14 DAY TRIAL // One of the highlights of Microsoft's yesterday event is DirectX 12, which is supposed to come embedded into Windows 10. Although Microsoft confirmed that the new version of DirectX would not support older OS versions like Windows 7 or 8.1, the good news is those who already own a license for one of the two operating systems will be able to upgrade for free to Windows 10.
The differences between DX11 and DX12 are so big that for some features PC gamers will have to purchase new graphics cards. It's unclear how many of the DX12 features will be compatible with today's graphics cards, but we expect more details on this one in March at Game Developers Conference 2015.
Xbox head Phil Spencer took to the stage yesterday to talk about the improvements Microsoft has included in Windows 10, which are aimed at PC gamers.
One of these major improvements is DirectX 12, and to show that it's vastly superior to the DX11, Microsoft ran a demo in Futuremark benchmark.
Xbox One games may have increased performance once powered by Windows 10
The visual comparison in development at Futuremark shows the same hardware DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. As more complexity to the image is added, DirectX 11 demo stops because it can't handle the framerate.
On the other hand, the DirectX 12 side continues to run and to add complexity, keeping a high framerate at the same time. This is possible on the same piece of hardware, but powered by Windows 10.
What's interesting is that Microsoft plans to update Xbox One consoles to Windows 10, and with DirectX 12 onboard the performance of the games will increase drastically.
Even though no exact release date has been given for the launch of Windows 10, both Xbox One and PC users should expect it to come no later than this year. We hope to get more info on the matter in March at GDC 2015, so stay tuned.
