DirectX 12-What is it and what does it do?

[quina123]

Speaking of no difference than DirectX 11.0, what is the difference now between DirectX 12 on Windows 10, than DirectX 11? Is this only there for games made specifically for windows 10?

 

[lyssword]

There are no dx12 games for 1-2 years, mostly still in beta

 

[Noctifer616]

There are no dx12 games for 1-2 years, mostly still in beta

Fable Legends coming this year and Deus Ex MD coming early next year. Also, some titles are getting DX12 support like ARK: Survival Evolved.

 

[Azix]

There are no dx12 games for 1-2 years, mostly still in beta

several dx12 games come early next year. There are a couple known for this year I think.

 

[TheELF]

Speaking of no difference than DirectX 11.0, what is the difference now between DirectX 12 on Windows 10, than DirectX 11? Is this only there for games made specifically for windows 10?

Yew it will run only on windows 10.Although vulkan/mantle (same/simmilar to DX12) might be kept updated on other versioons of windows.
The main thing is that DX12 needs less driver overhead (the % of your CPU that is used to talk to your GPU) this means that you will get the same speed in games with less cpu usage(safes power for mobile or leaves free CPU so you can multitask more) OR if circumstances allow more speed out of your games with the same CPU GPU.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8388/intel-demonstrates-direct3d-12-performance-and-power-improvements

 

[ShintaiDK]

As long as there is a DX11 path it wont do much besides lowering CPU usage.

 

[NTMBK]

As long as there is a DX11 path it wont do much besides lowering CPU usage.

You're such a pessimist Shintai That depends entirely on how much effort the team decides to put into the DX12 port. Just having a DX11 path doesn't prevent their DX12 path from using all sorts of features- look at Civ 5, its DX9 and DX11 paths are very different and it makes good use of DX11.

 

[ShintaiDK]

You're such a pessimist Shintai That depends entirely on how much effort the team decides to put into the DX12 port. Just having a DX11 path doesn't prevent their DX12 path from using all sorts of features- look at Civ 5, its DX9 and DX11 paths are very different and it makes good use of DX11.

Feature wise DX11 and 12 is the same. That's the difference

 

[ThatBuzzkiller]

Feature wise DX11 and 12 is the same. That's the difference

Not true in the complete sense ...

 

[Headfoot]

Google it

 

[Stuka87]

There are no dx12 games for 1-2 years, mostly still in beta

Wish people would stop spreading this false information. MS has announced several games that will ship this year with DX12, and a whole bunch coming Q1 of 2016. Including existing games that are getting added on support.

 

[Dribble]

You could go back and look at exactly the same threads for DX9, or DX10. Lots of hype about how it would change the world and be much more efficient. Everyone promising games that use it. A year or two down the line there weren't any *proper* DX10 games, in that they were basically identical to DX9 with a DX10 effect or two that made some minor improvement to lighting if you looked closely enough, but also had a huge performance hit.

DX10 took off properly after that and you could forget about using the effects unless you had a very fast card (i.e. one not available when DX10 came out).

I expect the same for DX12.

 

[Headfoot]

DX12 transition is not the same as the DX10 transition or even the DX11 transition at all.

Critically, DX9->DX10 was PC only at the time while PC was still making its "comeback." DX10->DX11 was also PC only. And I don't know about you but DX11 games look a lot better than DX10 games did, the shadowing and ambient occlusion techniques we got in DX11 were pretty awesome and easy to spot if you have the grunt. Tessellation is pretty sweet too when used properly.

DX11->DX12 unifies API design and overhead levels to that of the extremely large and financially relevant console market. Starting from a modern (Xbone/PS4) console optimized code base it should take LESS time to get a release ready PC version compared to DX11. DX12 leverages the economic market power of consoles in a way no other DX ever has.

The situation just isn't the same. What will be similar is that it wont be adopted overnight, because nothing of this magnitude happens overnight. But the adoption curve will be faster on DX12 than on previous versions IMO

 

[NTMBK]

Feature wise DX11 and 12 is the same. That's the difference

Does 11.3 backport all features? It seems to get the 12_1 features (conservative rasterization, typed UAVs, OIT), but it's not added things like async compute shaders. Though I could be wrong.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Does 11.3 backport all features? It seems to get the 12_1 features (conservative rasterization, typed UAVs, OIT), but it's not added things like async compute shaders. Though I could be wrong.

Asynchronous Compute and ExecuteIndirect is not supported by 11.3. Everything else is. But I wouldn't call those for features as such. Rather API performance benefits.

 

[Sabrewings]

I expect the same for DX12.

You will be proven incorrect. DX12 games built from the ground up are already in the pipeline. DX12 is such a huge rethink of DX that it should be called something different entirely. DX9, 10, 11, and all those that preceded simply built on the previous versions. DX12 is a complete redesign and direction change from a thick abstraction layer to closer to the metal API.

There will be good things and bad things to be had with DX12. You can get more performance from existing hardware than you could with DX11. Developers also have more control over the hardware due to not having to go through a thick API and heavy drivers to do what they want. On the downside, a lot of the work AMD and Nvidia did for devs in optimization and compatibility will now be on the devs themselves. The onus for performance and stability is now squarely on the devs to assure across various hardware uarch. There isn't much ability for Nvidia or AMD to correct things due to limited driver interaction. If they want something fixed, they have to work with the devs to implement it in engine code.

Here's a good article on developing for DX12 using a game that will benefit hugely from it, Star Citizen:

http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/2114-chris-roberts-star-citizen-on-dx12-vulkan-and-tech

 

[Spjut]

You could go back and look at exactly the same threads for DX9, or DX10. Lots of hype about how it would change the world and be much more efficient. Everyone promising games that use it. A year or two down the line there weren't any *proper* DX10 games, in that they were basically identical to DX9 with a DX10 effect or two that made some minor improvement to lighting if you looked closely enough, but also had a huge performance hit.

DX10 took off properly after that and you could forget about using the effects unless you had a very fast card (i.e. one not available when DX10 came out).

I expect the same for DX12.

There are still a few examples of DX10 "done right". Far Cry 2 was released in 2008 and had better performance in DX10 than DX9
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2008/12/01/farcry_2_dx9_vs_dx10_performance/3#.Vgv6yrmhcuc

It's true about faster cards being required to use all new fancy effects, but older cards could still play modern DX10/11 games for a long time. The 8800GT is still the minimum requirement for Battlefield 4 (released seven years after the 8800 series).

 

[dogen1]

Asynchronous Compute and ExecuteIndirect is not supported by 11.3. Everything else is. But I wouldn't call those for features as such. Rather API performance benefits.

ExecuteIndirect isn't a feature?

 

[MajinCry]

Bah. Considering that the ENB Series wrapper for Bethesda's games work with Direct3D 9, there's really not much that can be brought to the graphical feast, nay?

Sure, it may not bring new graphical features, but the performance ones? Hoo-ee. If you ask me, just having draw calls become a non issue is more than worthy of a new API. The more games that use it, the better.

What I want to know, is whether nor not a Direct3D 9 -> Direct3d 12 wrapper would significantly boost performance? Imagine playing Oblivion or Morrowind, jacked up to eleven (or, uh, twelve, in this case), without having to suffer a slideshow?

It'd be magic, I tell ya.

 

[ShintaiDK]

ExecuteIndirect isn't a feature?

It is. But its purpose is performance relation, like reducing CPU load.

 

[zlatan]

ExecuteIndirect isn't a feature?

Yes it is. A really big feature. It can be used in D3D11 with AGS v3.0. AMD call this Multi Draw Indirect. To bad it's only works with GCN.:|

 

[dogen1]

Yes it is. A really big feature. It can be used in D3D11 with [URL=" v3.0[/URL]. AMD call this Multi Draw Indirect. To bad it's only works with GCN.:|

Yeah. I was asking what he meant by that.

 

[ThatBuzzkiller]

Yes it is. A really big feature. It can be used in D3D11 with AGS v3.0. AMD call this Multi Draw Indirect. To bad it's only works with GCN.:|

Multi Draw Indirect is a subset of ExecuteIndirect ...

 

[Sabrewings]

What I want to know, is whether nor not a Direct3D 9 -> Direct3d 12 wrapper would significantly boost performance? Imagine playing Oblivion or Morrowind, jacked up to eleven (or, uh, twelve, in this case), without having to suffer a slideshow?

It'd be magic, I tell ya.

It would have to be magic, otherwise you won't see much. Look at the article I linked above where Gamernexus interviews Chris Roberts. He talks about how you can easily port DX11 renderer to DX12, but it won't net you much gains. You have to rethink how you go about your workloads at the foundational level to see significant gains.

 

[LTC8K6]

There are no dx12 games for 1-2 years, mostly still in beta

I would say something like, while some DX12 games will be out soon, DX12 is still being ironed out. It's probably best to just wait until the dust settles with DX12, probably next year, before deciding on a new video card.