This is a huge benefit for PC gamers.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=787883

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2014/03/20/directx-12.aspx

http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2014/03/20/directx-12/

http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=503072b051

http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828184

Forza 5 running on DirectX 12 on a Nvidia GTX Titan Black: PC Tech Demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwSzpuRR2FI

DirectX 12 is a competitor to AMD's Mantle API.

Both DirectX 12 and Mantle are low-level access API's. Also Known As (AKA) like "coding to the metal". Meaning video game developers can get closer to the hardware.

AMD showed with Mantle you can have more than 10,000 units on screen in strategy video games and run at 60FPS.

So imagine if Bethesda Softworks added support for DirectX 12 to all of the PC versions of their video games that they published and will be publishing in the future.

(I purpously left out The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind because we got OpenMW ) Imagine the PC version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion getting a 64 bit executable support and DirectX 12 support, imagine the PC version of Doom 3, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, BRINK, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, RAGE, Dishonored, Doom 3: BFG Edition, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and The Evil Within.

Imagine the mods PC gamers who are modders can achieve with this.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim letting you able to place 1,000 NPC's in one place or 10,000+ items to be able to be dropped and still play at 60FPS.

ZeniMax Media Inc. and Bethesda Softworks how I wish you give us PC gamers this opportunity.

Make my dreams become a reality.

We PC gamers deserve this.

PC gamers amaze me. They have to be the only group who seriously expect companies to retroactively upgrade products (for free), that were purchased many years ago, to work based on technology that didn't exist when the product was originally developed and released.

I wouldn't mind paying another $10 dollars (USD) or $20 dollars (USD) to purchase the upgraded version.

I'd rather they just used OpenGL, with a side of SDL and co as needed.

EDIT:

Ballowers has a history of not quite grasping the reality of things, and posting stuff that is just facepalm-worthy.

Well Bethesda Softworks probably won't adopt OpenGL any time soon. Since Linux is not even 3% or 4% of the market yet maybe when Linux is profitable enough then Bethesda Softworks will adopt Linux and OpenGL.

They are publishing The Elder Scrolls Online for MAC though which is interesting. It's for Windows and MAC but not for Linux.

I don't see why my stuff is facepalm-worth? A few video game developers constantly update their old video game engines and video games. Like Crytek with CryEngine.

Not really. "Coding to the metal" is when you use assembler to code directly to the hardware without any API, without any drivers and without any OS, which hasn't been used for games for about two decades (happened a lot in the 80s and then in the early 90s with the consoles and Amiga computer). Today it's all C/C++ and APIs, which is far from "coding to the metal" no matter how efficient or streamlined the APIs are.

Not really, we deserve the game we bought when it was released, which is also what we got.

DirectX 12 is expected to be finished in late 2015, and they won't patch 4-11 year old games to get new features.

Johan Andersson who begged AMD for a API like this keeps saying coding to the metal like on the consoles is beneficial to PC gamers with this API. So i just use what he uses.

Hes Technical Director on Frosbite 3 for Electronic Arts (EA) DICE.

He says it's closer to coding to the metal, not that it is coding to the metal. Quite a difference.

Ok I just realized I made a mistake there. Thanks for catching it I will fix. Didn't notice.

Linux is not the only platform to predominantly use OpenGL, and using OpenGL does not necessarily mean Linux (or OSX) support. It is an open specification, developed by a group formed from members of the community that uses it. It allows -and has for decades- pretty low-level optimisations and things.. the sort of stuff you were praising in your OP.

I recall a discussion where you thought that because (some) game development students had access to Gamebyro's source code, the engine was in some way open. There's be plenty of others, too.

But I must say I really, really haven't tried to remember any of the discussions I'm referencing in that post.

I know what OpenGL is used for. I never used it though.

I am currently following a lot of open source projects and they all use OpenGL. No DirectX. There's even OpenGL projects that translate D3D to OpenGL.

The Gamebryo source code was for development students but at college but not allowed to be shared publicly only through your classmates. Educational purposes only. I think I messed up someplace though when I worded it. I think I said it was available for public which it's not.

*looks at Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai with a 16,000 units on screen.* 60 FPS....

I'll go now.

I don't own Total War: Shogun 2. How many units can that video game support up to anyways?

16,000 would be the absolute max. Though not because of any scaling limitations but limitations of gpu/cpu power. It could hypothetically scale higher, and some people mod their game to have more than 16,000 on screen. Though obviously with a small performance hit to bring it under 60 fps.

Edit

Wargame Airland Battle can easily have over 10k units on one map, though not necessarily all lumped up in one spot since you would be an idiot. It can support 10v10 games on the largest maps in any tactical rts.

So with this new version of DirectX you will be able to get more than 16,000 units at 60FPS. Can get 20,000 units maybe even 50,000 units at 60FPS if they code it correctly.

I am waiting for the day when we get strategy video games with over 100,000 units at 70FPS lol.

Cool. Maybe in ten years, when the next consoles are released, we see it used in PC games

Uh what? I expect it to be used fairly quickly for the top end PC games, at least when it's done. I don't expect it will see wide support though. Got to give the majority of people time to catch up, by which time the leaders are moving on again. Whether or not those are RTS games or not I have no idea. There are always PC games that will push the limits.

Perhaps. It all depends on how good the developers are, the scale of the game, and what they need. Just because you can go that high doesn't mean they will go that high. Eventually PC's will get so strong we'll start hitting the upper limit of what real armies use/used in history. Hahaha.

I look forward to DX12 only if their next windows is back to being like Windows 7.

Oh if your curious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3-VkbRSKQ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbXaAu6kgNc.

Exaggerating, as usual But DX11 isn't exactly common in PC games even today, is it?

I'll let you decide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_DirectX_11_support

Hmm, more common than i thought

Much. If there wasn't a market for DX 11 I doubt you would see a 12. It doesn't make any sense.

I'm not looking to start a console war here, but frankly the level of PC elitism here is staggering.

You think Bethesda should basically shaft their entire console fanbase, and delay new games they're working on, to give PC gamers a free upgrade just because of new tech?

And if it isn't free, you still expect to get it cheap? As in, less than the price the original game cost?

"We PC gamers deserve this"

You've gotta be kidding me.

Once again, that's just Ballowers. Anything he may do or say should not be taken against any grouping he may fall into.

EDIT: There's much better arguments to be made for porting stuff to platform-agnostic technologies, since that would at least open up the possibility of selling stuff to new markets... but you don't see me making 'em, despite being a PC gamer who would benefit from such a move.

When I said "here", I meant the opening post, rather than on the forums or something.

Yep. Given how slow adoption of previous DX versions has been, I'd expect a good few years before DX12 becomes "mainstream" (i.e, not just in games from companies trying for a "crush your computer with our graphical uberness!" rep)

As it is, Beth still has to move up to DX11. And 64-bit.