Adding DX10 has "done nothing"

Having tested the DX10 rendering path against the DX9 version, the chaps at the fantastically named Elite Bastards say that they can't "Help but feel a little disappointed to see yet another game where the inclusion of DirectX 10 functionality has done nothing for the title either graphically or from a performance standpoint".

Whilst DX10 is supposed to be a more efficient iteration of the codebase for developers, the path results in poorer performance in WIC without any notable graphical difference on the screen.

Indeed, performance is distinctly average in this beta test, which marks a return to the days of testing at 1024x768 - something we haven't seen in quite a while.

The 8800 GTS 640MB manages to pull out an average framerate of 31FPS at 1024 with no AA and no AF, which is a mark of how hard DX10 is working the card - and perhaps a worthy indicator that, despite the functionality in this generation of graphics cards, the raw horsepower isn't quite there to deliver DX10 gaming happily. This certainly appears to be the case at the low-end, where the 8600 GT delivers a 13FPS average, merely 3FPS better than the Radeon 2600 XT.

We have been decrying the lack of decent games to make use of high-end graphical hardware for a while now. World in Conflict isn't quite ready for prime time yet, but it looks as though we may have gotten our wish - and then some. µ