Wolfenstein II the New Colossus will support DX12 and Vulkan

[Carfax83]

This was brushed over by the Vega fiasco, but it appears that in addition to supporting Vega's rapid packed math (along with asynchronous compute), Wolfenstein II the New Colossus will support both DX12 and Vulkan. This sort of implies that Wolfenstein II is guaranteed to support Vulkan right at launch, at the very least. Unless they plan on supporting OpenGL 4.5 again, which makes no sense.

I believe this game will really be the tipping point between the old and the new generation of PC gaming. It's the perfect showcase for AMD and NVidia to demonstrate their mastery (or lack thereof) over the low level APIs, and it will likely firmly place id Software back at the forefront of cutting edge technology in PC games along with the other big dogs.

The benchmarking should be very interesting to say the least, and will play a major role in the mindshare war between DX12 and Vulkan. If I'm not mistaken, Vulkan still doesn't support asynchronous compute on NVidia GPUs, although DX12 does. Vulkan doesn't support multi GPU yet either, though DX12 does.

Discussion continued here:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/various-wolfenstein-iis-benchmarks.2524410/unread

AT Moderator ElFenix

 

[ThatBuzzkiller]

Not sure if the picture in question should be interpreted as DX12 AND Vulkan or DX12 OR Vulkan ...

If Wolfenstein 2 does support DX12 it would be awesome of AMD to show case some performance gains using underestimate conservative rasterization (via D3D12 conservative rasterization tier 3) for occlusion culling ...

 

[caswow]

far cry 5 will support this too.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Isn't Wolfenstein II using the Doom engine? I would love to see the kind of performance we got out of Doom on it.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

If it's similar to doom I hope they add an optional fps limiter this time.

 

[Yakk]

I believe many, or all, of the considerable optimizations being done for Quake Champions are being integrated into their games engine on top of the optimizations for DOOM.

 

[Carfax83]

System requirements for Wolfenstein II The New Colossus, finally released. Looks like the game will be quite intensive, as the requirements are much higher than they were for Doom. So for those thinking they were going to see "Doom like" performance in this game due to it being on the same engine and Vulkan API, are probably going to be in for a rude awakening.

I already have the game preordered, and I'm eagerly awaiting its release. The benchmarks for this game are going to be SUPER interesting to say the least, though it being a AMD sponsored game means that NVidia won't have launch day drivers ready on the day it releases.

I'm expecting it to run better on AMD hardware when it launches, though we'll see for how long.

Minimum (720p 60 FPS at low settings)

• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770/AMD FX-8350 or better
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 770 4GB/AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB or better
• RAM: 8 GB
• OS: Win7, 8.1, or 10 (64-Bit versions)
• Storage: 55GB
• Additional Requirements: Steam account and broadband internet connection for activation and installation
  AMD GPU drivers no longer support Windows 8.1

Recommended (1080p 60 FPS at high settings)

• CPU: Intel Core i7-4770/AMD FX-9370 or better
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB/AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB or better
• RAM: 16 GB
• OS: Win7, 8.1, or 10 64-Bit
• Storage: 55GB
• Additional Requirements: Steam account and broadband internet connection for activation and installation
  AMD GPU drivers no longer support Windows 8.1

PC ADVANCED SETTINGS AND FEATURES:

Uncapped Framerate
We at MachineGames are huge PC players, and all of id Software’s games have very strong PC DNA. So it’s important for us to make sure the PC version of the game is as solid as any console version. That’s why we built the game on idTech 6, which also allows for uncapped framerate – one of the features we’re most excited about.

Aspect Ratios
With such a wide range of tastes in aspect ratios among PC gamers, it was important for us to ensure compatibility with as many as possible. Here are a few of the big ones, but it’s by no means all of them.

• 4:3
• 16:9
• 16:10
• 21:9 (ultra widescreen)

Resolution
Supports 4K resolution

Field of View Slider
70 FOV to 120 FOV

Advanced Visual Settings

• Lights
• Shadows
• Directional Occlusion
• Reflections
• Decals
• Motion Blur
• Image Streaming
• Volumetric Quality
• Decal Filtering
• Deferred Rendering
• Chromatic Aberration
• Depth of Field
• Resolution Scaling

Vulkan
When we started development of Wolfenstein II, the choice of graphics API for PC was a simple one. DOOM had already set the stage for what could be done with Vulkan and we wanted to take it to the next level.

Using Vulkan when developing has allowed us to utilize the power of AMD's VEGA graphics chips in ways that were not possible before, giving us fine grained control over the performance and feature set of the GPU without having to sacrifice artistic intent. Combined with the flexibility of AMD's hardware, Vulkan gives us the artistic freedom to deliver Wolfenstein without compromise.

Controls

• Full keyboard and mouse rebinding options
• Separate controller and mouse/keyboard sensitivity settings

Anti-Aliasing Options
We have a range of anti-aliasing options including, but not limited to:

• TAA
• FXAA
• SMAA
• TSSAA

Colorblind Modes In a first-person shooter where every objective marker and crosshair placement is crucial, colorblind modes are helpful for many gamers. Here are the three modes we included:

• Protanopia
• Deuteranopia
• Tritanopia

 

[richaron]

The Vulkan multi-gpu myth seems to be a hard one to squash. From what I've seen Valkan has far better support than DX12 (more platforms). Perhaps someone can clear up the confusion?

Back on point though, I'm also very interested in seeing benchmarks. Assuming it's done right it could give plenty of insight into performance in future engines (or lack thereof); especially with Vega.

 

[nurturedhate]

Those minimum requirements are rather strange looking at CPU and GPU.

 

[tviceman]

Those minimum requirements are rather strange looking at CPU and GPU.

Indicative that it will indeed run better on AMD.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Indicative that it will indeed run better on AMD.

The fact that it's AMD sponsored and the devs are gushing about Vega makes me think that it'll be a showcase title for AMD GPUs.

 

[tviceman]

The fact that it's AMD sponsored and the devs are gushing about Vega makes me think that it'll be a showcase title for AMD GPUs.

We'll see. If it is, it certainly will not be the norm. AMD cannot afford to pay many devs the amount of money they probably paid to get this kind of promotion and gpu-centric optimization.

 

[Carfax83]

The Vulkan multi-gpu myth seems to be a hard one to squash. From what I've seen Valkan has far better support than DX12 (more platforms). Perhaps someone can clear up the confusion?

Vulkan isn't scheduled to get multi-GPU support until version 1.1. And Vulkan being supported on more platforms is about the only thing you could say as far as having better support than DX12 is concerned.

 

[Yakk]

We'll see. If it is, it certainly will not be the norm. AMD cannot afford to pay many devs the amount of money they probably paid to get this kind of promotion and gpu-centric optimization.

Well, Bethesda partnered with AMD for optimizations. Probably helps especially on consoles, and PC games.

Aside from that, AMD can work with all Devs for Xbox games, and by extension PC games.

 

[tviceman]

Well, Bethesda partnered with AMD for optimizations. Probably helps especially on consoles, and PC games.

Aside from that, AMD can work with all Devs for Xbox games, and by extension PC games.

The console advantage is already baked in, hence the reason why we saw GCN age much better vs. Kepler and gain some ground on Maxwell. You aren't seeing that kind of movement with current gen GCN vs. Pascal. The RX 480 closed the gap with the GTX 1060 by about 5% over the course of a year, and it's since leveled off. Vega is never going to register much more than a spec of dirt on the share of gaming computers so Vega specific optimizations will be even more rare than Nvidia's GPU-physx.

The PC gaming market is 70% Nvidia GPUs, and it is without a doubt that every single developers will make sure their game runs as good as it can on Nvidia, even if they're there are a few devs here and there paid to give AMD initial priority.

 

[TheELF]

The PC gaming market is 70% Nvidia GPUs, and it is without a doubt that every single developers will make sure their game runs as good as it can on Nvidia, even if they're there are a few devs here and there paid to give AMD initial priority.

The PC gaming market is 100% x86/x64 and the devs don't really care how their games will run on that...it's one quick re compile for windows platform and that's it.
Lukily nvidia bends over backwards in making drivers that get you all they can.

 

[PhonakV30]

The console advantage is already baked in, hence the reason why we saw GCN age much better vs. Kepler and gain some ground on Maxwell. You aren't seeing that kind of movement with current gen GCN vs. Pascal. The RX 480 closed the gap with the GTX 1060 by about 5% over the course of a year, and it's since leveled off. Vega is never going to register much more than a spec of dirt on the share of gaming computers so Vega specific optimizations will be even more rare than Nvidia's GPU-physx.

The PC gaming market is 70% Nvidia GPUs, and it is without a doubt that every single developers will make sure their game runs as good as it can on Nvidia, even if they're there are a few devs here and there paid to give AMD initial priority.

https://twitter.com/idSoftwareTiago/status/913947204146073601

Now , Do they care about Nvidia ?

 

[zlatan]

The benchmarking should be very interesting to say the least, and will play a major role in the mindshare war between DX12 and Vulkan. If I'm not mistaken, Vulkan still doesn't support asynchronous compute on NVidia GPUs, although DX12 does. Vulkan doesn't support multi GPU yet either, though DX12 does.

I highly doubt it that it will support DX12. That is just a marketing slide with a Wolf 2 picture.

Vulkan support multi-engine, but not how D3D12 does. The difference is that this feature is integrated in D3D12, so even if the hardware don't support asynchronous compute, the OS will manage everything to execute the code efficiently, without any direct support from the driver. On Vulkan this is not possible, so the driver will fully manage the execution. Technically the asynchronous compute is an OS level feature in D3D12, and a driver level feature in Vulkan.

NVIDIA support asynchronous compute in Vulkan. Check the queue section of the Vulkan database:
Pascal: https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/displayreport.php?id=1991
GCN(3): https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/displayreport.php?id=1995

You need to have three "Queue family". One with all the four flags (this will be the main engine), and two others. One with COMPUTE_BIT and one with TRANSFER_BIT. It doesn't matter if there are other flags in there. These will just allow better control.

It is possible now to use some KHX Extension in Vulkan, that allow multi-GPU. If the IHVs support it than it will work. Though the application need to be patched in the feature, when the used extensions will be placed in the KHR group.

 

[Malogeek]

Not sure if the picture in question should be interpreted as DX12 AND Vulkan or DX12 OR Vulkan ...

I'm not sure what you're trying to point out here. It's not as if you can run the game in both DX12 and Vulkan at the same time.

 

[urvile]

https://twitter.com/idSoftwareTiago/status/913947204146073601

Now , Do they care about Nvidia ?

Depends on how many potential buyers they want for the game I guess. Bethesda & machinegames are in the business of making well....profits, ROI and stuff. Of course I don't know jack about graphics cards but I am an expert cynic.

I also preordered the game so I will be gathering anecdotal evidence soon enough.

 

[ThatBuzzkiller]

It is possible now to use some KHX Extension in Vulkan, that allow multi-GPU. If the IHVs support it than it will work. Though the application need to be patched in the feature, when the used extensions will be placed in the KHR group.

Developers shouldn't be using experimental extensions like that ...

I'm not sure what you're trying to point out here. It's not as if you can run the game in both DX12 and Vulkan at the same time.

I was questioning about what gfx API the game supports but the DX12 as an option appears to be off the table for this game since there hasn't been any mention of it ... (that was one thing the marketing slide in the first post wasn't clear about)

 

[zlatan]

The PC gaming market is 70% Nvidia GPUs, and it is without a doubt that every single developers will make sure their game runs as good as it can on Nvidia, even if they're there are a few devs here and there paid to give AMD initial priority.

Now this is really not that simple. In a multi-platform game we generally make multi-platform decisions. So we don't really care about the PC itself. We care about the PC, and the Xbox, and the PS market. So the PC-only market share is only matter in the very end of the developement.

Also AMD has far more better profiler now compared to what Intel and NV provide. The funny thing is that if I optimize with Radeon GPU profiler for the GCN microarch, I also get much more performance for Intel/NV, compared to what I may get with their profilers at all. Even if the GCN market share is not that big on PC, the profiler what AMD provides is so much better than everything else, that I can make bigger potential boost for the other IHVs as well.

 

[zlatan]

Developers shouldn't be using experimental extensions like that ...

No they shouldn't. But the IHV-specific extensions are also somewhat experimental, and they use it. The KHX is not really different from this.

 

[ThatBuzzkiller]

No they shouldn't. But the IHV-specific extensions are also somewhat experimental, and they use it. The KHX is not really different from this.

Yes but IHV specific extensions have their specs finished whereas experimental extensions can have their specs changed at ANY moment ...

It is not ideal to use experimental extensions if you're reliant on getting consistent behaviour. Figuratively speaking you're treading on similar grounds for undefined behaviour or shipping hardware with bugs ...

 

[Yakk]

https://twitter.com/idSoftwareTiago/status/913947204146073601

Now , Do they care about Nvidia ?

That's a lot of compute, wow! Nice GPU optimizations and saturation to be sure.