While a lot of us are criticizing DirectX for what it currently is, we have to admit that Microsoft’s API did benefit the PC platform in its early stages (when every manufacturer was introducing its ‘proper’ API that drove developers nuts). And while both DX11.1 and DX11.2 are not groundbreaking, Microsoft revealed that it will unveil the next iteration of this API at this year’s GDC.
According to Microsoft’s blog, DirectX 12 will be unveiled on March 20th at 10:00AM. Although MS did not reveal any further details about it, we hope to see a new trailer for it.
The interesting thing is that both AMD’s and Nvidia’s logos are placed under the DX12 announcement, meaning that both of these companies will strongly support Microsoft in this new step.
Our guess is that this new DX will give developers low-level access, something that was hinted by Microsoft a while back.
Now what will this mean for Mantle? Will it perish? Will DX12 be the ‘next’ multi-vendor Mantle? And will it be able to offer the same performance boost with AMD’s API? Also, will this new API be exclusive to a particular OS?
Let’s hope that Microsoft will answer those questions!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Looking forward to it . Hopefully their next OS won’t be crap like 8 .
aMEN bRO…
+1 mate 🙂
oh cmon, DX12 already? we didn’t even fully utilize DX11 yet
Then it’s time to utilize DX 11 , which is good news . Devs are mostly one step behind . How many DX 11 exclusives are out there .?
When they released DX 11 , companies slowly started to make use of DX 10 then made it exclusive and started to ditch DX9 when they released 10.1 .
i remember DX10 was killed off(maybe a year and a half since its release) in favor of DX11 the same could happen for DX12
99% games still run on Dx 10 video cards .
Because they still support DirectX 9.
DX12 is a response to Mantle, so yes, is needed. DX11 is to much of a bloatware.
DX12 is a response to OpenGL’s increasing importance in OS’s that aren’t made by Microsoft.
Do you really think Microsoft invented an entirely new DirectX in less than six months? Nah. AMD knew they were working on it and rushed to get some early adopters to buy their cards by selling them with an “exclusive” API that was going to light the world on fire.
Microsoft was (or is?) planning to put out a lot info on the new DirectX in time for the new Windows coming out next year, but then OpenGL suddenly starts looking mighty tempting as an API because developing for it allows you to crossport to a LOT of OS’s, not JUST Microsoft ones. Then Xbox One starts off especially slow, Windows 8 fails to sell Windows apps as a thing, RT and Surface crater, and Android explodes with iOS devices still not that far behind. Pepper with SteamOS buzz.
Microsoft had to release a new DirectX or risk letting developers just meander off to OpenGL where there’s next to no hindrance to making your game work across a LOT of OS’s, freeing developers to support OSX and Linux in a way never really convenient before.
That’s what lit a fire under Microsoft’s butt. The threat to DirectX is a threat to Windows dominance of PC gaming. With the PC gamers, goes the PC enthusiast goes the PC user.
A limited API built for a tiny subset (GCN owners) of a small subset (upgraded PC’s with discrete cards) of a small group of gamers is not going to make Microsoft move. But a groundswell of support for an API that hadn’t seen much interest in a decade?
Oh yeah. That’s gonna wake Microsoft up. This is like IE6 vs Firefox all over again. Look how that ended. Microsoft woke up too late, tried to throw money at making the problem go away, got slapped down by the EU, and wound up ceding much of the internet to Google.
Having seen how this game played out before when a clever upstart with a lot of consumer good will behind them took Linux and made it into something special, I should think Microsoft would be running scared right about now because as much good will as Google had, Steam has more.
OpenGL will be big thanks to Steam OS and Steam Machines, almost no one used it in the PC space.
Yes, OpenGL is another reason as well, but it’s not the only one. I’m not saying M$ didn’t work on it for quite some time, just like AMD is working for 2 years now on Mantle, but we’ll have to wait and see for the presentation in order to have clearer picture of what’s going on.
The sad part, if the current hardware isn’t compatible with those low level optimizations, may not matter much, as devs would focus on console more… again, just like previous gen. At least AMD has a closer relation ship with some of them and can influence in the implementation of Mantle – same nvidia with DX.
We’ll see, the future’s bright at the moment, it could turn into something rather good. 🙂
I 1+ u only for this big post
And we have to remeber of Next-Gen PS4 & XBO are AMD and ready for DX12 already 🙂 so the GCN architecture is DX12 READY 🙂 and will be Patch Win8.2 with DX12 API, and maby for a year or 2 we see some games utilising this API, but this is only speculations
i hope DX12 won’t need a DX12 card, i wont buy a new card for it, just work with all DX11 cards already
dx12 will be exclusive for gtx 800 series but hope we see better performance with dx12
Get an AMD card and have the best of both worlds.
drop the Os exlusivity nonsense, go low level
I hate Microsoft now….they’ve just become greedy and no care for their customers!
Screw this…I want OpenGL to become more popular!