Frostbite Technical Director Implementing DirectX 12 in 2016; Frostbit 3 Improvements;Vulkan API

[TwistedDictator]

 

 

 

Frostbite Technical Director Johan Andersson spoke on twitter stating that they would like to DirectX 12, Windows 10 and WDDM 2.0 as minimum requirements for the Frostbit Engine by 2016. He then explained removing windows legacy which would bring benefits of a modern graphics API & memory management.He then explained removing windows legacy which would bring benefits of a modern graphics API & memory management. " He then explained removing windows legacy which would bring benefits of a modern graphics API & memory management.".

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Its a good thing they are improving FB3 because I dont want them to ruin Star Wars Battlefront. I will be getting windows 10 for SURE!

It supports Vulkan API

 

 

[Diederik_Gr]

So this means that Battlefront won't run as good on older systems, but will run better on up to date systems.

I can live with that, definitely hope Battlefront will be great as well.

[asim1999]

So this means that Battlefront won't run as good on older systems, but will run better on up to date systems.

I can live with that, definitely hope Battlefront will be great as well.

Seems like it, the world is all about money these days.

[The_Strict_Nein]

I'm not sure, but did he then explained removing windows legacy which would bring benefits of a modern graphics API & memory management?

[Wildosvt]

Battlefront comes out this year. But he is referring to Holiday 2016. That would point squarely at BF5 not Battlefront. Its how I read it anyway.

[TwistedDictator]

Battlefront comes out this year. But he is referring to Holiday 2016. That would point squarely at BF5 not Battlefront. Its how I read it anyway.

They still can implement it even if the games come out this year.

[Misanthrope]

Nope, I'll be the first one to say that's just stupid: MS will certainly not convert all windows 7 users to 10 by 2016 (it's just not realistic) so you will hurt your sales.

[LukaP]

Nope, I'll be the first one to say that's just stupid: MS will certainly not convert all windows 7 users to 10 by 2016 (it's just not realistic) so you will hurt your sales.

Perhaps, but its a good thing in the long run. you can write the engine in a more modern way, and assume a more modern CPU architecture. EG, with windows 7 you cant even assume SSE instructions (they came in the 90s, or at the start of the 00s IIRC)

 

@patrickjp93 we will finally see the move to AVX it would seem looks like CPU "performance" will jump dramatically in 2016, for purpouses of game development :3 sexy words

[Humbug]

They kinda have to support vulkan. EA has big plans for frostbite to be used across a wide range of studios. And they will need to target android mobile/tablets and NVIDIA shield as well as apple IOS. On top of the having support for Windows, OSX and Linux is a bonus but prob not be the reason they made the decision.

So this means that Battlefront won't run as good on older systems, but will run better on up to date systems.

No it means it will run better on everything. Everybody talks about how Vulkan and DX12 makes better use of multi-core CPUs, but also remember that even if you have a single or dual core chip the CPU load will be lower due to how the APIs work when compared to older dx/opengl.

[patrickjp93]

Perhaps, but its a good thing in the long run. you can write the engine in a more modern way, and assume a more modern CPU architecture. EG, with windows 7 you cant even assume SSE instructions (they came in the 90s, or at the start of the 00s IIRC)

@patrickjp93 we will finally see the move to AVX it would seem looks like CPU "performance" will jump dramatically in 2016, for purpouses of game development :3 sexy words

Maybe. Depends on whether or not they set the bar at Core or SandyBridge, though even just SSSE 3 would be a godsend.

[Misanthrope]

Perhaps, but its a good thing in the long run. you can write the engine in a more modern way, and assume a more modern CPU architecture. EG, with windows 7 you cant even assume SSE instructions (they came in the 90s, or at the start of the 00s IIRC)

 

@patrickjp93 we will finally see the move to AVX it would seem looks like CPU "performance" will jump dramatically in 2016, for purpouses of game development :3 sexy words

 

Only I just realized that they are also doing Vulkan, so you could technically still support Windows 7 only in Vulkan mode so if they block Windows 7 (and 8) then this is really not about improving the APIs and more about fellating Microsoft to force people into 10.

[LukaP]

Maybe. Depends on whether or not they set the bar at Core or SandyBridge, though even just SSSE 3 would be a godsend.

well they set it at W10, so i assume SSE4.2 to be a thing, since W8 made SSE a thing. and according to SHS, 80% of the systems are 4.2 ready. But i would love for them to use AVX, as the performance difference is immense. you could almost do volumetric lighting in real time using AVX2 on a 6core intel, for a simple scene, so it would make my panties wet

[patrickjp93]

well they set it at W10, so i assume SSE4.2 to be a thing, since W8 made SSE a thing. and according to SHS, 80% of the systems are 4.2 ready. But i would love for them to use AVX, as the performance difference is immense. you could almost do volumetric lighting in real time using AVX2 on a 6core intel, for a simple scene, so it would make my panties wet

Didn't you claim to me you were a black man, sending me a picture to that effect?

Volumetric lighting is too expensive for what it gets you imho.

[LukaP]

Only I just realized that they are also doing Vulkan, so you could technically still support Windows 7 only in Vulkan mode so if they block Windows 7 (and 8) then this is really not about improving the APIs and more about fellating Microsoft to force people into 10.

They arent fellating anyone they are optimising their engine. If they plan on dropping DX11 support (which it does seem so by the article) and requiring SSE3/4 then even the same cpu code, recompiled with SSE would run 30-50% faster And i bet they plan on modernising the code as well.

 

Its actually incredible how much of any kind of code can be vectorised and issued on an SSE/AVX type instruction. 

[LukaP]

Didn't you claim to me you were a black man, sending me a picture to that effect?

Volumetric lighting is too expensive for what it gets you imho.

I definitely never sent you a picture of me being black. I did perhaps tell you i was a man (which i am)

 

I know, and im not advocating using it just yet, was merely illustrating my point of the speed of AVX

[patrickjp93]

I definitely never sent you a picture of me being black. I did perhaps tell you i was a man (which i am)

I know, and im not advocating using it just yet, was merely illustrating my point of the speed of AVX

Well, whatever gets you going I guess. I can't judge based on the friends I have

[Doobeedoo]

Cool.

I like how we're getting improvements in terms of latency and getting rid of unnecessary legacy support to get closer to hardware. Being that software like Windows or like next gen NVMe SSDs and new monitor tech we're seeing. Awesome.

[LukaP]

Well, whatever gets you going I guess. I can't judge based on the friends I have

I never explicitly stated i wear panties

[Mr.Dingle]

 

Is it just me , or do the Battlefield series like , never actually used the full power of the engine ? If the bit of gameplay of Battlefront shown is how it will look like ... my everything is going to burn

[Misanthrope]

They arent fellating anyone they are optimising their engine. If they plan on dropping DX11 support (which it does seem so by the article) and requiring SSE3/4 then even the same cpu code, recompiled with SSE would run 30-50% faster And i bet they plan on modernising the code as well.

 

Its actually incredible how much of any kind of code can be vectorised and issued on an SSE/AVX type instruction. 

 

I have to disagree: It's not like their current engine is shit, it's actually pretty reasonable and young as well meaning that even on DX11 they could still do a lot to improve. More over, it already works on directx 11 why do you need to say "Ok we're dropping support for all direct x11 users" Like I said they have to know that will cost them some sales overall simply because migrating users to 10 won't happen overnight.

 

Sorry maybe I'm just too fucking cynical but I smell the MS bucks at work here: the argument will resolve itself when they confirm or deny support for Vulkan on windows 7 since then we'll know if it's a technical decision or a business one.

[Doobeedoo]

Nope, I'll be the first one to say that's just stupid: MS will certainly not convert all windows 7 users to 10 by 2016 (it's just not realistic) so you will hurt your sales.

Well, who ever would want to play something new that would require it, I'm pretty sure they'll upgrade.

[Nick Paviour]

Battlefront comes out this year. But he is referring to Holiday 2016. That would point squarely at BF5 not Battlefront. Its how I read it anyway.

 

Lets hope they mean Battlefield Bad Company 3 not Battlefield 5  

[Misanthrope]

Well, who ever would want to play something new that would require it, I'm pretty sure they'll upgrade.

 

Not really. See I'd love to play BF4 for example but the one thing that has stopped me if the fact that it's Origin only. If it was at least activated on steam then required origin to launch, like Uplay, I would have gotten it by now. But I just refuse to install and use origin for the purposes of 1 or 2 EA games, they haven't earn that for me personally.

 

So yes I am kind of an exception about being inconvenienced but trust me I'm far from the only exception. Now we're not talking about just installing another app but we're talking about installing an entire fucking OS. This would take most people at least a couple of days to get all their settings and programs reinstalled and such. And no just hitting "upgrade" is not an option most of the time that's just bad vs a clean install formatting your drive. You think many inexperienced users will be upgrading to 10 just to play a few games? Some might but some will not, the thing here is that overall it will costs them sales.

 

But you're certainly free to remain a skeptic, we can take a look at Windows 10 adoption rate in 2016 and see just how many sales they will be missing if they completely block Windows 7 and 8 (remember my other argument: supporting Vulkan means that they can still support windows 7 with vulkan so any restriction will be artificial, not technical)

[Trik'Stari]

Lets hope they mean Battlefield Bad Company 3 not Battlefield 5  

Dear god yes....

 

That, and no more random spawnpoints on TDM.

[Wildosvt]

Lets hope they mean Battlefield Bad Company 3 not Battlefield 5  

 

 

We can only hope! Thanks for that.