DirectX which version ?

Done a lot of programming over the last week and playing with HLSL. Ive had a few books on the subject for a while, but never really done too much on this side of things. It has been quite hard going at first trying to make sense of things by just looking at code and some sparse description on how it works.

However, it is all beginning make a lot of sense now, and having discover what more is available I am now really re-considering which version of DirectX I should really cater for. My original thinking was to use 9.0c as I had already developed some code for it, but it is rather old now to say the least. The original thinking had been to support some of the earlier versions of Windows, but as time progresses, I think that would perhaps now be a poor policy.

I have DX11 already on my 64bit Windows 7 and the SDK for DX10 so it wont be too much hardship to change header definitions and recompile for DX10, fixing stuff as occurs.

Having looked at DX12, I am not sure if I should go down that route so I am still undecided. Bearing in mind that most of the pretty stuff is done using the programmable pipline and HLSL I am not sure what benefits I would gain from it over DX11.

OpenGL support has also been at the back of mind too, but I think the learning curve for both might be a bit too steep for me. However keeping the engine open ended it may not be a too big problem to change the interfacing

By the way I am writing this while the closing ceremony for the 2012 Paralympics is just finishing. The whole event has been so inspiring and there have been times when I wish I was much younger and be in a position to do something.

Anyhow, I digress....

The Directx 11 SDK has just finished downloading so time to take a peek and see what is what.