplish with DX10.AL | KCHS - Charleston AFB/Intl | USAF 437AW (~53 C-17's)FS9/Game Rig:AMD64-4000+ SanDiego OC=210/420/2520 | Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe | Corsair TwinX2048-3200C2PT (2x1GB) 2.5-3-3-8/[email protected] | Evga NV 7900GT v84.56 (1280x1024x32/4xAA/16xAF/High-Quality) | Enermax 550W PSU | Thermalright XP-120(mm) HSF | NV 1GB LAN | NV SATA-I Raid-0 223GB (3x80GB Samsung) (WinXPx64/Games) | NV SATA-II WD 320GB (Backups) | IDE-0 80GB Samsung (Archive) | Realtek AC'97 5.1 Surround | CH Yoke, TQ, & Pedals | FS9.1 (Settings max'd/60-40Vis/No-Shadows/20FPS) | WideFS v6.16 | FSUIPC v3.617 | FSGenesis Mesh (All) | PMDG (All) | PAI (All) | FSBuild2 | EtcFS9 Support Rig:AMD3200+ | Gigabyte GA-7NNXP | Leadtek NV 5900 | Corsair TwinX1024-3200 (2x512MB) | Intel 1GB LAN | SiI3112 SATA-I 80GB Samsung | IDE-0 80GB IBM | JustCom 4port KVM | FS Wide Client | ActiveSky v6 (512x512x32bit / Wx Influanced)| Radar Contact v4.01 | FS Real Time | FS Flight Keeper | FS Commander | AI Smooth

Excellant article. Well foundRojanTrojan

The DX9 shot looks pretty darned good to me...

Here's the short & sweet for me:Image 1 - Flight Simulator 2004:http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_g...i=133376,00.jpgImage 2 - FSX with CURRENT available DX9 hardware: http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_g...i=133378,00.jpgImage 3 - FSX with DX10 availability: http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_g...i=133379,00.jpgCase closed, SOLD!Carmine http://forums.avsim.net/images/wave.gifhttp://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7118/phoenixtp8mg.jpg

I concur, also to add to the comparison here is the windows vista wallpaper that inspired the screens:http://www.winvistabeta.com/files%2fwallpa...onghorn_new.jpg

The FSX DX9 shots looks really great... and the DX10 "render" is amazing. In the DX10 render it seems like the clouds are casting shadows because some of the mountains are more brightly lit than others.

The first shot is FS9.The second is FSX/DX9 and looks VERY goodThe third one is FSX/DX10 and just blows my mind.Look at the clouds, how the waves break, the textures, the sun shining through the clouds. Nothing but spectacular!We have plenty to look forward to in the next 12 months. FSX coupled with a Conroe and good GPU and we'll see some killer realistic graphics sooner than we think. Pat

I didn't see anywhere that the second pic was DX9! Are you sure?

>I didn't see anywhere that the second pic was DX9! Are you>sure?Frankla when you click on the second pic in the article, once open at the top below the ad it will say " Flight Simulator X - DX9That same Glacier Park location in Flight Sim X, using DirectX 9. This is the current quality of the game's graphics."

I think it's a shame the timing isn't so great with FSX and DX10. I don't think it is wise to spend all your pennies on DX10 hardware, specifically for FSX, as soon as the hardware is available. General rule of thumb, don't buy a product as soon as it hits the market, 1. expensive and 2.premature.I'm not denying that we wont see DX10 impact on FSX, but I really think upgrading to DX10 would be better for the FS after FSX, therefore I think my next upgrade will be within dx9 technology. Please feel free to comment or disagree. CheersTristan

Under DX10, "Games will be able to provide multiple 3D view windows at the same performance of a single DirectX 9 window."I tried multiple monitors in FS9 a few years ago but couldn't stand the low FPS it caused in the heaviest of scenes. Guess I'll have to see if they really fix this once DX10 and the FSX patch is released.BTW, it makes you wonder just what kind of code it takes to draw dynamic frothy bubles in the forground of the DX10 pic, doesn't it...AL | KCHS - Charleston AFB/Intl | USAF 437AW (~53 C-17's)FS9/Game Rig:AMD64-4000+ SanDiego OC=210/420/2520 | Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe | Corsair TwinX2048-3200C2PT (2x1GB) 2.5-3-3-8/[email protected] | Evga NV 7900GT v84.56 (1280x1024x32/4xAA/16xAF/High-Quality) | Enermax 550W PSU | Thermalright XP-120(mm) HSF | NV 1GB LAN | NV SATA-I Raid-0 223GB (3x80GB Samsung) (WinXPx64/Games) | NV SATA-II WD 320GB (Backups) | IDE-0 80GB Samsung (Archive) | Realtek AC'97 5.1 Surround | CH Yoke, TQ, & Pedals | FS9.1 (Settings max'd/60-40Vis/No-Shadows/20FPS) | WideFS v6.16 | FSUIPC v3.617 | FSGenesis Mesh (All) | PMDG (All) | PAI (All) | FSBuild2 | EtcFS9 Support Rig:AMD3200+ | Gigabyte GA-7NNXP | Leadtek NV 5900 | Corsair TwinX1024-3200 (2x512MB) | Intel 1GB LAN | SiI3112 SATA-I 80GB Samsung | IDE-0 80GB IBM | JustCom 4port KVM | FS Wide Client | ActiveSky v6 (512x512x32bit / Wx Influanced)| Radar Contact v4.01 | FS Real Time | FS Flight Keeper | FS Commander | AI Smooth

Agree. Going for Core 2 duo 6700 + 2 Gig. Will get a good but not top of range DX 9 card (7900GT) and live with it till DX10.

>BTW, it makes you wonder just what kind of code it takes to>draw dynamic frothy bubles in the forground of the DX10 pic,>doesn't it...>I think with DX10 the shader code can be much larger and is more powerful (ie conditional branching) unlike DX9. Hence more complex graphics effects can run on the GPU.Plus I think DX10 has a geometry shader (and DX9 doesnt) and this means that the scenes can be far more complex because DX10 can manage the "world" on the GPU and not the CPU.I think under DX10 complex airports will have very fast FPS. FSX + DX10 should be amazing!

Fantastic news - FSX with DirectX 9 will be something worth buying, and I won't have to buy the first extremely overpriced versions of DirectX 10 cards.

"I won't have to buy the first extremely overpriced versions of DirectX 10 cards."Exactly. They put a card thats barely useable with its beta drivers and charge $800. and in another 3 months they come out with another card with 1000 times better whatever (in reality it would only be marginal improvement).... then another one in another 3 months... and on and on and on.. .with its marginal improvements.I bought such a card 2 years ago.. the NVidia FX-5900 Ultra whatever for $700. I wish I was wiser then. :)Manny