Frostbite Tech Director wants DX12 to be mandatory in 2016

[HEXUS]

Hopes gamers choose to go with the free upgrade from Win7/Win8 to Windows 10.

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[shaithis]

I wouldn't call it too aggressive but I would call it a tad optimistic (based on history).

They are talking about titles a year away. Surely adding DX12 optimisations could quite easily still be part of the engine work (which is surely a constant WIP).

Obviously you may not get every little performance-enhancing feature in there but some of the larger ones should still be easily doable......also as Windows 10 will be free for Windows 7 users, I don't think it would be a great leap to add Windows 10 as a minimum requirement for "holiday 2016" titles.

[DanceswithUnix]

Perhaps he should target Vulkan than, I presume that can run on Win 7 given it derives from Mantle.

[shaithis]

Perhaps he should target Vulkan than, I presume that can run on Win 7 given it derives from Mantle.

I doubt they will get a multi-million dollar payout to develop for Vulkan, like they did with Mantle....although you would think in these days of Windows, Mac, Linux, XB1 and PS4, people would be jumping on the OS-agnostic system!

[azrael-]

Honestly, for me to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 10 the latter has to become and behave a lot more like the former than is currently the case. Windows 10 is a small step up from Windows 8(.1) but there's still way too much focus on "touch" and "mobility" in desktop mode. Not to mention lots of the features from Windows XP (yes, XP) they cut when moving to Vista.

Although I'll probably upgrade my Windows 8 license to Windows 10, since, as I wrote, it's at least a small step up. I doubt I'll upgrade to Windows 10 for DX12 only, though. Unless it gathers a massive amount of momentum and I just can't *not* upgrade.

[GuidoLS]

The title is a bit misleading, and has lead to some really ugly comments on the same post made on Facebook.

Personally, I like the idea of Vulkan, and think that something that's truly cross platform would be the best thing to happen to PC gamers since the VooDoo2. But until somebody truly big comes along and starts pushing it, it's not going to be anything more than a far distant runner up. Everyone cheered and celebrated the demise of DX10/11 when GabeN announced SteamOS and ultimate support for OpenGL. Not sure about anyone else, but to me, it's been an extreme disappointment - just more lip service to the mass of followers who think the ground he walks on is hallowed (hint - it isn't.)

[Millennium]

Given some of the draw call overhead improvements DX12 is going to bring us (on newer software and games - boo!) I'd (add +adjective here) agree with him or her.

Sorry Hexus for all the off site links recently (t'internet...) here's some background: source

"468.7%" performance improvement per draw call. For what would amount to free (software increase).

[DavyJ]

I want Vulkan to be mandatory in 2016.