Artem Kulakov: We are currently working with AMDs engineers to implement the following DX10.1 features:
? DX10.1 allows you to read back from a Multi-Sampled Anti-Aliased (MSAA) depth buffer, which means it is no longer necessary to render depth out separately. This means that the current Multiple Render Target (MRT) setup can be bypassed for DX10.1 capable HW, and therefore yielding a performance gain.
? DX10.1 introduced fixed sample patterns for MSAA modes, and also allows the Pixel Shader (PS) to output the MSAA Coverage Mask. This enables us to gain full MSAA Alpha Tested geometry, leading to higher visual quality.
? DX10.1 adds a new instruction called Gather, which can gather 4 texture samples at once, at a much lower cost than issuing 4 separate Sample instructions. Consequently we are able to optimize our shadow map technique, and even shoot for higher quality.
? The Gather instruction will also allow us to optimize our Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) algorithm - again producing a higher image quality