Quote Originally Posted by tajoh111 View Post
I think the ideal for developers is Directx 11.1 to be dead and developers have to only deal with a low level API and have to program only for it. As it is now, developers have to code for both directx 11.1(this they have to do) and a mantle version. Considering that Dice has been working on mantle before BF4 release till now and even now it is still very beta, there seems to be considerable work done for each game that uses it. No one wants to work for free, particularly when the only hardware that supports it makes up the minority share compared to Nvidia based cards + pre GCN hardware.

Some developers were asking for it, but not all. And even if they wanted it, it doesn't mean they will work for nothing.
Quote Originally Posted by tajoh111 View Post
If Unreal was going to make something, i think they would go out on to their own and make their own low level API. Unreal is a market leader when it comes to these things and not a follower. And if unreal made one, I am not sure if it would be open, but with the Mantle threat, I bet nvidia would be willing to open up its close to 5 billion dollar cash reserves and try to hammer out a deal.
You really are a wet blanket aren't you :|

Mantle is still technically beta, and a work in progress. You can't really expect it to be easy-peasy and polished right away particularly when compared to something like DirectX that has been around for years and on its 11th version. I think everyone who is actually involved in actually working with it were and are fully aware there will be more work to start off with and some bumps along the way. Considerable work, the first couple go arounds. DirectX was a lot of work in the beginning too. That doesn't mean it is a ton of extra work for everything forever.

I highly doubt developers would ask for a new API and at the same time demand that they get paid extra to use the API they requested. That's a little ridiculous.

Unreal has always made use of an existing API. They've been using DirectX for all their game engines so far after all. Aside from Unreal typically being an nvidia group, there is nothing stopping Unreal from making a Mantle-based game engine.