Microsoft Launches The DirectX 12 Ultimate
While browsing the world wide web, it has come to my discovery Microsoft, the software giant has unveiled the newest version of their DirectX API. Interestingly, a version number will no longer be used. Instead, it will be labeled as DirectX 12 Ultimate. The announcement made before the beginning of DirectX 12 Developer Day 2020.
AMD will have a version of DirectX 12 Ultimate supporting the upcoming RDNA architecture. In the future, hardware-accelerated ray tracing will soon come to AMD graphics chip with DXR (an acronym for DirectX Raytracing) 1.1. Now RDNA 2 technology will potentially allow both PC and gaming consoles to experience some impressive, more realistic gaming experience.
NVIDIA will also feature DX12 Ultimate in all major platforms. NVIDIA states that "It'll look and run best on GeForce RTX GPU's due to dedicated ray-tracing hardware known as RT Cores, and performance-boosting DLSS technology." In detail, NVIDIA explains that VRS ( variable-rate shading), right along with Mesh Shading and Sampler Feedback, will help provide better performance for real-time ray-trace content.
Here are written statements from both AMD and NVIDIA:
-AMD
“From the team that has brought PC and Console gamers the latest in graphics innovation for nearly 25 years, we are beyond pleased to bring gamers DirectX 12 Ultimate, the culmination of the best graphics technology we’ve ever introduced in an unprecedented alignment between PC and Xbox Series X.
When gamers purchase PC graphics hardware with the DX12 Ultimate logo or an Xbox Series X, they can do so with the confidence that their hardware is guaranteed to support ALL next generation graphics hardware features, including DirectX Raytracing, Variable Rate Shading, Mesh Shaders and Sampler Feedback. This mark of quality ensures stellar ‘future-proof’ feature support for next generation games!”
-NVIDIA
“AMD has long been a strong supporter of next-generation, low-overhead graphics API technologies like Microsoft DirectX 12 that help take games to a whole new level. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that in partnership with Microsoft we will provide full support for DirectX 12 Ultimate in our upcoming AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture.
With this architecture powering both the next generation of AMD Radeon graphics cards and the forthcoming Xbox Series X gaming console, we’ve been working very closely with Microsoft to help move gaming graphics to a new level of photorealism and smoothness thanks to the four key DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics features — DirectX Raytracing (DXR), Variable Rate Shading (VRS), Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback.
DXR adds a new level of graphics realism to video games previously only available in movies, and AMD has collaborated with Microsoft on the design of DXR 1.1, an update to DXR that can deliver better efficiency and performance in many raytracing effects.”
