Microsoft has been hinting at a major graphics-related announcement. The company has finally lifted the wraps and revealed DirectX 12, a new set of its graphical APIs which comes with extensive hardware support.
Microsoft has packed a number of excellent, new features in DirectX 12. For a start, it will be able to significantly improve graphical performance across all major Microsoft hardware, including Xbox One and Windows Phone. Support for Windows Phone means that once DirectX 12 arrives, it may turn the graphical balance in favor of the platform.
The great news for developers is that a select few will be able to get immediate access to DirectX 12 and tinker with it. The silver lining for other developers is that DirectX 12 on PCs will give them a lower-level access to hardware. This means that developers will be able to improve PC games by a huge margin.
The best part is that you may not even need to purchase new Microsoft hardware to use DirectX 12. According to the company, DirectX 12 will be supported on nearly 80% of the gaming CPUs currently available in the market.
DirectX 12 has apparently been in works for a while and now that it is here, it may give Microsoft significant advantage in terms of the graphics across its devices and machines. What remains to be seen is how this impacts Windows Phone sales in the coming days. Microsoft hasn’t provided a definite release date for DirectX 12 but reports say that game titles using the new APIs may become available by late 2015.
Source: Microsoft
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