GamingBolt has covered Microsoft’s upcoming graphics API i.e. DirectX 12 quite extensively. Speaking to several developers over the past few months, the response has been extremely positive. But in all of those interviews, the developers had not worked on or bench-marked the API. Fortunately, GamingBolt got in touch with Futuremark, whose bench-marking tool 3D Mark was used to gauge DX12 at Microsoft’s build event a few months back.
Speaking to Futuremark’s President, Oliver Baltuch, GamingBolt were able to receive a few more details about the new API, such as improved collision detection and efficient algorithms.
“We were very happy when Microsoft chose 3DMark to show some of the benefits of DirectX 12,” explains Oliver. “In their demo, they showed two major improvements over DirectX 11 – a 50% improvement in CPU utilization, and better distribution of work among threads.”
“With DirectX 12 game developers will be able to create richer scenes with more objects. DirectX 12 also introduces a set of new rendering features that will improve the efficiency of algorithms used in rendering and collision detection.” However he thinks it’s too early to deliver a final verdict about its benefits since it is still more than year away from launch. “It’s too early to know the exact performance gains, but when DirectX 12 is ready we’ll be there with a 3DMark benchmark that shows the new possibilities,” he added.
Given that Futuremark are deep into bench-marking, we asked Oliver’s thoughts about Microsoft’s claim of making the Xbox One more powerful using the cloud. Oliver’s response was positive.
“It does look promising, doesn’t it? I imagine the challenge will be to use it in such a way that gameplay isn’t compromised if the console is offline, or has a poor connection. It will be interesting to see how developers make use of it,” he said.
Given that Microsoft showcased the cloud technology a while ago and will also be used in the upcoming Crackdown 3, we could be getting our first real taste at the so called power of cloud very soon.