2. The Evolving Windows Gaming Platform Chuck Walbourn Software Design Engineer XNA Developer Connection Microsoft

3. A Brief History of Windows Windows 3.1 16-bit operating system on top of MS-DOS WinG (most game developers used DOS extenders) 286 (386 recommended) 1 MB RAM (2 MB recommended) EGA video Windows 95 32-bit operating system (extended MS-DOS), with some vestiges of 16-bit Windows DirectX 1.0 386DX 20-MHz (486 recommend) 4 MB RAM (8 MB RAM recommended) VGA video (640 × 480) CD-ROM optional

4. A Brief History of Windows DirectX 5.2 486DX 66-MHz (Pentium recommended) 16 MB RAM (24 MB RAM recommended) VGA video (16-bit or 24-bit color recommended) CD-ROM optional DirectX 7.1 150-MHz Pentium (300-MHz Pentium II recommended) 32 MB RAM (96 MB RAM recommended) VGA CD-ROM or DVD drive

5. A Brief History of Windows 32-bit operating system based on NT codebase (basically “Home Edition” of Windows 2000 Professional) DirectX 8.1 233-MHz (300 MHz recommend) 64 MB RAM (128 MB RAM recommended) Super VGA video (800 × 600) CD-ROM or DVD drive 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems based on Windows Server 2003 SP1 code base DirectX 10 800-MHz 32-bit or x64 processor (1-GHz recommended) 512 MB RAM (1 GB RAM recommended) DirectX 9 class video with 32 MB VRAM (WDDM, 128 MB VRAM, Pixel Shader 2.0, 32 bpp) DVD drive

6. Agenda Windows Vista Overview Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Direct3D 10.1 Rating System Changes The 4 GB Limit

7. Windows Vista Gaming Features Game Explorer Parental Controls (Family Safety) Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) Direct3D 10 Improved multi-channel audio Improved widescreen support Improved networking and IPv6 support

8. Some Internals Highlights RDTSC -based scheduler accounting New synchronization APIs Slim reader/writer locks, condition variables, more InterlockedXXX variants Overhauled thread pool API Dynamic kernel pool sizes Kernel paged and non-paged pools no longer fixed sizes at boot Multimedia Class Scheduler Service

9. Some Internals Highlights Security Hardening for Services SCM privilege settings, services firewall policy, automatic heap corruption termination Many services disabled by default Network-facing services hosted in distinct processes Address Space Load Randomization Opt-in for applications /DYNAMICBASE linker switch in Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Applies to EXEs and DLLs Just enable it along with /NXCOMPAT and /SAFESEH

10. Common Game Compat Issues User Account Control You shouldn’t need admin rights to play a game! Particularly important for MMOs / self-updaters to resolve Working well with UAC includes: Embedded manifests with an execution level SHGetFolderPath () Authenticode signing Do admin tasks only during setup Do per-user tasks only during game See DirectX SDK articles: “User Account Control for Game Developers” “Installation Best Practices for Massively Multiplayer Online Games”

11. Common Game Compat Issues 64-bit (x64) Compatibility Does not require that your game be 64-bit native Anti-cheat/copy-protection schemes Usually kernel-mode drivers, which must have 64-bit native Authenticode-signed versions Poorly tested/written installations: Path assumptions 16-bit code stubs Undocumented registry tricks Otherwise, Wow64 works well

12. Common Game Compat Issues WDDM / Desktop Windows Manager “Fake full-screen” performance problems The DWM API can help here DwmEnableComposition( DWM_EC_DISABLECOMPOSITION ); Assuming only DirectSound hardware buffers support surround sound formats Include multichannel SOFTWARE audio buffers in your fallback chain! Windows XP-era issues Heaps (reads after free), undocumented registry keys, broken DirectX version checks, obsolete API usage, etc. Microsoft Application Verifier will find most of these!

13. Removed Components After security review and app compat analysis DirectPlay Voice Direct3D Retained Mode DirectInput8’s ConfigureDevices UI DirectSound HARDWARE buffers Indeo codecs WINHLP32.EXE (. HLP files) IPX/SPX, NetBEUI

14. Windows Best Practices The Games for Windows Technical Requirements cover Windows XP and Windows Vista best practices Useful whether or not you carry the branding! Includes links to detailed samples and articles in the DirectX SDK Microsoft’s Application Verifier will find most of the “bad behavior” compatibility problems Important for developers and test to use it! Combined with proper use of the public Microsoft Symbol Server, an excellent way to find serious bugs

15. Windows Vista SP1 Lots of performance and usability fixes Gaming is mostly an issue of video driver performance, which has improved greatly over the past year Application compatibility fixes Mostly non-game products Roll-up of hot fixes to date, including: KB940105 - The “WDDM VA Space Fix” KB936710, 945149 – Multi-GPU fixes

16. WDDM VA: <= 256 MB VRAM XPDM WDDM 0 GB 2GB Code Private memory Aperture Code Private memory WDDM

17. WDDM VA: >256 MB VRAM XPDM WDDM 0 GB 2GB Code Private memory Aperture Code Private memory WDDM !!!

18. The WDDM VA Space Issue With KB940105, WDDM only uses process VA for lockable POOL_DEFAULT allocations Current video drivers needed in some cases for full effect of fix Note all WDDM VA is accounted for in your process working set See Gamefest 2007 talk for details “Why Your Windows Game Won't Run In 2,147,352,576 Bytes”

19. Direct3D 10.1 Minor update to Direct3D 10 Requires Windows Vista SP1 and 10.1 hardware Strict superset of Direct3D 10 All 10.1 devices must fully support 10 Direct3D 10 interfaces work identically on both 10 and 10.1 device Extends the 10.0 API with 3 new interfaces for 10.1 class hardware features These new interfaces cannot be created for 10 devices New HLSL profiles

20. Direct3D 10.1 Exposes new 10.1 class hardware features MSAA per-sample shaders MSAA depth read-back Independent blend modes per render target Cube map arrays Render to block-compressed (BC) formats If you don’t need these features, just use the Direct3D10 interfaces and 4.0 shader profiles Will work with 10 and 10.1 class hardware equally

21. Direct3D 10.1 Interfaces ID3D10Device1 Used to create new interfaces on 10.1 devices ID3D10BlendState1 D3D10_BLEND_DESC1 has full per-RT state Direct3D10 only let you set blend-enable and RT write mask per RT ID3D10ShaderResourceView1 D3D10_SHADER_RESOURCE_VIEW_DESC1 adds texture cube map array support All other new features are through HLSL 4.1 profiles New profiles: vs_4_1, gs_4_1, ps_4_1, fx_4_1 D3D10Compile * methods only support HLSL 4.0 Must use D3DX10Compile * methods for HLSL 4.1

22. HLSL 4.1 Shader Profiles TextureCubeArray New texture object for cube map arrays GetRenderTargetSampleCount GetRenderTargetSamplePosition New ps_4_1 statements for per RT state sample access Texture*.CalculateLevelOfDetail Texture*.CalculateLevelOfDetailUnclamped New ps_4_1 statements for per MSAA sample access Texture*.Gather Texture2DMS*.GetSamplePosition Per MSAA sample access methods for x_4_1 profiles

23. Using Direct3D 10.1 Requires a 10.1 capable video card Requires Windows Vista SP1 10.1 class hardware will work as 10 class hardware on Windows Vista without the service pack Use the current DirectX SDK November 2007 Tech Preview March 2008 is RTM D3DX10, HLSL10 compiler, SDKLayers, RefRast10, and DXUT support both 10 and 10.1

24. Using Direct3D 10.1 Three basic design choices: Only use Direct3D 10 Works on 10 and 10.1 class hardware Works on Windows Vista RTM or SP1 Only use Direct3D 10.1 Works only on 10.1 class hardware Works only on Windows Vista SP1 Support both Most code will be identical Requires some optional code paths for 10.1 features These D3DX10 helpers can simplify this implementation D3DX10CreateDevice D3DX10CreateDeviceAndSwapChain D3DX10GetFeatureLevel1

25. Mixing 10 and 10.1 #include “d3d10.h” #include “d3dx10.h” IDXGISwapChain *g_pSwapChain; ID3D10Device *g_pDevice; … DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_DESC sd; // Set to desired values … HRESULT res = D3D10CreateDeviceAndSwapChain( NULL, D3D10_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE, NULL, 0, D3D10_SDK_VERSION, &sd, &g_pSwapChain, &g_pDevice ); if ( FAILED(res) ) // Error Handling // Bind render target from swap chain // Set up viewport …

26. Mixing 10 and 10.1 #include “d3d10_1.h” #include “d3dx10.h” IDXGISwapChain *g_pSwapChain; ID3D10Device *g_pDevice; … DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_DESC sd; // Set to desired values … HRESULT res = D3DX10CreateDeviceAndSwapChain( NULL, D3D10_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE, NULL, 0, D3D10_SDK_VERSION, &sd, &g_pSwapChain, &g_pDevice ); if ( FAILED(res) ) // Error Handling // Bind render target from swap chain // Set up viewport …

27. Mixing 10 and 10.1 // Use g_pDevice in most places as a D3D10 device // In places where you need D3D10.1 interfaces ID3D10Device1 *pDevice1 = NULL; hr = D3DX10GetFeatureLevel1( g_pDevice, &pDevice1 ); if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) { // Use pDevice1 to perform D3D10.1 operations } else { // Otherwise only 10 interfaces are available }

28. Direct3D 10 Resources Getting started with Direct3D 10 Sponsored Session on Friday 2:30pm D3D10: Getting from 0 to 60 Hz Room 3016, Moscone West Hall SIGGRAPH 2007 Course #5 Introduction to Direct3D 10 Important performance guidance Gamefest 2007 talk “Windows to Reality: Getting the Most out of Direct3D 10 Graphics in Your Games”

29. Rating System Changes ESRB new content descriptors UI display change - “Online Rating Notice” “Mild” modified versions added (new GUIDs) If any “new” content descriptor GUIDs are populated in a GDF, then Windows Vista RTM shows it as “unrated” Reminder: “unrated” games are not blocked by default, parents can change this setting All existing ESRB ratings GDF data will continue to be displayed in SP1

30. Rating System Changes Support for Korean Game Ratings Board (GRB) system added GRB rating data in the GDF is ignored by Windows Vista RTM Existing installations won’t change ratings systems Windows Vista RTM Korean defaulted to ESRB Windows Vista SP1 Korean defaults to GRB If you have a GRB rating, populate it in your game’s GDF

31. DirectX SDK Tools Support Game Definition File Editor from DirectX SDK (November 2007) includes all of these SP1 changes “Mild Language” and “Mild Lyrics” are missing DirectX SDK (March 2008) will have them all GDF Trace is being updated for DirectX SDK (March 2008)

32. The 4-GB Limit Physical memory continues to grow 2 GB is common for laptops, but 4 GB is happening 4 GB is becoming common for desktops, 8 GB for workstations Adapter cards use the 3 to 4 GB memory range 32-bit versions of Windows support up to 4 GB RAM 32-bit OSes in practice can’t really even use 4 GB 3.25, 3.33, or 3.5 GB useable RAM common with 4 GB RAM installed Multiple video cards tie up more memory range 0 GB 3 GB 4 GB Adapters

33. The 4-GB Limit Older BIOS implementations were not as efficient in assigning adapter ranges Intel’s Physical Address Extension (PAE) gives the OS 36 bits of addressing instead of just 32 bits In practice most drivers die horribly in 36-bit mode, so it’s only an option for high-end servers Windows Vista SP1 System Control Panel changed to report “installed” RAM instead of “usable” RAM Limitation still there KB929605 explains the 4-GB issue in detail

34. Windows x64 (64-bit) x64 version of Windows XP Based on Windows 2003 Server SP1 codebase OEM only licensing Limited driver coverage (many are still “Beta”) 128 GB of RAM All editions of Windows Vista available in both x86 and x64 versions Retail license allows either Windows Vista Ultimate retail includes x64 media, otherwise use Alternative Media site Microsoft logo programs mandate support for x64 8 to 128+ GB RAM

35. Actually, It’s a 2-GB Limit Games can’t even use 4 GB of RAM A 32-bit application has 2 GB of virtual address space Some VA is tied up by other file mappings XPDM aperture / WDDM video mappings EXE / DLL code files Alignment and basing fragments the ranges Means only multiple applications and the OS can actually use more than 2 GB of physical memory 0 GB 2 GB 4 GB User memory Kernel memory

36. Breaking the 2-GB Barrier Large Address Aware (LAA) 32-bit Application Can extend your existing 32-bit application Some code and middleware pitfalls 3 GB of VA on Windows 32-bit Not really an option for consumer software due to special boot modes and stability impact 4 GB of VA on Windows 64-bit (x64) Works out of the box 64-bit (x64) Native Application Runs only on Windows 64-bit (x64) To support 32-bit means two versions of the game 8 TB of VA (with defined bits for future growth) Poses porting challenges Can’t use many deprecated technologies and APIs No inline assembly, can use intrinsics or MASM x64 All DLLs must be 64-bit native

37. Windows x64 Advantages Fully supports >= 4 GB of physical RAM No “missing memory” problem LAA 32-bit applications get 4GB of VA No strange boot modes or stability problems Full native support of both 32-bit and 64-bit applications 32-bit applications are not emulated Best development platform

38. Managing the Transition Development environment Tools Servers Content pipelines Short-term use of x64 Single 32-bit application Provides optional large memory usage for x64 customers up to 4 GB Encourages use of Windows x64 for high-end gamers LAA Ship both 32-bit and 64-bit Required in order to use more than 4 GB Eventually can transition to 64-bit only for high-end games Long-term use of x64

39. Call to Action Work well on Windows XP and Windows Vista UAC and x64 compatibility are the most critical Games for Windows technical requirements are the best guidelines available Use the Application Verifier That means developers, too, not just testers! Support Windows Vista x64 Windows XP x64 Edition is a “nice to have” Basic compatibility should be straight-forward Consider /LARGEADDRESSAWARE or a secondary 64-bit native version Review “Why Your Windows Game Won't Run In 2,147,352,576 Bytes” from Gamefest 2007

40. © 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary. http://www.xna.com