I don't really know much about DirectX other than it is responsible of having better graphic options for games, for example, tessellation and Ambient Occlusion in DX11.
But my question is, why some games (most recent games I've played at least), have the option of choosing DX9 (default) or DX 11 (with advanced options, and obviously with compatible video cards), but there is NO option for DX 10?
Is DX10 a version that never got released? was it defective? or what about it? why those games don't show an option to use DX 10 along DX 9 and 11?
Are there ANY games that show those 3 options? or do they just 'jump' from DX 9 directly to 11? why?
thanks
Best Answer
This is because Windows XP only supports DirectX 9. DirectX10 was added with Vista, but Vista also got a backport of DirectX11 from Win7 (Platform Update), so Vista/Win7/8 can use DirectX 11 and Windows XP DirectX9. And because providing Dx10 rendering path makes no sense when you can use the better DiretX11, most games only offer those 2 modes.