What is the difference between DX9 and DX11 version?

[Zander]

The only difference I can tell is DX11 uses FXAA instead? Is there any improved graphics or new features? I would prefer to use DX9 instead so I can use SGSSAA but if there is any improvements in DX11 then maybe I should sacrifice a clean image for it?

[The Line Of Epic Heroes]

In DX11 you can use Color grading and Ambient Occlusion.

[Zander]

Thanks

[JewelryStar]

/txhuy88: Even with the same graphic setting, Dx11 give the game better graphic quality. I confirmed.

[Zander]

I had made 2 screenshots and compared them side by side, and as much as I like ambient occlusion, I simply can not pass up the incredible sharpness from sparse grid super sampling for a couple extra shadows in a game which looks already very dated regardless

In any case I think its pretty incredible that the devs are still updating and making content for such an old classic game and improving the graphics (even though FXAA is a huge step down from MSAA)

[The Exile]

DX9 version allows you to use your graphics card driver options and make massive changes to the visual presentation that you can't do with DX11 using the same driver software.

Example, with DX 9, an AMD graphics card, and AMD's Radeon Software you are able to override the game's AA, which is FXAA, method and use MSAA, Adaptive MSAA, SSAA/FSAA, and MLAA. You can force Anisotropic Filtering (AF) to x16. You can adjust the Texture Filtering quality. You can adjust Tessellation, etc.

Nvidia has similar software that can tie into DX9 titles and make those same adjustments. DX11 won't allow you to do that.

To make changes with other APIs you would probably want to use something like reShade at the cost of input latency, to achieve similar changes. Certain features in the modern AMD and Nvidia driver set are limited by the API being used by the application. Most of the stuff in modern drivers is limited to the DX9 API.

This stuff is great especially if you are retro gaming and want to improve the visuals of the game with minimal loss in performance.

Be mindful that SSAA / FSAA are very taxing as you essentially are trying to brute force the edging problem by increasing resolution massively and then downsampling back to the output resolution of the monitor. This requires large amounts of VRAM usually. In a game like Titan Quest... You can probably max out all settings, and use SSAA, aka 8x samples, with a mere 3 GB of VRAM and still have VRAM left to spare.

There are certain lighting and shadow features that DX9 does not support that DX11 does. This leads to DX11 looking significantly better, most of the time. Also, you will probably get less stuttering in intense moments on DX11 due to improvements in how the API handles certain calls, etc.

All in all, it's up to you what you decide you want to do and what API is best for you to mess with to achieve the results you want to achieve, on the hardware you are using. I've been playing with DX9 to use the driver SSAA. I am not a fan of FXAA, it blurs the image in ugly ways for me, at least on my old screen, and I am ok with the reduce lighting quality for the more granular control over the output image and using alternative AA.