DiRt 2 Gains Shiny DX11 Support News

Colin McRae DiRT 2 will look a little bit better on the PC thanks to the game gaining DirectX 11 support.

The latest version of the API isn't scheduled to arrive until October 2009 alongside Windows 7, making this one of the first games to confirm support.  Key improvements include the addition of Shader Model 5.0, providing enhanced depth of field, ambient occlusion and shadows, while hardware tessellation results in improved water appearance and crown animations.

"While the console editions of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will retain their September ship date, we believe that the DirectX 11 feature set is too compelling to ignore, especially considering how much more it can add to the visual experience for PC gamers," said Bryan Marshall, chief technical officer, Codemasters. "As a leader in digital racing entertainment, we are staying ahead of the pack by immediately taking advantage of key new technologies such as hardware tessellation, multi-threading and Shader Model 5.0 to deliver the most realistic, immersive and exhilarating racing experiences in the business. The fusion of DirectX 11 with Codemasters' EGO(tm) Engine will raise the technical bar considerably in the racing genre."

"We expect Codemasters' early move to DirectX 11 to place them in a leadership position in developing the next generation of PC games and simulations," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Products Group. "To aid in transitioning to DirectX 11, AMD is providing Codemasters with access to our software engineering expertise in DirectX 11 technologies such as tessellation and shader modelling. DirectX 11 has all of the ingredients needed to take PC gaming to a new level of realism by giving developers tools to effectively utilize the multi-CPU, multi-GPU systems now available to players."

As a result of the new enhancements, the Games for Windows version of Colin McRae DiRT 2 has been pushed back into December.