Technical director Johan Andersson for EA DICE’s Frostbite engine has said he would like to have Microsoft’s summer-bound OS Windows 10 and the new shiny DirectX 12 API as ”minspec” for future Frostbite games.
He’d like that as soon as late 2016, given the significant gains the two will afford game studios. Adoption among ”core gamers will be really quite fast” thanks to Microsoft’s upgrade program.
That program includes giving Windows 10 away as a free upgrade to all Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users, including those who have pirated a copy of the Windows OS. The corporate giant says they’re doing this as a way to prove getting genuine software is worth it.
[center]<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Would like to require Win10 & DX12/WDDM2.0 as a minspec for our holiday 2016 games on Frostbite, likely a bit aggressive but major benefits</p>— Johan Andersson (@repi) April 7, 2015</blockquote>
@repi I do think the Win10 adoption within core gamers will be _really_ quite fast, and Microsoft is helping with their upgrade program
— Johan Andersson (@repi) April 7, 2015
@EVGA_JacobF indeed! get rid of the Windows legacy and reap the benefits of a modern graphics API & memory management (WDDM 2.0)
— Johan Andersson (@repi) April 7, 2015
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Studios have been pushing for 64-bit only releases in the last few years, with RPG Dragon Age: Inquisition not supporting the old and tired 32-bit. Andersson notes you can ”safely target only 64-bit for most games now”, and he hopes to add DX12 to that.
Check out the comparison video between DirectX 11 and 12 for why change can be great.
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