In the wake of the announcement of DirectX 12, and its on-stage demonstration at the Windows 10 event last week, Microsoft seems to be all about stepping up its game, quite literally.
The Redmond tech giant unveiled what is, quite possibly, the best iteration of DirectX yet. One that brings together performance and power efficiency, as Microsoft gains momentum in the mobile world. The DirectX 11 vs DirectX 12 demo shown was quite spectacular. Both instances of the demo were running on identical resources, yet DirectX 12 performance blew away its predecessor.
Awesome Graphics Power
Long gone will be the days of having to upgrade graphic hardware to run games on Windows. According to Microsoft, DirectX 12 will deliver a substantial performance boost, including a greatly improved frame rate and sharpness during gameplay. Aside from the fact that Windows 10 itself is going to be far more stable and optimized than any previous Windows operating system, the performance gain will be noticeable especially on older games.
New games will certainly benefit from hardware upgrades, however the difference from DirectX 11 will be substantial, and the lack of more powerful GPUs will not likely hinder performance.
No more “Hold on, i got to save the game!”
With the new and improved Xbox One experience on Windows 10 devices, pausing and resuming gameplay from one device to another is a breeze. Microsoft has done a marvellous job in ensuring that all devices running Windows 10 can truly communicate and create fluid, uninterrupted productivity and gameplay, which means all connected devices running Windows 10 on the same network are able to pause gameplay, and resume on another device, seamlessly.
Gaming is a social experience
Phil Spencer’s presentation of Xbox One has shown some impressive features that connect Xbox gamers and allow voice and text communication through Skype.
Holograms are coming
The Windows 10 API includes support for Windows Holographics and HoloLens applications. While it’s unlikely that we’ll be walking around with head-mounted displays this year, the technology is integral part of Windows 10. A glimpse of a Minecraft demo made its appearance at the Windows 10 event, which was enough to suggest that progress on Windows Holographics is likely to match that of Windows 10 itself, overtime.