DiRT 2 delayed on PC to take advantage of DirectX 11

Codemasters has decided to delay Colin McRae DiRT 2 for PC in order to take advantage of DirectX 11 technologies.

DiRT 2's PC release is to take advantage of DirectX 11's multi-threading, hardware tessellation and Shader Model 5.0 - technology that's to reach home computers by the end of October. This means that the game will now be scheduled for release this December, in order to take advantage of the new technology.

"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 of 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 Engine will raise the technical bar considerably in the racing genre."

Codemasters hopes to improve the appearance of water and other surfaces, crowd animation, and enhance depth of field, ambient occlusion and shadows with AMD's DirectX 11 tech.

Watch Colin McRae: DiRT 2 gameplay footage after this link.

"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 of 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."

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will release for PC's this December, with the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP games coming in September.