Microsoft ports DirectX 12 to Windows 7 to boost your games
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DirectX is an application programming interface (otherwise API) for multimedia software, such as games.
The API gives games more direct access to hardware and system resources.
Thus, Windows 10’s DirectX 12 ensures better graphical quality with enhanced frame rates and visual effects.
Microsoft, to the surprise of some, has now announced that its porting DirectX 12 to Windows 7 for World of Warcraft and other games.
A Microsoft program manager announced on the company’s website that the software giant has ported a D312 runtime to Windows 7. The program manager stated:
Microsoft is pleased to announce that we have ported the user mode D3D12 runtime to Windows 7. This unblocks developers who want to take full advantage of the latest improvements in D3D12 while still supporting customers on older operating systems.
Consequently, World of Warcraft has become the first Windows 7 game to utilize DirectX 12. Blizzard updated WoW on Windows 10 for DirectX 12 support in 2018. Now the publisher is doing the same thing for WoW on Win 7 with update 8.1.5.
That update should give the game a notable frame rate boost as it did on Windows 10. In addition, the 8.1.5 update also adds new content to the game.
Microsoft has ported DirectX 12 to Windows 7 in response to feedback from Blizzard.
Blizzard pleaded with Microsoft to bring DirectX 12 to Win 7 so that the publisher could enhance World of Warcraft with the API for Win 7 players as it had done on Windows 10.
The Microsoft program manager stated:
At Microsoft, we make every effort to respond to customer feedback, so when we received this feedback from Blizzard and other developers, we decided to act on it.
The DirectX 12 announcement is a little surprising as 2019 is the final full year Microsoft supports Windows 7. The big M will terminate mainstream support for Windows 7 from January 14, 2020.
The software giant will start informing Windows 7 users that the platform is approaching its end of support date with notifications. Those notifications will link to a page that provides further details about the end of support date.
Nevertheless, Microsoft has shown that it still retains some commitment to Win 7 users by porting DirectX 12 to that platform.
Furthermore, the big M has also listened to customer feedback from Blizzard and World of Warcraft players.
Microsoft has not provided further details about DirectX 12 support for other Windows 7 games as of yet. However, the software giant has confirmed that it is currently collaborating with a few other publishers to port DirectX 12 games to Windows 7.
So, expect to hear a little more about those other games in the next few months.
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