In our previous Developer Face-to-face post, we announced the release date for the DX12 client's open beta test- which is this May.
To help explain what the DX12 client actually brings to the table, we have invited the Lead Client Programmer from the Dev team- Frank, to present the DX12 client's features and answer some of your questions, let's take a look!
Frank:
Hey guys! Frank from the client team here, I will try my best to introduce the DX12 client to you in an easy-to-understand fashion and answers some of your questions!
So, what is DX12?
DX12's full name is DirectX 12, a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) developed by Microsoft which is commonly used in game programming. In other words, DirectX is the foundational graphics system that we need when we run the game.
If we compare Ring of Elysium to another software like Microsoft Word, then DX12 is equivalent to the operating system we use, such as Windows 7 or Windows 10.
This underlying graphics system needs to be advanced and powerful in order to fully utilize the computing potential of our hardware, so that the game can present a better graphics quality and run more smoothly.
Historically, games use different versions of DirectX depending on the latest matured version available when the game is being developed. Here are some examples:
DirectX9 (initially released in 2002)
Game developed with DX9: League of Legends (released in 2009)
DirectX11 (initially released in 2009)
Game developed with DX11: DARK SOULS III (released in 2016)
DirectX12 (initially released in 2015)
Game developed with DX12: Tom Clancy's The Division 2 (released in 2019)
What can DX12 bring?
More frames!
DirectX12 is designed for today's hardware architecture. It has made great progress in terms of making full use of the hardware, allowing for more efficient resource utilization through parallel computation. So, building a game based on DirectX12 would help everyone get more frames per second, which means more eliminations and more helicopter boardings!
Better graphics!
Many graphical functions weren't added previously because we were limited by the number of frames we got with the previous client. Therefore, with the increase of FPS, we now have more space and potential to put these computing resources into a better graphics performance.
DirectX 12 also makes more technologies become possible, allowing us to bring you a more immersive gaming experience. We can expect better lighting, richer landscape, etc. bringing us a better looking Ring of Elysium.
My graphics card is marked with DX11, can I run the DX12 client?
Yes, absolutely!
DX11 graphics cards can run DX12 games completely fine, it's just that they won’t be able to take advantage of some of the DX12 features.
Just like older iPhone models, which can still use the latest version of iOS and enjoy the majority of its benefits, but cannot support some features such as face recognition.
Our team will also make sure to work on the compatibility of the DX12 client so that everyone can enjoy the game as they are now.
I use Windows 7, can I run the DX12 client?
Yes, but it will take a while after the release of the Windows 10 version.
In 2018, we received the news that Microsoft decided to support DX12 on Windows 7, which helped us make the decision to update the client to DX12. Because we wanted to make sure that both Windows 7 and 10 users would be able to enjoy the quality improvements that DX12 offers before fully committing.
But for now, the team is focusing on developing the Windows 10 version, and we’ll soon bring DX12 to Windows 7 users.
Note: Since DX12 can only run on the newer driver versions on Windows 7, Windows 7 users will need to make sure their graphics card drivers are up to date in order to play ROE with the DX12 client when it's released!
-ROE DEV Team