DirectX 12 Ultimate on Windows 10: 2 new amazing features

DirectX 12 Ultimate is here, and it’s the culmination of the best graphics technology for PC and Xbox Series X.

And if you a PC graphics hardware with the DX12 Ultimate logo or an Xbox Series X, you can be sure that your hardware is guaranteed to support all the next generation graphics hardware features, including DirectX Raytracing, Variable Rate Shading, Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback.

DirectX 12 Ultimate comes with major new features

Apart from enhanced features for the DirectX Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading, Microsoft added new major features such as Mesh Shaders and Sampler Feedback.

Microsoft also announced that its PIX graphics optimization tool and the open-source HLSL compiler will provide game developers with the ability to get the peak performance out of the entire ecosystem of DX12 Ultimate hardware.

Next-gen games will still run on older hardware

DX12 Ultimate will not impact game compatibility with existing hardware which does not support all the features of DX12 Ultimate. In other words, the next-generation games that use DX12 Ultimate features will still run on non-DX12 Ultimate hardware.

DX12 Ultimate makes the PC ecosystem strictly better with no adverse effect on hardware that doesn’t support DX12 Ultimate.

DX12 Ultimate will unify graphics platform for PX and Xbox

By unifying the graphics platform across PC and Xbox Series X, DX12 Ultimate serves as a force multiplier for the entire gaming ecosystem. Microsoft anticipates that when Xbox Series X releases, there will already be many millions of DX12 Ultimate PC graphics cards in the world, setting a rapid adoption of the new features.

And when Xbox Series X will bring a wave of new console gamers, PC will likewise benefit from this.

What’s new in DirectX Ultimate?

DirectX Raytracing 1.1

DXR traces paths of light with true-to-life physics calculations, which is a far more accurate simulation than the heuristics-based calculations used previously.

DXR 1.1 adds three major new capabilities:

• GPU Work Creation now allows Raytracing.
• Streaming engines can more efficiently load new raytracing shaders as needed when the player moves around the world and new objects become visible.
• Inline raytracing is an alternative form of raytracing that gives developers the option to drive more of the raytracing process, as opposed to handling work scheduling entirely to the system (dynamic-shading).

Mesh Shaders

Mesh shaders allow developers to build more detailed and dynamic worlds than ever before.

Sampler Feedback

Sampler Feedback enables better visual quality, shorter load time, and less stuttering by providing detailed information to enable developers to only load in textures when needed.

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