This is a win-win situation because it takes less toll on the GPU, leading to a noticeable increase in frame rates. For instance, if there's a complex scene with several objects, the GPU is able to render the in-focus objects at higher fidelity, and objects in the background at a lower level of detail. The technique lets a GPU utilize its power where it matters most. Variable rate shading is a nifty feature that lets game developers adjust a game's shading rate in real-time. That's set to change over the coming months now that the technology is natively integrated into PCs as well as Microsoft's upcoming console.įinally, Microsoft says that games that already utilize ray tracing will be the first to pick up DirectX 12 Ultimate features. Microsoft rolled out the first version of DirectX Raytracing back in 2018, but barring a few titles, ray tracing hasn't really taken off with devs.
NVIDIA was the first to roll out hardware-level ray tracing on its GeForce RTX 20 series video cards, and AMD is set to offer dedicated ray tracing cores in its upcoming Radeon lineup. Microsoft notes that it eliminates the overhead of shader-based ray tracing for simple tasks like calculating shadows.
Then there's inline raytracing, which is more efficient than dynamic shader-based ray tracing in a few scenarios. Devs will now be able to invoke shaders directly from the GPU without a round-trip to the CPU, and Microsoft notes that this will come in handy for shader-based culling, sorting, classification, and refinement.ĭXR 1.1 makes it easier for game engines to load ray tracing shaders on-demand - when a player moves around a world and new objects are rendered.
DirectX Raytracing 1.1ĭirectX Raytracing 1.1 is an incremental update over version 1.0, but it introduces a few new capabilities.
If you're interested in knowing more about what DirectX 12 Ultimate brings to the table, read on. Sure, all the latest features that are baked in may not work, but the gameplay itself will be unaffected. But if you're using a video card without ray tracing and aren't interested in Microsoft's next-gen console, you'll be able to play the latest titles - DirectX 12 Ultimate games will run just fine on older versions of DirectX. If you're using a video card that already has ray tracing, chances are you'll see it being rebranded to a DirectX 12 Ultimate GPU.Įssentially, if you're buying one of the best graphics cards that comes with DirectX 12 Ultimate - or the Xbox Series X - you'll be able to play games that leverage the latest graphics technologies, leading to life-like visuals and smoother gameplay. That significantly increases the addressable userbase, making it that much more of an incentive for developers to utilize the latest features.
Microsoft notes that by the time the Xbox Series X rolls around, there will already be "many millions of DX12 Ultimate PC graphics cards" that offer the same feature-set. What's unique about DirectX 12 Ultimate is the fact that it's unified across PCs and the Xbox Series X. Think of DirectX as the middleman that lets games access low-level hardware resources like video cards.ĭirectX 12 Ultimate is unified on PCs and Xbox Series X, giving game developers an added incentive to use the latest features. DirectX is a set of graphics API that control everything from multimedia playback to how games run on your PC.
VPN Deals: Lifetime license for $16, monthly plans at $1 & moreĪll of that sounds very exciting, but if you don't really understand what DirectX is and why it matters, here's a high-level primer. What that basically means is that game developers will be able to access these technologies to build more immersive gaming experiences across PCs and Xbox Series X. Microsoft is baking next-gen features like ray tracing, variable rate shading, mesh shaders, and sampler feedback directly into DirectX 12 Ultimate, and the company notes that its HLSL compiler and PIX graphics optimization tool will be available to developers, giving them the toolkit to eke out better performance. Microsoft says that DirectX 12 Ultimate is the "best graphics technology" it has ever introduced, with an "unprecedented alignment" between the PC and Xbox Series X. As we're on the cusp on next-gen consoles like the Xbox Series X, Microsoft is rolling out an update to DirectX - dubbed DirectX 12 Ultimate - that brings exciting new features like ray tracing and variable rate shading natively to PCs and upcoming consoles.
DirectX 12 debuted six years ago, introducing a new Direct3D graphics API that was more energy efficient and highly scalable across not just various PC form factors, but also the Xbox One.