Program members Preview of Xbox One will be the first to be able to get their hands-on DirectX 12 for Xbox One, but what benefits will give the new API to the console Microsoft?
Phil Spencer, the director of the Xbox division, revealed that members of the Xbox One Preview Program will be the first to access the software update that will take advantage of the DirectX 12-game for Xbox One. Those who are registered in the program will be notified a month before the release of the update, still specifies Spencer on Twitter.
The Preview Program is a leading Microsoft’s efforts to push forward the development of Xbox One, allowing those who are in possession of the versions of the console dedicated to the beta test to test the new features and major software upgrades. It is a way to improve the quality of the product and, at the same time, receive feedback important for the future development of the platform.
But why everyone is so excited about the new software update? It could really improve the performance of Xbox One? Since the GDC 2015 was announced that the new API will arrive on Xbox One, the players and the community of developers, they have begun discussions on how they could improve the performance of the console.
According to Brad Wardell of Stardock Studios, for example, the software updated, which will enable support for DX 12 will have on Xbox One games in native resolution higher. We know that this is one of the strategic elements most important for Microsoft, as it marks a weakness against Sony PlayStation.
While the Japanese console have different titles that can run natively in 1080p on Xbox One the most games turn 720 or 900p. Among the exceptions, we are Forza Motorsport 5 and Far Cry 4, but for many other titles, like Battlefield or Call of Duty, Xbox One is the greatest difficulty.
But it is a position shared by many other elements of the developer community. Damien Monnier, Senior Gameplay Designer of The Witcher 3 that he told Gamemag that support DX 12 will be added via patch post-release in the case of the PC version of the same Witcher 3, it has spoken to the contrary on Twitter. ” To be honest, I think that to solve the problem of the resolution is to make Microsoft change much larger than a software update, ” wrote Monnier.
” I was asked if the DirectX 12 will provide a significant performance improvement in Xbox One and I said that this does not happen, ” he said in the past that Spencer. ”
The software update will not change certainly the CPU, the GPU and the memory of the Xbox One. DirectX 12 will make some further best things you can already do well on Xbox One, and this will see improvements in those games that will support DirectX 12 “.
What is certain is that the DX 12 will improve the efficiency of the GPU and reduce CPU overhead by 50% thanks to new features such as Resource Binding. PC, in terms of rendering speed and CPU occupancy, DirectX 12 can enable performance improvements of up to 70% compared to DirectX 11. In addition, to allow the Radeon and GeForce GPU to work together within the same PC.
All these improvements will result in performance on PCs at the same time in porting to console PC more efficient and faster procedures, even if the developers will be required to learn how to optimize the software and make the most of every tool at their disposal.
Moreover, regardless of a platform, the DirectX 12 gives developers a higher level of control over the resources available to them. If with DirectX 11 graphics operations are managed by a single queue (as can be seen also in the diagram in a white paper AMD), the DirectX 12 will be able to schedule tasks independently and set priorities.
This principle, which is defined Asynchronous Shader, is the basis of all modern API, and also of Mantle and Vulkan, and of course DirectX 12. It is a setting that can bring a number of important advantages, in From lower latencies and greater speed in rendering frames and then response times lower. All this will allow the system to optimize calls to the video subsystem, leveraging in a better way the whole potential of the GPU.
Underlying the functioning of Asynchronous Shader units are a compute-type engine, or rendering engines physically present on the GPU. To take advantage of the new technologies of asynchronous tasks and prioritization in the future we will see increasing numbers of Asynchronous Compute Engine installed on the GPU.
To this, we must add the fact that there are already some games on PS4 able to take advantage of the prioritization task by ACE, and this is Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline and InFamous Second Son.
This also happens on the PC with all those games built on Mantle, and then Battlefield 4 as Battlefield Hardline, Thief and Civilization Beyond Earth. So, from this point of view, the Xbox One is in this moment behind with respect to the gaming platforms rivals also from the point of view of optimization software.
Ultimately, the DirectX 12 could improve the performance of games for Xbox One, although it is difficult that they do so in a significant extent by having more and more titles rendered natively in 1080p instead of 900p, but the console Microsoft will always remain behind to PS4.
But all this may soon change because of another factor whose introduction in the console world is getting closer. That is, via cloud computing.
