Quote :As a fitting start to this blog, I'm proud to release a preview of our Alky compatibility libraries for Microsoft DirectX 10 enabled games. These libraries allow the use of DirectX 10 games on platforms other than Windows Vista, and increase hardware compatibility even on Vista, by compiling Geometry Shaders down to native machine code for execution where hardware isn't capable of running it. No longer will you have to upgrade your OS and video card(s) to play the latest games.More info at :http://alkyproject.blogspot.com/

Sounds incredible! I'm certainly in no rush to upgrade to Vista.

I'd expect a certain 19-year-old to be getting a visit from Microsoft's attorneys real soon now...

Phil Taylor's made numerous posts on why hacks like this aren't going to work..."compiling Geometry Shaders down to native machine code for execution where hardware isn't capable of running it."The defeats the entire purpose of having DX10 hardware - those shaders will run extremely slowly if they're being done by the CPU and not a DX10 graphics card. You've also got the issue that the video drivers themselves have to be DX10 drivers. So if you take an 8800 card and run it in XP with this it sounds like the entire thing is gonna be emulated by the CPU, not real DX10.

Well, if cores keep expanding like rabbits, and these said cores increase clock speeds, perhaps emulation in the CPU isn't too big of a deal.The effect of this news is as imporant as the limitations of the implementation. DX10 titles are slow in arriving and anti-Vista FUD is a popular item of consumption.

>I'd expect a certain 19-year-old to be getting a visit from>Microsoft's attorneys real soon now...Why? I have faith someone will develop a usable bridge for DX10 and XP, it's just arithmetic. :) Millions of users are quite a nice incentive. And MS does not have a legal lock on the world. Certainly not in the European Union. Bob...

The European Union has nothing to do with it.... the 'boy' is in San Diego, and touts himself as a Reverse Engineering Specialist. Read the EULA, it specifically prohibits reverse engineering their software.Personally, I don't think that emulation has a snowballs chance here. Whilst pre-scripted demo's may seem to be smooth and flawless, I doubt the latest titles would give the same immersion while keeping a quality and seamless output. What I don't get, is why someone would go out and buy the latest quad system with an outdated video card in order to run the emulator on XP, rather than purchase Vista and a DX10 capable card for their already decent PC.... makes no sense to me.I wouldn't mind actually seeing specs or at least some benchmarks showing CPU and GPU performance while in XP and Vista... just curious.Anyways, looks like his 'demo' will be available in two months. That was posted in August, and hasn't been updated since. I am highly optimistic about his progress... especially since he can't even keep the spam bots from posting comments to his site. (yes, there are hundreds)Just my two cents.Kev C.

If we're quoting that blog, let's quote the latest post, from August 05:"We are proud to announce the immediate availability of "Alky for Applications" version 1.0.""Our excitement over the announcement of "Alky for Applications" is tempered by the fact that we regretfully also announce that support for Halo 2 and Shadowrun will not come until the middle or end of August.""Lastly, we have nothing definitive to report in regards to our support for DirectX 10 based games."I don't know, but it's well past the middle or end of August, and they really have nothing.

I seem to recall this going around over a month ago and it was determined that all it WILL do ( if it works ) is allow DX10 games to run under XP but *NOT* with the benefits of DX10 so unless there's a product that has *ONLY* a DX10 version, it's not a big deal. I also recall that Phil T participated in that thread and explained why DX10 will NOT work as DX10 under XP.VicQ6600 G0 CPU 2.4 o/c 3.6Evga 680i A1 with P30 BIOS 2G XP2-8500 DDR2 1066FSB Mushkin 996535 RAM 5-5-4-12-2T320G 7200 HD partitioined for XP/Vista/Programs 2 - 74G Raptors in RAID0 500G 7200 HD for backup SATA DVD burner Evga 8800GTS 640 PCIx Kandalf LCS case w/ built in liquid cooling 850W Thermaltake power supplyVisit the Virtual Pilot's Centerwww.flightadventures.comRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/

What about a hardware/software emulation? The market is huge. I am also wondering if this is much a do about very little. It remains to be seen exactly what performance improvements will be seen with the DX10 patch. Bob..

>Quote :>>As a fitting start to this blog, I'm proud to release a>preview of our Alky compatibility libraries for Microsoft>DirectX 10 enabled games. These libraries allow the use of>DirectX 10 games on platforms other than Windows Vista, and>increase hardware compatibility even on Vista, by compiling>Geometry Shaders down to native machine code for execution>where hardware isn't capable of running it. No longer will you>have to upgrade your OS and video card(s) to play the latest>games.>>More info at :>>http://alkyproject.blogspot.com/Why not just fix up Dx9.0c as much as possible.?!

This seems to be just another one of those touted "breakthroughs" that claims it has found a way to achieve the benefits of DX10 on XP and making upgrading to Vista and the required hardware unnecessary.We see these claims pop up every once in a while, and as usual, as time goes by the hype is proven to be exactly that - just hype.To quote BobP, I also think this is simply "much ado about very little".

Seems a bit pointless if you ask me. For one thing DX9 hardware is not going to be powerful enough to run the games comming out over the next couple years. Who in the world is going to sit on thier 7900 when they can very affordable pick up a DX10 card in the next year? That guys wasting his energy if you ask me, but if it makes him a better engineer, the more power to him.

What I would rather see is to be able to run FSX in a VM.scott s..

Yea maybe the java vm :D