DirectX Versions
This is a description of what each version of DirectX is capable of, for reference when creating fallback materials for older GPUs with lower DirectX feature levels. Under each heading are features not available in previous versions of DirectX.
To test lower-quality DirectX levels on a more advanced graphics card, use the mat_dxlevel cvar. Set it to 60, 70, 80, 81, 90, 95 or 98 () to set the corresponding DirectX version; it is not possible to run at a higher level than the graphics hardware is capable of.
To fix this, run the game once with
-dxlevel 95
command line option, change your video settings, then save by clicking OK (or Apply then OK), then close the game, open it again, it should show as Software DirectX level: DirectX 9.0+ on the video options.func_illusionary
used for fake volumetric lighting, or the game looks more desaturated compared to DirectX 8 mode.[1][2] See #Train StationDirectX Capabilities
Contents
- 1 DirectX Capabilities
- 1.1 DirectX 6 / D3D9 with feature level 6
- 1.2 DirectX 7 / D3D9 with feature level 7
- 1.3 DirectX 8.0 / D3D9 with feature level 8.0
- 1.4 DirectX 8.1 / D3D9 with feature level 8.1
- 1.5 DirectX 9 / D3D9 (Shader Model 2)
- 1.6 DirectX 9 / D3D9.0c - Shader Model 3 (in all games since Source 2006)
- 1.7 DirectX 10 / D3D10 (DXGI)
- 1.8 DirectX 11 / D3D11 (DXGI)
- 1.9 DirectX 12 / D3D12 (DXGI)
- 2 Sample screenshots
- 3 References
Since Source 2007 or Source 2009, DirectX 7 is no longer supported.
Starting with Left 4 Dead engine branch and later Source games, all DirectX 8 versions are no longer supported.
In Portal with RTX and in other RTX Remix Source games, the game will run on DirectX 7 or 8 mode in order to make RTX Remix work.
DirectX 6 / D3D9 with feature level 6
Introduced in August 1998, referred to as "DirectX 6.0" and "dxlevel 60
".
DirectX 6-class graphics cards include the Nvidia TNT2 and Matrox G400.
DirectX 7 / D3D9 with feature level 7
Introduced in September 1999, referred to as "DirectX 7.0" and "dxlevel 70
".
DirectX 7-class graphics cards include the Nvidia GeForce 256, 2, 2MX and 4MX cards and the ATI Radeon 7xxx series.
Features
- Blob shadows
- Displacement map texture blending
DirectX 8.0 / D3D9 with feature level 8.0
Introduced in November 2000, referred to as "DirectX 8.0" and "dxlevel 80
".
DirectX 8-class graphics cards include the Nvidia GeForce4 Ti and most of the GeForce FX 5x00 series (while technically DirectX 9 cards, the latter suffer from major performance problems with the DX9 rendering path).
A bug report can be found here: Issue 540 on GitHub
Features
- Refractions with the use of a du/dv map
- Dynamic shadows
- Directional lighting on world brushes using normal maps
- Cube-mapped specular effects
- Cube-mapped water
- Low-quality reflective water (used sparingly)
DirectX 8.1 / D3D9 with feature level 8.1
Referred to as "DirectX 8.1" and "dxlevel 81
".
Included in Windows XP or later, also available on Windows 98/98SE/ME, 2000.
DirectX 8.1-class graphics cards include the Nvidia GeForce FX 5800 and 5900 and the ATI Radeon 8500/9100 and 9000/9200 cards.
Features
- Soft edge dynamic shadows
DirectX 9 / D3D9 (Shader Model 2)
Introduced in December 2002, referred to as "DirectX 9.0" and "dxlevel 90
".
Included in Windows XP SP2 or later, also available on Windows 98/98SE/ME, 2000.
DirectX 9-class graphics cards include the Nvidia GeForce 6600 and 6800 series and the ATI Radeon 9500/9600, 9700/9800, X300/X600 and X800 cards.
Features
- Refractions with the use of a bump-map
- High-quality reflective water (used frequently)
- Softer edge dynamic shadows
- This means that the "High" shadows detail option will be visible and can be selected (except on Intel GPUs by default).
- Normal-mapped lighting on models
- Improved-quality specular effects
Since Source 2006:
- High dynamic range rendering (disabled by default)
- Phong shading
- Color Correction
Since Source 2007:
- Motion Blur
"dxlevel 92
"
This is equivalent to dxlevel 95, but use the translator ToGL to convert the DirectX calls to OpenGL calls. Only on macOS and Linux, and other platforms/operating systems that do not support Direct3D and DirectX.
DirectX 9 / D3D9.0c - Shader Model 3 (in all games since Source 2006)
Referred to as "DirectX 9.0+" and "dxlevel 95". Last version supported for all version of Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000 and XP. Older Source 2 games like Dota 2 previously supported Direct3D 9, before it was dropped in 2021.
Features
- Lightwarp support
- High dynamic range rendering (enabled by default)
DX9Ex
Referred to as "dxlevel 98
". Made specifically for Xbox 360.
dxlevel 95
after changing video settings). Only works for Xbox 360, where it is required.Features
- GPU Particle Physics
Differences of dxlevel 95 (DX9 SM 3.0) and 98 (DX9Ex) (according to "dxsupport.cfg"
on Half-Life 2):
- Default resolution from 1024x768 (dxlevel 95) to 640x480 (dxlevel 98).
"mat_forceaniso" "1"
(dxlevel 95) >"8"
(dxlevel 98)"mat_forcehardwaresync" "1"
(dxlevel 95) >"0"
(dxlevel 98)"r_waterforcereflectentities" "0"
(dxlevel 95) >"1"
(dxlevel 98)
DirectX 10 / D3D10 (DXGI)
Introduced in November 2006 with the release of Windows Vista, and only supports the said operating systems, DX10 is not supported on Windows XP. Referred to as "dxlevel 100
".
DirectX 10-class graphics cards include the Nvidia GeForce 8 series, Intel GMA X3100, X3500, GMA 4500, Intel HD Graphics (2010) and the ATI Radeon HD 2000/3000 series cards.
Games with Direct3D 10 (DX10) support
There are currently no Source engine branch which actually render in Direct3D 10 (aka DX10 mode) despite being mentioned in this GDC 2008 PDF which shows some differences.
All of the DX10 features shown in that PDF file were already available in "dxlevel 95
" (DirectX 9 SM 3.0) and Xbox 360 (which uses "dxlevel 98
").
DX9/D3D9 renderer with DX10 feature level (only in SFM)
DirectX 11 / D3D11 (DXGI)
Introduced in 2009 with the release of Windows 7, DirectX 11 requires Windows Vista (with SP2 & Platform Update installed) and later, and some later DX11 versions require Windows 7, 8 or later. Referred to as "dxlevel 110
".
DirectX 11-class graphics cards include the Nvidia GeForce 400 (except GeForce 405) series, Intel HD Graphics 2500, HD 4000 (2012), and the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series.
Source 2 natively supports and runs on this version of DirectX by default, but previous versions are also available for older hardware that only support DX9 (except in Dota 2 since 2021 update). Prior to Source 2 (and other Source third-party branch) releases, Titanfall engine branch was the only Source branch that supported DX11.
Features
- Shader Model 5.0
- Multithreaded rendering
Games with Direct3D 11 (DX11) support
DirectX 12 / D3D12 (DXGI)
Introduced in 2015 with the release of Windows 10, later backported in 2019 to Windows 7. DX12 and D3D12 are not supported on Windows 8 or 8.1. Referred to as "dxlevel 120
".
DirectX 12-class graphics cards include the Nvidia GeForce 900 series, Intel HD Graphics (from 2015-2016), and the AMD Radeon 200 (GCN 2.0), Radeon 300 series cards.
-eac_launcher_settings SettingsDX12.json
launch options.There are currently no Source 2 games that use DirectX 12 (or the D3D12 renderer).
Features
- Low-level rendering API, similar to Vulkan
- Shader Model 5.1
- Raytracing (since Windows October 2018 Update)
- Note:This ray tracing feature is also available in Portal RTX, but it's uses a different renderer (Vulkan) with DirectX 8 feature level.
- Dynamic refresh rate (since Windows 11)
Sample screenshots
Additionally, all screenshots appeared to be based off the default settings (with the exception of Train Station screenshots with maximum settings and MSAA 8X), with no anti-aliasing and little to no anisotropic filtering (or bilinear/trilinear texture filtering).
Canals
These screenshots demonstrate displacement map texture blending, directional lightmaps and cubemapped then reflective water.
DirectX 6.0 | |
DirectX 7.0 | |
DirectX 8.0 | |
DirectX 8.1 | |
DirectX 9.0+ |
Dropship
These screenshots show shadow quality at different rendering levels, ranging from none to soft, dynamic shadows.
DirectX 6.0 | |
DirectX 7.0 | |
DirectX 8.0 | |
DirectX 8.1 | |
DirectX 9.0+ |
Storm drain
These screenshots show directional lightmaps and cube-mapped specular effects.
DirectX 6.0 | |
DirectX 7.0 | |
DirectX 8.0 | |
DirectX 8.1 | |
DirectX 9.0+ |
Zombie
These screenshots demonstrate the use of normal-mapping on models. The final shot has full, normal-mapped lighting.
DirectX 6.0 | |
DirectX 7.0 | |
DirectX 8.0 | |
DirectX 8.1 | |
DirectX 9.0+ |
Train Station (fake volumetric lighting)
These screenshots shows the differences between DirectX 8 and 9 on the fake volumetric lighting. The volumetric lighting was less visible with some effects missing on DX9, compared to DX8,[1][2] likely because of a bug introduced since Source 2007/ Source 2009.[confirm]
DirectX 8.0 | |
DirectX 8.1 | |
DirectX 9.0+ (HDR) | |
DirectX 9.0+ (HDR, after reloading the map) |
Portals
These screenshots compares the texture and particles quality on the portals.
DirectX 7.0 and earlier | Unsupported and non-functional. Screenshot identical to DirectX 8.0. |
DirectX 8.0 | |
DirectX 8.1 | |
DirectX 9.0+ |
References
References | ||||
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