News Microsoft announces DirectX 12 at GDC 2014

God I hope it isn't Windows 8 only...

 

More likely to be Windows 9 only.

 

I have been planning a new rig for the last month or so, now my GPU & OS plans will have to go on hold If the next win 8 update includes a full start menu and metro skipping boot up option along with DX12 support then I can live with that.

If I have to hang around and wait for windows 9 then i'll be a tad peeved off.

 

We should be looking more to Mantle as a general solution not DX12. And Nvidia should follow to support Mantle.

Because Mantle has to succeed so we can get rid of our systems from the cancer called MS Windows.

 

i hope to god this is windows 8 only, and mantle gets all linux market. if all goes well that could instantly reduce all of my dependency on microsoft to almost fricken 0 and then i could live happily ever after gaming my but off on linux with openGL and mantle.... would bring tears to my eyes to finally bid goodbye to windows and directX

 

I'm all for OpenGL. Mantle is aswell controlled by a single company and that's just as bad as DX.

And you can be sure that DX12 won't be available for Win7.

 

I would say it will be win8.1 update 1

 

Good news.

But it does beg the question, why didn't they do this earlier? Those claims, that they've been holding PC gaming back to boost the Xbox, seem to have been given more credence.

Hopefully Mantle will come to Linux/Steam OS providing an alternative and keeping proprietary inclined Nvidia and MS behaving nicely.

 

Just maybe Widows 9 will be worth owning.

Maybe

 

With only a month to go for update 1, they would have to use their time machine to include it.
Especially as update 1 has already hit RTM.

It's not a coincidence that new version of DirectX only get release shortly after new Xbox's ya know, Microsoft has shunned PC gaming since XP.

 

The showed Forza 5 on PC hardware, that is all I was interested in, four months to port it to DX12, can't imagine they would take that effort if it were not coming out on PC.

 

I'd imagine it's Mantle and the performance woes they're having with Xbone vis-a-vis PS4 that's driving this move. If Mantle hadn't come along, this may have gone to the Xbone only? As with Xbox 360's DirectX with its greater functionality for devs.

 

I read "4 man months" which is significantly different. 1 person 80 days, 40 days for 2 people, 20 days for 4 people, 10 days for 8 people or a week for 16.

They could have just assigned a team of 16 to work on it for a week, which yes would be spent resource time, but I imagine they didn't have 1 person work on it for 4 months. It could have been the DX team within MS that actually did it.

Edit

They have actually directly addressed this question : "was simply a rendering tech demo to showcase the power and ease of development for DX12. We have no plans to release Forza Motorsport 5, or any other Microsoft Studios Xbox One title on PC."

The original quote was "the conversion from Xbox One's DX11.x API to an alpha version of DX12 took four man-months to achieve"

 

Fantastic news and well done to Microsoft for sticking to it and keeping our gaming experiences up to date. Can't see any negatives to this as it will be adopted by all right across the board in brands and devices.

 

Q: When will I be able to get my hands on DirectX 12?
A: We are targeting Holiday 2015 games.

 

DirectX12 rumoured for 'holiday 2015',
Mainstream [new feature] support for Windows 7 ends in January 2015 [barring any extensions]

I somehow doubt they'll release DX12 for 7


*But* it'll be compatible with anything GCN or newer [AMD] and Fermi or newer [nVidia]

 

Please, i almost wet myself.

Before the first Xbox hit market DirectX received major releases almost yearly, since Microsoft released the Xbox in 2001 we have received 2 major releases, 3 if you count DirectX 12 and the XBone. When Microsoft decided to make a dedicate gaming console they turned their back on PC gaming, much in the same way as they are turning their back on tech savvy users now they have entered the tablet market.

I would go as far as to say Microsoft doesn't like PC's due to the open nature of them and that they cant exert control over what the user spends their money on, hence why they released a console and why they released Windows 8.

 

I think the ironic bit is that those very draw backs are exactly why the OS became popular in the first place. Apple were the ones to keep complete control over all their stuff, and look at where they are compared to Windows now. IIRC that is.

 

I would say it's more of a case that tech savvy users are turning their backs on Microsoft. For a long time MS didn't believe they could ever 'lose' the game. They are now playing catch up on the popular market. They've already lost a lot of the server market they once held tight.

It's not just 'noobs' who are buying non MS gear! Some of us rocking Macs, iPads, Android, Chrome devices still know their way around a windows machine... it's just that we're all rather fed up of managing their idiosyncrasies and quite like gear that just gets on and gets the job done without a lot of handholding or necessary tweaking.