DirectX 12 support, any news?

Sanderson · Feb 24, 2015

DirectX 12 support, any news?

I hope (if it's possible) ED supports Dx12 at some point. Looks like it has some very interesting features and ran across this earlier: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-directx12-amd-nvidia,28606.html

Pretty cool, coupled with the "Mantel" like low level hardware access it should be awesome. I hope.

Sanderson · Feb 24, 2015

Ok, guess not. I thought it was pretty cool though.

Arthur Z. · Apr 1, 2015

I'm interested in this one two! Can we have some official information please?

I mean it's not a spoiler or anything, so please do tell

Sanderson · Apr 2, 2015

I wouldn't hold my breath but, if by some miracle DX12 is supported, it would be nice. Probably not gonna happen though.

Aussiedroid · Apr 2, 2015

Always takes a while for the industry to pick up these new standards/versions from what I have seen. Perhaps after Win10 has been released and out for a while, gains significant market share then FD might look at it?

Sanderson · Apr 2, 2015

Aussiedroid said:
Always takes a while for the industry to pick up these new standards/versions from what I have seen. Perhaps after Win10 has been released and out for a while, gains significant market share then FD might look at it?

Maybe? But it's a long long shot at best. Not to many companies want to invest in reworking that stuff after the fact.

Midnight_Sun323 · Apr 3, 2015

If what they say is true about memory pooling, this will really help with the supercruise stuttering... for those using multiple cards anyways.

Kyokushin · Apr 27, 2015

http://n4g.com/news/1713375/msi-cla...nt-and-batman-arkham-knight-will-support-dx12

Witcher 3 will support dx12. It would be a good move to FD to give dx12 support in Elite. Game can be one of top titles where you could see a difference betweend old and modern DirectX, and be a some kind of benchmark

Insomnia · Apr 27, 2015

I'd be very surprised if FD will port the game to dx12.

Better to port it to 64bit instead. That will probably reduce the stuttering. Plus we can have super detailed planet textures as well.

Kyokushin · Apr 27, 2015

Two options are good to consider for the future

ED is innovative game.

xondk · Apr 27, 2015

We have heard, nothing about it, so we do not know if or if not.
But considering dx12 isn't even out yet, yeah its probably not that high priority yet.

That said this is a dx11 game, which runs very very nicely only with minor issues.

Personally I think that when dx12 and windows 10 is released, after a month or two frontier will in a patch have like "Directx 12 now supported" and that's it, no big announcement or anything.

Tinman · Apr 27, 2015

Insomnia said:
I'd be very surprised if FD will port the game to dx12.

Better to port it to 64bit instead. That will probably reduce the stuttering. Plus we can have super detailed planet textures as well.

I will be very surprised if they DIDN'T support Dx12 at some point since the game is in constant development.

Also the Cobra game engine is already 64bit, it's just the Windows executable that is 32-bit. The Mac version is 64-bit.

Finally, higher quality planet textures is already possible by editing the graphic config files. However this will likely increase stuttering since then it will take even more processing power to generate that higher level of detail. This isn't really a memory issue. It's more bound to CPU/GPU performance so 64-bit doesn't really make that much of a difference in this regard.

Arthur Z. · Apr 27, 2015

Well since they have a good relationship with Microsoft and are releasing the game to XBone, it would be wise to support DirectX 12.

Insomnia · Apr 27, 2015

Tinman said:
I will be very surprised if they DIDN'T support Dx12 at some point since the game is in constant development.

Also the Cobra game engine is already 64bit, it's just the Windows executable that is 32-bit. The Mac version is 64-bit.

Finally, higher quality planet textures is already possible by editing the graphic config files. However this will likely increase stuttering since then it will take even more processing power to generate that higher level of detail. This isn't really a memory issue. It's more bound to CPU/GPU performance so 64-bit doesn't really make that much of a difference in this regard.

If the engine is already 64bit, why isn't the game?

2k Cloud layers, 2k galaxy texture, 2k nebula textures, they all should benefit from having 64bit. Increasing the resolution with a 32bit executable is not what I prefer... Makes the game totally unstable and unplayable.
But I'm just a novice and could be wrong.

knowles2 · Apr 27, 2015

probably not for several years. I suspect even most Xbox one games won't be supporting it for a couple of more years.

Tiamat · Apr 27, 2015

Insomnia said:
If the engine is already 64bit, why isn't the game?

Compatibility. Whilst most machines run 64-bit versions of Windows these days not all do and FD probably don't want to limit their customer base. ED doesn't currently use anywhere near the memory limit of a 32-bit client so a 64-bit one hasn't been necessary. You could also run into performance problems as contrary to popular belief building a 64-bit version of an executable doesn't necessarily mean it runs faster (fewer pointers can fit in the CPU cache as they are twice as big).

Dash · Apr 27, 2015

I'm surprised that the game is even DirectX given they're doing it on Mac. What do they use there? OpenGL?

All that said; I don't think the game is really crying out for DX12 like many other games I play, the graphics processing doesn't seem to be poorly written aside from asset loading the planets in SC - something that can be fixed in DX11.

Insomnia · Apr 27, 2015

Tiamat said:
Compatibility. Whilst most machines run 64-bit versions of Windows these days not all do and FD probably don't want to limit their customer base. ED doesn't currently use anywhere near the memory limit of a 32-bit client so a 64-bit one hasn't been necessary. You could also run into performance problems as contrary to popular belief building a 64-bit version of an executable doesn't necessarily mean it runs faster (fewer pointers can fit in the CPU cache as they are twice as big).

Well I did say that I want more high res stuff. Closing in on a planet reveals the pixelated and sometime ugly textures. And the nebula and galaxy texture could get a bit sharper. But that might just be me who's damaged from all the 2k and 4k texture mods I use with Skyrim.

Brakespear · Apr 27, 2015

Insomnia said:
Closing in on a planet reveals the pixelated and sometime ugly textures.

It does?

Given that all these planets are basically placeholders (one can assume that, even if Frontier never actually implemented planetary landings, the visuals will nevertheless evolve over time), I'd say they look pretty good right now.

Besides, I'd rather see more *variation* before Frontier mess around with higher fidelity - more space station designs, more variation in asteroid size/texturing, more exotic celestial events (planets in the process of colliding, worlds with volcanic plumes that jet forth into space etc).

As for DX12, that's just silly talk right there. A large percentage of the gaming population don't even have DX11-capable cards right now. Personally, I'm your typical hardcore gamer with a massive collection and a history of modding/level design... and I'm still using a Radeon HD4870

Insomnia · Apr 27, 2015

Hmm my textures really ARE pixelated, at least in my opinion. Cloud layers especially.
Have you done any tweaks in the .xml?