AMD/Microsoft are unable to keep up with the pace and only have 16 games added to DX12

In 2015, DirectX 12 was officially announced, and many gamers and developers were immediately excited. Although AMD's Mantle API failed, its effect was obvious to all, and DirectX was built on Mantle. Microsoft promised that DirectX 12 in Windows 10 environment would bring GPU efficiency to an unprecedented level.

However, 18 months have passed since the release of Windows 10, and the reality is that only 16 games have added support for DirectX 12, and there are not as many subsequent works as expected. Why don't developers love DirectX 12? Does this mean it will fail? Let's review the history first:

Although we have been using PCs with DirectX for many years, DirectX was late to join the 3D hardware acceleration carnival in the early days. At that time, game developers either used Glide, which was customized for 3DFX Voodoo cards, or adopted the more open OpenGL to support more hardware.

Eventually, Microsoft's DirectX API provided developers with an alternative to OpenGL, supporting any 3D accelerator card as long as there was a driver. Soon DirectX was fully developed, with a series of Direct APIs under its umbrella, each with its own independent functions, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, and DirectSound.

It is worth mentioning that Windows 98 was the first operating system to integrate DirectX. Since then, DirectX has become one of the most important components of Windows software. Even players who don't know much about related technologies can roughly understand its importance and pay more attention to the version support of DirectX when purchasing graphics cards and running games.

In fact, this is not the first time that Microsoft has used DirectX to attract players to update their systems. For example, DirectX 10 does not support Windows XP and below, just as DirectX 12 can only be used for Windows 10 and Xbox One, and Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 have no chance of it.

Let’s look at the data again

Regarding the number of Windows devices in use, the generally accepted number is 1.25 billion. According to data released by traffic monitoring agency StatCounter in December 2016, 40.23% of devices are running Windows 7; 27.15% of devices have Windows 10 installed; even Windows 8.1 has a share of 8.43%.

A rough calculation shows that there are 637 million users of DirectX 11 and only 340 million potential users of DirectX 12. Of course, there are certainly a considerable number of people who are not interested in games or have no demand for DirectX 12, even if they have upgraded to Windows 10.

Of course, the above data may not explain everything. If you look for the answer through the game platform Steam, you will find a completely different conclusion. As of December 2016, more than 51% of Steam users have used Windows 10 64-bit systems, while only 36% of players use Windows 7. Among the Steam players, the proportion of players with graphics cards that support DirectX 12 has reached 72.24%.

Judging from these data, DirectX 12 seems to have great potential. From a purely profit perspective, developers should invest additional development costs to support the new API. So, what is the problem?

The real reason

In the face of the current predicament of DirectX 12, AMD's chief gaming expert Richard Huddy once revealed his thoughts. He said that DirectX 12 actually had a good start, and it started faster than DirectX 10 and DirectX 9. Under the shadow of DirectX 11, a predecessor with a very wide acceptance range, the number of new works supporting DirectX 12 each year is actually more than any other historical version of DirectX at the same time.

"However, the most interesting point is that a fast start does not mean that everyone needs it. (DirectX 12) brings more low-level control, but also adds a certain degree of complexity - which will make many developers reluctant to touch DirectX 12. In fact, if a game is not limited by GPU performance and CPU single thread is not its bottleneck, then the improvement that DirectX 12 can bring to it is very small." Hedi revealed.

The gaming expert went on to add: "For these developers, DirectX 11 or DirectX 9 is perfect. However, for those works that are quite ambitious in terms of image quality, they can definitely benefit from DirectX 12."

In short, even though DirectX 12 is indeed stronger than DirectX 11 in all aspects, the current game technology has developed to a very high level, and not all developers need to challenge the limits. After weighing the pros and cons, some developers believe that they can get good results with the existing technology, so they will not spend extra time and energy to apply DirectX 12.

Microsoft is in no hurry

Microsoft, which has always been accustomed to playing big chess, is not in a hurry. It is used to slowly laying out and preparing for the future. The current cold reception of DirectX 12 is not a fatal problem for it. Microsoft believes that as the installation volume of Windows 10 gradually increases, these problems will be solved.

If you are a gamer, or a player who is never in a hurry to accept a new system, recalling your own system upgrade history from Windows 98 to Windows XP, and from Windows XP to Windows 7, you will understand that as new software and hardware gradually abandon the past, even if you have many concerns, you will still choose to keep up with the times.

This is also true for developers and manufacturers. It has always been difficult for Microsoft to get the former to accept new APIs and for the latter to support them in new products. This was the case in the past and it is still the case now.

It is worth noting that in the Windows 10 era, Microsoft has paid unprecedented attention to the PC gaming experience. Microsoft has confirmed that the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update will add the so-called "Game Mode". Although the specific details about it are unknown, Microsoft promises that the Game Mode will put the system into a more suitable gaming environment, thereby improving performance and experience.

If the all-round care Microsoft provides to gamers in Windows 10 is indeed effective, then we can imagine that more and more people will "not be able to resist the temptation". As time goes by, the new system will eventually replace the old one, and then DirectX 12 will naturally become the mainstream. But before that, developers will still ignore it for a while.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.