DirectX 12 Ultimate is an Attempt To 'Future-Proof' Graphics Hardware (pcgamer.com) 56
A new DirectX badge is going to start showing up on graphics hardware: It's called DirectX 12 Ultimate, and it denotes support for "ALL next generation graphics hardware features," Microsoft announced today. From a report: DirectX is a collection of application programming languages (APIs) that developers use to communicate with your hardware. You can think of it like a conduit between software (especially games) and hardware. Up until now, DX12 was the latest version, supported in Windows 10 (and also in Windows 7 for some games). Now that distinction belongs to DX12 Ultimate. It's not an overhaul of the API, but a culmination of the latest technologies bundled into one. This notably includes DirectX Raytracing (DXR), variable rate shading (VRS), mesh shaders, and sampler feedback.
One of the reasons Microsoft is doing this is to unify experiences across the PC and its upcoming Xbox Series X, which will launch November 26, 2020 (Thanksgiving Day). "These features represent many years of innovation from Microsoft and our partners in the hardware industry. DX12 Ultimate brings them all together in one common bundle, providing developers with a single key to unlock next generation graphics on PC and Xbox Series X," Microsoft explains. The main benefit for gamers is knowing, at a glance, if the graphics card they are about to buy supports all the latest features. Spotting the DX12 Ultimate badge is the key, and I suspect hardware makers will be quick to promote it. Related to that, Microsoft is pitching this as a way of ensuring "future-proof" feature support. There's no such thing as future proofing, of course, but DX12 Ultimate should remain relevant for at least the next couple of years.
One of the reasons Microsoft is doing this is to unify experiences across the PC and its upcoming Xbox Series X, which will launch November 26, 2020 (Thanksgiving Day). "These features represent many years of innovation from Microsoft and our partners in the hardware industry. DX12 Ultimate brings them all together in one common bundle, providing developers with a single key to unlock next generation graphics on PC and Xbox Series X," Microsoft explains. The main benefit for gamers is knowing, at a glance, if the graphics card they are about to buy supports all the latest features. Spotting the DX12 Ultimate badge is the key, and I suspect hardware makers will be quick to promote it. Related to that, Microsoft is pitching this as a way of ensuring "future-proof" feature support. There's no such thing as future proofing, of course, but DX12 Ultimate should remain relevant for at least the next couple of years.
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Write once, run everywhere? (Score:3)
If DirectX is the same as OpenGL, and new commands are rolled out to PC and XBox at the same time... is there any difference left?
Re:Write once, run everywhere? (Score:4, Insightful)
Currently there is Zero reason anyone should be using DX12.. other than they love vendor lock in.
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Currently there is Zero reason anyone should be using DX12.. other than they love vendor lock in.
That lovely vendor lock-in that lets your development automatically access a market of 50million additional devices (xbox)? Based on available customer figures alone it would seem there's zero reason to develop in Vulcan.
It's like saying you shouldn't develop for iOS because of vendor locking. Remember developers don't develop for shits and giggles. They develop for customers, and there's a reason why basically every game on the market is DirectX with Vulcan as an optional extra.
Re: Write once, run everywhere? (Score:1)
It's like saying you shouldn't develop for iOS because of vendor locking
It's vendor lock-in and if utilizing DirectX was the only way to develop for that [Walmart-esque operating system known as Windows] - with which I'm unfortunately all too familiar - you might have a valid point... but as Vulkan supports Windows, it isn't and you don't.
Re: Write once, run everywhere? (Score:1)
Re:Write once, run everywhere? (Score:4, Informative)
Vulkan is functionally equivalent to D3D12. OpenGL is not.
Re: Write once, run everywhere? (Score:1)
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> Vulkan just a subset of OpenGL streamlined/optimized for mobile and gaming
No. You are thinking of OpenGL ES -- the ES stands for Embedded Systems.
At the time OEM phones weren't going to use M$'s proprietary Direct3D so that left OpenGL as the only cross-platform API to consider. Unfortunately standard OpenGL is bloated so they came up with a modern, slim version and called that OpenGL ES.
> which would be why it was called "OpenGL ES" until it was renamed?
Vulkan came from AMD's Mantle [wikipedia.org] ; Vulkan has N
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Yes, the difference is that Microsoft owns one of them outright and is intent on making the others irrelevant.
OpenGL (Score:1)
"There's no such thing as future proofing, of course"
OpenGL works very well towards doing this by allowing extensions that are non-standard, thus ensuring that you can (with some code and enough GPU power) support the latest graphical hoo-hahs.
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OpenGL works very well towards doing this by allowing extensions that are non-standard
I'd ask what fresh hell is this, except it really sounds like the same old, stale DLL and driver hell. I remember fondly the time wasted searching for obscure drivers or combinations thereof that would somehow coax some games to run on my vanilla graphics card. Did I say fondly? I meant with loathing.
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It's almost as if you know nothing about the OpenGL extension mechanism.
Levels of Indirection (Score:1)
A well-known quote on this topic:
"All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection"
- David Wheeler
And the corollary:
"...except for the problem of too many layers of indirection."
- Kevin Henney
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Microsoft does it right (Score:2)
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Yeah, nobody cares. (Score:1)
What matters is if it does Vulcan.
Because if you want to develop without MS lock-in, that's what it's gonna be.
Sorry, MS, you're not monopoly anymore. Mo hard feelings.
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And even on Windows, I think there's still a majority of gamers using Windows 7, thus unable to have DX12.
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I could be behind the times, but that was my understanding not too long ago. No one really likes Windows 10, not even gamers.
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A lot don't but there isn't much choice these days.
also FWIW Steam says 80.5% on Win10 and 13% on Win7. I'd bet GOG etc have a higher percentage on Win7.
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Ha, I'm more leaning towards GoG. And since they have older games that's where I hear the "i upgraded and now my games don't work!" complaints. Whereas Steam feels oriented to brand new games much more often.
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I could be behind the times, but that was my understanding not too long ago. No one really likes Windows 10, not even gamers.
No, that was Windows 8.
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I'm using 8.1 :-) 8.0 was a bit annoying but it's ok now.
(I may upgrade since my mom needs to upgrade away from Windows 7, and I need the same OS version so I can help her.)
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And even on Windows, I think there's still a majority of gamers using Windows 7, thus unable to have DX12.
Why would a majority of gamers stick to a system that is slower, doesn't support features of their gaming hardware, and limits their access to games by locking out a few stores which are Windows 10 only?
Your "majority" is wishful thinking. In fact back when people were shitting on Windows 8 and 10 for it's flaky and generally shitty experience it was the gamers that were happily migrating to Windows 10.
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Then this is news to me from last I checked. I remember games bitching aobut W10, lots of concern about games that stopped working, and so forth. W7 is not slower, and the few new features in DX12 weren't enough to entice people to uproot and switch to a new OS (I hate to say "upgrade" in this context). Are there a significant number of important games that are W10 only?
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Are there a significant number of important games that are W10 only?
Indirectly, perhaps. I recently discovered that if you want to use any recent Intel chipsets you have to use W10 because there are no drivers for W7.
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And even on Windows, I think there's still a majority of gamers using Windows 7, thus unable to have DX12.
You "think"?
If only there was some way for you to see up-to-date statistics, like Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
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Because if you want to develop without MS lock-in, that's what it's gonna be.
Yeah but why would you want to?
Sorry, MS, you're not monopoly anymore. Mo hard feelings.
Aren't they? DirectX provides automatic support for the PC and Xbox. Vulcan provides support for ... PC. Which one would you code in if you were a game studio attempting to maximise your audience. If you said Vulcan I hope you don't make any strategic decisions at your work.
There's a reason basically every major game is written in DirectX and the odd one has Vulcan support bolted on the back.
Re:Yeah, nobody cares. (Score:5, Insightful)
>> Because if you want to develop without MS lock-in, that's what it's gonna be.
> Yeah but why would you want to?
Found the amateur programmer who never actually ported games to other platforms and compilers to:
a) find bugs, and
b) take advantage of new markets and platforms.
Tell me, how is that DX working out for you on PS5 or Switch? Oh wait, it's not available.
Stop drinking the M$ Kool-Aid (TM).
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OpenGL makes zero sense in 2020.
Vulkan lets you target PC, Mac, and Linux. W.R.T. console they have always used a proprietary graphics API. D3D is no help there unless you are targeting XBone.
M$'s D3D, like most things they have done, was NIH -- they bought it off another company (RenderMorphics) and renamed it. It was shit for the first few versions because instead of using an _existing_ API like OpenGL they want to push their own proprietary crap.
D3D survived because it was literally shoved down develop
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OpenGL makes zero sense in 2020.
I agree on your other statements but not this one. OpenGL is still relevant in 2020. It's the de facto standard, all basic stuff just works and it's pretty much cross and flexible about your video card and version. Of course OpenGL has versions and issues too, but a lot is gracefully backward compatible. It just has less features than DirectX and possibly a performance penalty.
For games and applications that are less demanding than the latest 3D shooter, it's great. Think 2D and 2.5D games, webGL, applicati
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> It just has less features than DirectX and possibly a performance penalty.
OpenGL had HUGE performance issues. That's why things like AZDO [gdcvault.com] (Approach Zero Driver Overhead) started becoming popular. Ultimately the OpenGL API and Driver are "unfixable" W.R.T. performance due to legacy design -- hence why you have modern API's like Vulkan that focus on minimizing draw calls AND driver overhead.
> Think 2D and 2.5D games, webGL
My last day job was WebGL, which is just OpenGL ES re-branded, so I'm quite fam
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Tell me, how is that DX working out for you on PS5 or Switch?
Tell me what colour jacket your strawman is wearing. You're the only one who mentioned PS5 or Switch. Finding bugs in code ported from Windows to Xbox which is written in DirectX is absolutely trivial compared to doing a PS4 of Switch port.
Your option isn't to abandon DirectX completely. It's only to abandon 50 million xbox customers. You can either code for DirectX + PS4 + Switch, Or you can code for PC + xbox + PS4 + Switch, the latter requiring far more effort and cost for the same result.
But sure I'm ju
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translation (Score:2)
We created a new lock-in feature for Xbox and will also lock-in to windows, so please, game developers, ignore that vulkan standard that runs everywhere, use our "in house vulkan like API" that have a beautiful Microsoftâ... nothing else... totally equal while being different enough to lock you in to our platforms! We love your money!
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Summary is wrong (big surprise) (Score:1)
>Up until now, DX12 was the latest version, supported in Windows 10 (and also in Windows 7 for some games)
No, it's Windows10 only.
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Microsoft says otherwise:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com... [microsoft.com]
From past history (Score:2)
looking back (Score:1)
I will say it again (Score:1)
DX12 vs Vulkan: any advantages? (Score:3)
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Well, using DirectX gets you a framework for your entire application from input, voice, networ
They couldn't future-proof audio... (Score:2)
If they can't even make an audio player and audio files that are future proof, how are we supposed to believe they can do this with graphics?