Reveal the true power of your hardware with this sweet collection of APIs
Consoles only need is one of each: a hardware set, processor, graphics chip, predetermined memory, and input options. This setup makes hardware cheaper, piracy lower and greater access to components. The last being the key to seeing its real capabilities of your hardware as well as allowing you to maximize built-in feature. This is something PC gaming setups cannot offer – until now. Microsoft’s DirectX 12 communicates to your PC’s hardware components.
Breakneck speeds
By providing ray tracing, variable rate shading and pipeline state objects, it’s no wonder DX12 is the leading solution to ultra-realistic visual effects and faster frame rates .
NVIDIA announced that DX12’s focus is to enable a dramatic increase in visual richness through a significant decrease in API-related CPU overhead. Boy, did they deliver! By distributing more tasks onto the graphics chip, your processor won’t be deadlocked with what’s happening in the background. This gives your PC the ability to process loads of information simultaneously instead of one at a time. This is big news for developers. You will be more efficient when it comes to managing resources and states and performing necessary synchronization.. As for casual users, all you need to know is that your game will be breathtakingly smooth, and incredibly lifelike.
Organize pipeline state objects
Microsoft has unified its old channel into a set pipeline of state objects or PSOs. This will allow your device - hardware, drivers and all - to immediately convert the PSO into native instructions and states. This makes a world of difference for your GPU; you will a huge step-up in draw call overhead and draw calls per frame.
Lists and bundles on command
DirectX 12 offers a new model for work submission. It is entirely based on command lists that contain the every information needed to execute a load on the GPU. In each new command list, it can determine PSO to use, texture and buffer resources needed, and even arguments to all draw calls. The command list keeps these in a self-contained driver that inherits no state. So, its quick to pre-compute the necessary GPU commands without requiring threads. Let’s say your game wants to draw out two characters with different textures. It could approach it by recording a command list with two identical draw calls. But instead, it will capture one bundle that draws a single character. It will then play it back a second time but with different resources. So, it will only have to create one set of instructions, resulting in two low-cost function calls.
Snappy descriptor heaps and tables
DX12 offers a new binding model to catch up with new hardware. The result is an astounding improvement in performance. It does this by providing a descriptor heap so games can make their own resource views. This then helps your GPU directly write a hardware-native resource description to memory up-front. On top of the improved performance created by the descriptor heaps and tables, DirectX 12 allows resources be flexible when it comes to indexing shaders and unlocking new rendering techniques. With all these improvements, you will get to see open world scenes rendered in mere seconds.
Where can you run this program?
Before you get excited with this API’s offers, you have to make sure you have the right device. DirectX 12 is only native to Windows 10 devices, Xbox consoles, and Windows phones. This means it’s a general-purpose solution is for that operating system only. Microsoft has announced only a form of DirectX 12 for Windows 7 devices. But, it’s only enabled for an extremely specific purpose: World of Warcraft battles.
Is there a better alternative?
If you’re looking for an API outside of Windows devices, look no further than OpenGL. It offers solid implementations on mac OS X, Linux Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and most smartphones (OpenGL ES). Other than cross platform compatibility, DirectX 12 far more superior. In a test, DX12 draws out more objects at double the framerate than OpenGL.
Our take
Using its collection of application programming interfaces, DirectX 12 can render vector graphics and multimedia files on Windows devices. It delivers the promise of enabling developers to add amazing effects to PC games at lightning fast speeds.
Should you download it?
Yes. If you’re a Windows 10-based gamer or developer, you should definitely download this killer API.
