Microsoft Reveals Details On DirectX 11.3 (yes) and 12 new rendering

[GoodBytes]

Microsoft celebrates Game24, as it seems, by revealing DirectX 11.3 and 12 new rendering features, reports Anandtech. Now to be fair, it is a bit technical, so I invite everyone to check out Anandtech great article on it, for full details: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8544/microsoft-details-direct3d-113-12-new-features

So in brief:

DirectX 11.3 (Direct3D 11.3 to be exact) will be coinciding with DirectX 12. It is believed that both will be available for Windows, where direct 11.3 will have some of the feature set of DirectX12, as the APIs set is more tricky to program due to the lower level programming that DirectX12 requires.

At first glance the announcement of Direct3D 11.3 would appear to be at odds with Microsoft’s development work on Direct3D 12, but in reality there is a lot of sense in this announcement. Direct3D 12 is a low level API – powerful, but difficult to master and very dangerous in the hands of inexperienced programmers. The development model envisioned for Direct3D 12 is that a limited number of code gurus will be the ones writing the engines and renderers that target the new API, while everyone else will build on top of these engines. This works well for the many organizations that are licensing engines such as UE4, or for the smaller number of organizations that can justify having such experienced programmers on staff.

However for these reasons a low level API is not suitable for everyone. High level APIs such as Direct3D 11 do exist for a good reason after all; their abstraction not only hides the quirks of the underlying hardware, but it makes development easier and more accessible as well. For these reasons there is a need to offer both high level and low level APIs. Direct3D 12 will be the low level API, and Direct3D 11 will continue to be developed to offer the same features through a high level API.

11.3 & 12: New Features:

-> Rasterizer Ordered Views

First and foremost of the new features is Rasterizer Ordered Views (ROVs). As hinted at by the name, ROVs is focused on giving the developer control over the order that elements are rasterized in a scene, so that elements are drawn in the correct order. This feature specifically applies to Unordered Access Views (UAVs) being generated by pixel shaders, which buy their very definition are initially unordered. ROVs offers an alternative to UAV's unordered nature, which would result in elements being rasterized simply in the order they were finished. For most rendering tasks unordered rasterization is fine (deeper elements would be occluded anyhow), but for a certain category of tasks having the ability to efficiently control the access order to a UAV is important to correctly render a scene quickly.

-> Volume Tiled Resources

The third feature coming to Direct3D is Volume Tiled Resources. VTR builds off of the work Microsoft and partners have already done for tiled resources (AKA sparse allocation, AKA hardware megatexture) by extending it into the 3rd dimension.

VTRs are primarily meant to be used with volumetric pixels (voxels), with the idea being that with sparse allocation, volume tiles that do not contain any useful information can avoid being allocated, avoiding tying up memory in tiles that will never be used or accessed. This kind of sparse allocation is necessary to make certain kinds of voxel techniques viable.

-> Conservative Rasterization

Conservative rasterization is essentially a more accurate but performance intensive solution to figuring out whether a polygon covers part of a pixel.

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8544/microsoft-details-direct3d-113-12-new-features

Microsoft is still at work on both DirectX 11.3 and 12. So it is expected new features to come later.

[Polyvalent]

Can't wait for DX12.  The direction technology is going is exciting as fuck.  

[AlexGoesHigh]

so ms is making 11.3 to make the new features of 12 more accessible, well that is not bad imo, it seems to me that 12 is going to be a completely different beast that's no where similar to previous versions of directx, at least from a programing point of view, wonder which are coming first 11.3 or 12 games now, also i'm assuming that 11.3 still being high level wont have the same performance gains that 12 could have

[The_Strict_Nein]

As long as it makes it to 7

[ionbasa]

So I have a feeling that 11.3 is meant for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, while DX12 will be feature exclusive to Windows 9 at launch. 

This would make sense as to why DX11.3 even needs to exist, especially with the supposed launch of Windows 9 being in early-mid 2015.

[Snickerzz]

So I have a feeling that 11.3 is meant for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, while DX12 will be feature exclusive to Windows 9 at launch. 

This would make sense as to why DX11.3 even needs to exist, especially with the supposed launch of Windows 9 being in early-mid 2015.

i thought ms already confirmed win7 support for dx12?

[ionbasa]

i thought ms already confirmed win7 support for dx12?

I don't believe this to be the case becasue of this: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/9-004

When asked about Windows 7 in particular, the guy beats around the bush by saying "Windows 7 hardware is supported..."

 

He never says in specific that Windows 7 will get DX12, but rather that the hardware from the Windows 7 era will probably support it.

 

Also, DX11.3 is based on DX12, so technically Windows 7/8 could get a 'slimmed down' version of DX12. 

 

This is all my personal inference from what was said at the Windows BUILD event. Feel free to draw your own conclusion.

 

From a business standpoint it would make sense for MS to hold DX12 hostage, and releasing it exclusively for Windows 9. Just look at what Happened with DX10 and Vista, and DX11.1 with Windows 8. 

[Snickerzz]

I don't believe this to be the case becasue of this: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/9-004

When asked about Windows 7 in particular, the guy beats around the bush by saying "Windows 7 hardware is supported..."

 

He never says in specific that Windows 7 will get DX12, but rather that the hardware from the Windows 7 era will probably support it.

 

Also, DX11.3 is based on DX12, so technically Windows 7/8 could get a 'slimmed down' version of DX12. 

 

This is all my personal inference from what was said at the Windows BUILD event. Feel free to draw your own conclusion.

 

From a business standpoint it would make sense for MS to hold DX12 hostage, and releasing it exclusively for Windows 9. Just look at what Happened with DX10 and Vista, and DX11.1 with Windows 8.

hmm could be right, guess we need to wait and see

[deathjester]

We have ZERO DirectX 11.2 games in existence because MS withholds API patches off their older OS's that have majority share (Win7). Now we will have a new dead API called DX 11.3 to compete with the same updates that will be on OpenGL.  WOO HOO.

 

Direct X 11.1 games 

Battlefield 4, which also supports Mantle, which amazingly works on Win 7 (how about that) because there is NOTHING about Windows 8/8.1 that makes games faster except a withheld patch.

 

DirectX 11.2 games

Nothing and nothing in development. Even Witcher 3 which was delayed and will probably be the flagship for PC graphics is ignoring the API. Last I read the devs said they are ignoring 11.1 as well. 

 

So,..everyone get pumped for DirectX 11.3! Maybe MS can give us a decade year old game like Halo 2 with a graphic update as a "11.3 exclusive".

 

i thought ms already confirmed win7 support for dx12?

 

You think they are just going to give us 12 when they withheld 11.1/2 from customers?  A low level API destroys their crappy consoles value. Why do you think they want to hold it off until Holiday of NEXT year, when they can make it an exclusive , which slows adoption of the API by the game developers long enough for them to come out with the next Xbox with Minecraft 2.

 

The kicker? Microsoft said they will stop OS feature updates in 2015 on Win 7, when DX 11.1/2 were OS update features that were withheld.  

 

@ Goodbytes, can you tell the good folks at Redmond to stop referring to and selling Direct X versions as a OS feature on tech and gaming sites? Otherwise they should immediately put 11.2 on Windows 7 (we are supposed to get new OS features until 2015), so that we don't have our games held back with an old API. Thanks in advance. Otherwise MS is guilty of false statements/advertising.

 

MS - we hold back PC gaming, and make money doing it. 

[killeak]

I don't believe this to be the case becasue of this: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/9-004

When asked about Windows 7 in particular, the guy beats around the bush by saying "Windows 7 hardware is supported..."

 

He never says in specific that Windows 7 will get DX12, but rather that the hardware from the Windows 7 era will probably support it.

 

Also, DX11.3 is based on DX12, so technically Windows 7/8 could get a 'slimmed down' version of DX12. 

 

This is all my personal inference from what was said at the Windows BUILD event. Feel free to draw your own conclusion.

 

From a business standpoint it would make sense for MS to hold DX12 hostage, and releasing it exclusively for Windows 9. Just look at what Happened with DX10 and Vista, and DX11.1 with Windows 8. 

No, D3D 11.3 is still based on the D3D11 API (a high level one). D3D12 is the new low level API, nothing changed on that regard.

 

The idea is to give the option to developers to chose between a high level or low level API, that support the same GPU hardware features. So, if you want to program using a high level API, then use D3D 11.3. You want to go low level, then  go D3D12, but for both you may need Windows 9 (or at least 8.1).

[Speedbird]

Plot twist: not available on Win7.

[Victorious Secret]

Leave it to death jester to bring in consoles in a discussion about the API, and once again insinuate that @GoodBytes works for MS. 

[ionbasa]

 

No, D3D 11.3 is still based on the D3D11 API (a high level one). D3D12 is the new low level API, nothing changed on that regard.

 

The idea is to give the option to developers to chose between a high level or low level API, that support the same GPU hardware features. So, if you want to program using a high level API, then use D3D 11.3. You want to go low level, then  go D3D12, but for both you may need Windows 9 (or at least 8.1).

 

From the way the article was written on AnandTech, I was under the impression the DX11.3 was actually a slimmed down version of DX12 for older platforms. I guess I misinterpreted that, mainly because they have a few similar features. Thank you for clarifying.

 

At least it was good to know that you agree with me in regards to DX12 possibly becoming a exclusive for Windows 9.

[GoodBytes]

@ Goodbytes, can you tell the good folks at Redmond to stop referring to and selling Direct X versions as a OS feature on tech and gaming sites?

I'll relay the message, once you get me a job there.

[deviant88]

No one will ever care about direct3D  .1/.2/.3 revisions only the main one.

The only direct3D 10.1 game i know was STALKER Shadow of Cernobyl.And the only game theoretically using 11.1 is BF4 which i have no idea what it means,what exactly is better in bF4?

.2 and .3 are and will be dead on arrival.

And if D3D 12 is like MS says hard to code then we will have first AAA titles in 2-3 years with d3d 12.And the games i care about will not features the low level greatness,like MMORPG's that suck at multicore processing and lagg as hell when multiple people are in the same area.

[Victorious Secret]

Leave it to Victoria's Secret and Goodbytes to always be in a MS thread upvoting each other, without ever debating or talking about the topic and group attacking anyone that brings up valid points critiquing Microsoft. Consoles have something to do with the topic. MS is in the console business. Xbox games will have Directx 11.3 just like they have 11.2. PC Gamers will get screwed over however due to Microsoft's greed. 11.2 is a dead api with no games in development or on the PC and game developers are not to blame Microsoft is for purposely keeping API patches off majority OS share. Why should we care about 11.3? 

 

This may as well be an Xbox One announcement...Who is holding back PC Gaming? Microsoft and Microsoft alone. They are OPENLY hostile to PC Gaming and that is why they need advertisers, astroturfers (illegal) and shareholders/employees on forums to sell that up is down.  

 

1. MS is in the SOFTWARE business. Not the console business. They only MAKE THE OS that you all use for gaming. They only make the APIs that allow it to exist how it does today. 

 

2. Consoles once again have nothing to do with it, neither do their business practices (that you bring up like conspiracy theories here) have anything to do with this topic. 

 

3. The name is Victorious Secret. I don't call you derp jerker. Learn some respect and pull your conspiracy theory riddled head out of your stubbornly placed ass. 

You're the only one who consistently derails threads like this with irrelevant information and baseless accusations against companies and other members of this forum. Grow up already.

[deathjester]

1. MS is in the SOFTWARE business. Not the console business. They only MAKE THE OS that you all use for gaming. They only make the APIs that allow it to exist how it does today. 

 

2. Consoles once again have nothing to do with it, neither do their business practices (that you bring up like conspiracy theories here) have anything to do with this topic. 

 

3. The name is Victorious Secret. I don't call you derp jerker. Learn some respect and pull your conspiracy theory riddled head out of your stubbornly placed ass. 

You're the only one who consistently derails threads like this with irrelevant information and baseless accusations against companies and other members of this forum. Grow up already.

 

Don't start a post with non factual statements and an outright lie. Don't follow that statement with another lie, since OpenGL is every bit as fast as Directx atm and slightly faster and has the same improvements DX 11.2 did (which we DO NOT have on current PC Games due to MS's greed). 

 

Consoles have something to do with 11.3, since Xbox One will be the only MS OS product to have games made for it, since they withhold the API from Windows 7. They created the Xbox to keep the DirectX monopoly alive. Sony and the PS3/PS4 gets the same performance (better due to hardware) with the OpenGL shader/effect library and sees the same optimization without DirectX which completely nullifies the statement you made. 

 

Conspiracy theory? MS has been caught in the last year astroturfing Xbox, Internet Explorer (included paying off "bloggers"), Nokia phones with fake accounts (people) and in the past has been caught using dead peoples names to "support" Microsoft. There is no conspiracy. Microsoft resorts to illegal activity that is never punished due to lobbying. 

 

In the Comes Vs Microsoft court case (which is public record), MS laid out their business plan, which includes paying off bloggers, spamming forums. Sites like Neogaf fight a neverending battle banning the myriad of MS astroturfers. Why would Linus Tech Tips be immune? When you always see the same people selling and defending MS or posting MS news on this forum? It is what it is. 

 

So you started off the post with a couple lies. Then a personal insult. Then you said something which is factual is a "conspiracy theory". Anyone can click my profile feed and see numerous cases of MS illegally astroturfing.  Would you like to dispute those? If not? Don't bother responding. 

 

MS astroturfing is a matter of public record and was actually laid out as their business plan in court documents. 

 

Bottom line? This DirectX 11.3 announcement is for Xbox since no games have been developed, or are being developed with Direct X 11.2 on PC, and only one with 11.1 (BF4). This would be different if MS put 11.2/3 on Windows 7, but they won't. They are holding back PC Gaming period. The funny thing is people blame game developers for bad ports, when MS has as much to do with it as anyone. 

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

-snip-

 

First off, that comment had no relevance to what you quoted, so you have been taking things out of context here. RTFQ or do not bother responding.

Second, your aggressive (and frankly childish) attitude is unhelpful to the conversation. If you disagree with someone, then please speak constructively and politely. Otherwise, just leave.

Third, all of your information so far is anecdotal, therefore cannot be proven as concrete evidence. You cannot connect dots together arbitrarily; There needs to be stronger correlation before that happens. 

[GoodBytes]

Microsoft cares about it's XBox gaming console. While I agree that Microsoft has let go PC gaming, I think they are starting to be back in to it.

And, Microsoft always acted this way with DirectX (meaning you need to buy a new version of Windows to get the latest and greatest)

DirectX has ups and down to OpenGL, same for OpenGL. While I am no expert, based on what I can conclude, it depends on what you do (assuming you know both including their shader languages perfectly well), as they are just different school of though. The whole "No games using the latest DirectX" is also true for OpenGL from what I can see. I haven't seen games using the latest and great OpenGL technologies on PC.

Games will always be a step behind. No only developers, especially these days, wait for engines, and also, starting a game from scratch takes several years.

Looking at DirectX 11.2 at a quick overview level, so I might have missed something, I am not seeing any features that really targets games. It's more for simulators, than anything, in my opinion.

[deathjester]

Microsoft cares about it's XBox gaming console. While I agree that Microsoft has let go PC gaming, I think they are starting to be back in to it.

And, Microsoft always acted this way with DirectX (meaning you need to buy a new version of Windows to get the latest and greatest)

DirectX has ups and down to OpenGL, same for OpenGL. While I am no expert, based on what I can conclude, it depends on what you do (assuming you know both including their shader languages perfectly well), as they are just different school of though. The whole "No games using the latest DirectX" is also true for OpenGL from what I can see. I haven't seen games using the latest and great OpenGL technologies on PC.

Games will always be a step behind. No only developers, especially these days, wait for engines, and also, starting a game from scratch takes several years.

Looking at DirectX 11.2 at a quick overview level, so I might have missed something, I am not seeing any features that really targets games. It's more for simulators, than anything, in my opinion.

 

Memory tiling which is on consoles on both PS4 (without DirectX mind you) and Xbox One. It is in OpenGL. We do not get it on PC, because 11.2 is withheld from 7. Watch Dogs game engine was based on it per their developer. 

 

As far as "MS getting back into PC gaming". We had Phil Spencer make the statement they had to do more for PC Gamers. Right before then DX 11.2 was withheld from Win 7 (and developers will only target majority OS share). After the statement MS bought Tomb Raider and is delaying it on PC. They also bought mine craft and all statements defending any exclusivity have to do with Minecraft 1. Minecraft 2 when it is made could very well be an Xbox exclusive (whether timed or not) and would most likely be kept off anything but MS products/API.

 

So getting back into PC Gaming? Wish they wouldn't. Every move they have made has been hostile to PC Gamers recently.

 

First off, that comment had no relevance to what you quoted, so you have been taking things out of context here. RTFQ or do not bother responding.

Second, your aggressive (and frankly childish) attitude is unhelpful to the conversation. If you disagree with someone, then please speak constructively and politely. Otherwise, just leave.

Third, all of your information so far is anecdotal, therefore cannot be proven as concrete evidence. You cannot connect dots together arbitrarily; There needs to be stronger correlation before that happens. 

 

Sorry bud. I did not offer personal insults. They did (like always). They attempt to bait you into one and then mass report you. I do not make baseless accusations and post histories speak for themselves. We have posts that have lies in them, defamation of character as far as factual events. This is not the first time and as I said, they can attempt to refute MS illegal astroturfing history, but they refuse to do so. Instead they are selling a moral high road (LOL) when they defend/sell a company 24/7 on this forum that resorts to illegal activity such as astroturfing.

[Trik'Stari]

Looks like I'll have to be going with 8.1 or NEIN for my next upgrade. I find it hard to believe that they'd support 7 since they want you to forget about it, and 8.

[deathjester]

Microsoft cares about it's XBox gaming console. While I agree that Microsoft has let go PC gaming, I think they are starting to be back in to it.

And, Microsoft always acted this way with DirectX (meaning you need to buy a new version of Windows to get the latest and greatest)

DirectX has ups and down to OpenGL, same for OpenGL. While I am no expert, based on what I can conclude, it depends on what you do (assuming you know both including their shader languages perfectly well), as they are just different school of though. The whole "No games using the latest DirectX" is also true for OpenGL from what I can see. I haven't seen games using the latest and great OpenGL technologies on PC.

Games will always be a step behind. No only developers, especially these days, wait for engines, and also, starting a game from scratch takes several years.

Looking at DirectX 11.2 at a quick overview level, so I might have missed something, I am not seeing any features that really targets games. It's more for simulators, than anything, in my opinion.

 

@ bolded. Thank you for confirming my statement that MS holds back PC gaming until enough of a payment is made to them. Microsoft is the equivalent of the mob and protection money to PC gamers. In what way is that good for anyone involved except MS? MS needs to be abandoned by PC gamers, not endorsed. 

 

@ bolded statement 2.

 

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2014/01/30/directx-11-2-tiled-resources-enables-optimized-pc-gaming-experiences/

 

That is used on both PS4/Xbox One in some of the newer games. OpenGL can do it as well. PC Gamers? Don't get it. Why? Cus 11.2 was kept off Win 7. Witcher 3 is 11. They aren't even using 11.1 last I checked. This is where you tell us again that us PC Gamers need to pay off MS so that we can have modern UI improvements seen on both API's. By doing this we just continue to support a process where we will always be behind on API on our ports/games. Why would anyone continue to do this? You are asking us to pay 100 dollars every couple years to be screwed over, while being held back artificially compared to the Xbox API. 

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

-snip-

 

Please stop lying. The thing is, the people you are refering to, have provided legitimate information and were open to constructive criticism. You provided no such thing; all you did is pull tantrums and attack anybody that disagrees with you, calling them fanboys and astroturfers right off the bat. Like I said, you have been making rather bold claims without any sufficient ground, which makes the entirety of your arguments moot. They are not afraid of admitting that they were wrong when actually proven so, despite your claims. I have seen this being a lengthy habit of yours, and I have called you out multiple time for it. The only people being "mass reported" here is you, because your unacceptable attitude is actually skirting around the CoC here.

 

In short; practice what you preach, otherwise the fault goes squarely on you.

[GoodBytes]

If you are insinuating that I always defend Microsoft and/or Microsoft products at any criticism, you should read more my posts, as you'll see that you are incorrect.

[Victorious Secret]

The fact that you still think there is a "Team MS" here is pathetic. 

 

I run a iPhone 6+ as my new daily driver, I do all my content creation and editing on a rMBP, the only windows rig I still have is the one I use to play 2 hours a month of Battlefield 4 and the last paycheque I got for marketing came from Samsung.

 

I honestly do not get you. You have some seriously paranoid delusions. At first I thought you were just playing a "bit" but clearly this isn't the case. You keep posting the same lengthy diatribes with no substance, the same arguments over and over in threads that have NO relevance, YOU are the one who keeps derailing things with your near conspiracy theory level "claims" about whats going on.

You don't have a crystal ball and neither do I, only you seem to have this deluded idea that your opinion and loaded arguments have more validity than ours, and you keep shitting on any thread AND more importantly you keep shitting on users of this forum who disagree with you and call you out for your hypocritical ways that are quite frankly embarrassing for a man of your age and so called experience and knowledge. 

 

I will ask the moderators to make you a special section that deals exclusively in anti-MS conspiracy theories and derailing threads so you can focus all of your pent up rage and teenage level angst in one area, instead of diluting and ruining threads everywhere. 

Here is a saying that applies wonderfully to you:

If you met an asshole in the morning, chances are they were just an asshole. 

If you meet assholes all day, chances are you're the asshole. 

 

You keep thinking everyone is against you, engaged in some baseless conspiracy of astroturfer and whatever else; did you ever consider that you're just off your goddamn rocker?